(1 Euro is 2.20 Dutch Guilders)

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from the Seattle Times, Thursday, August 19, 1999

Microsoft millionaire boosts marijuana-initiative drive

by Dionne Searcey
Seattle Times Olympia bureau

OLYMPIA - A group that wants marijuana to be as legal and readily available as whiskey says it has secured financial support from a retired Microsoft millionaire to help put an initiative before legislators and perhaps voters next year.

The Campaign for the Restoration and Regulation of Hemp says it already has received $110,000 from the Seattle software programmer, whose identity it declined to reveal at a news conference yesterday.

The group said it plans to release the benefactor's name next month, in compliance with state campaign-finance-disclosure requirements. A spokesman said the millionaire has pledged $200,000 more to ensure the campaign can pay a professional firm to collect the 180,000 signatures needed by the end of the year to submit Initiative 229 to the Legislature.

If lawmakers approve the initiative, it would become law. But the Oregon-based sponsors expect the Legislature to ignore the measure, which would mean it would be referred to voters in November 2000.

The initiative, dubbed the Cannabis Tax Act, calls for marijuana to be sold only in state liquor stores, and for state licensing of farmers who grow it. It's considered one of the most ambitious marijuana-legalization efforts in the country.

"We're urging everyone to come out of the closet and support this effort," said Paul Stanford, the group's executive director, who said he smokes marijuana "occasionally."

Stanford said he is setting up an office in Seattle's University District.

The initiative's substantial financing might give it the momentum that has been missing from past legalization initiatives in Washington that failed to qualify for the ballot, said Allen St. Pierre, executive director for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

"Even with almost no money, grass-roots organizers working on marijuana reform have done pretty well," said St. Pierre, who is based in Washington, D.C. "But they don't have good record-keeping and sometimes will not have crossed every T and dotted every I.

"Thankfully, this kind of money makes it possible to have professionals on hand."

David Brine, spokesman for Secretary of State Ralph Munro, the state's chief elections officer, said the dollars would likely help the cause.

"We've always said the key ingredients for a successful ballot initiative campaign are, first, an idea or issue that has people angered or interested. The second is a network of people, and the third thing is money," Brine said.

"The more you have of the third thing, the less you need of the first two."

The Campaign for Restoration and Regulation of Hemp is sponsoring a similar initiative in Oregon, Stanford said. With $15,000 in contributions, the campaign said it already had collected more than 13,000 signatures as of last Friday.

Stanford is a 1982 graduate of The Evergreen State College, a former letter carrier for the U.S. Postal Service and a former importer of hemp fabric.

The Washington initiative may attract support in Seattle and other urban areas, Stanford said, but likely will struggle in Eastern Washington.

"It's going to be tougher there, but when you look at it, all the facts are on our side," Stanford said, citing medical research that shows marijuana can be beneficial in treating some conditions, and statistics that show most pot smokers are employed. "We think the only way to lose this is if voters aren't educated."

It also will be difficult to secure support from politicians here.

"Gov. (Gary) Locke has supported the medical use of marijuana, but he does not believe the recreational use of the drug is appropriate," said Locke's spokesman, David Chai.

Lt. Gov. Brad Owen, a crusader against drugs, is sure to denounce the initiative, said his aide, Nathe Lawver.

Sponsors say they are confident the measure, if passed, is crafted in a way that will stand up to any court challenge.

They say their proposal could raise millions for state coffers. Under the initiative, 90 percent of marijuana-sale revenues would go to the state general fund, 8 percent to drug-treatment programs; 1 percent to a drug-education program for school children; and 1 percent to finance a committee to promote industrial hemp fiber.

The initiative also might clear up some of the uncertainties surrounding a medical marijuana initiative that passed last year, Stanford said.

That law allows qualified patients, with documentation from their doctors, to possess a 60-day supply of marijuana. But the law is silent on how patients who can't grow their own might get marijuana, because selling and distributing the drug is illegal.

The initiative also would:

-- Limit the sale of marijuana to adults over 21 and allow the state to tax it.

-- Allow farmers to grow industrial hemp without a license.

-- Allow doctors to provide cannabis through pharmacies for medical purposes.

Supporters say it also will protect children. "We will take the lucrative marijuana market out of the black market, where children and substance abusers often control it today," the campaign's literature says.

A 1998 statewide survey about risky behavior in grades six, eight, 10 and 12 indicated marijuana use has risen significantly among all but sixth-graders.