From: Jim Rosenfield <[j n r] at [igc.apc.org]>
Newsgroups: talk.politics.drugs
Subject: Re: News Stories from the Drug War
Date: Tue, 05 Dec 1995 17:24:46 -0800 (PST)
UPwe  12/04     ca-marijuana

March kicks off marijuana initiative 

   SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 4 (UPI) -- About 100 people marched
downtown Monday to kick off a drive to put an initiative
legalizing mampassionate Use have 150 days to collect 600,000
signatures to qualify the initiative. 
   "This initiative isn't only about marijuana it's about
compassion and love, it's about being lonely and shutout," the
group's director Dennis Peron said Monday. "That's why we call it
the Compassionate Use Initiative." 
   Some doctors and people with AIDS, cancer, glaucoma and
multiple sclerosis, among other diseases, believe the illegal
drug has valuable medicinal qualities. For example, studies have
shown it can stimulate appetite, ease muscle spasms and slow the
onset of glaucoma, Peron said. 
   The state Legislature has passed bipartisan measures allowing
medical access to marijuana for sick and dying people with their
doctor's consent, but Gov. Pete Wilson vetoed two of the bills in
1994 and 1995. Initiative measures, once passed by the
electorate, can't be vetoed. 
   The initiative is a combination of the two bills vetoed by
Wilson. It makes it legal for patients and their caregivers to
possess or cultivate marijuana for medical treatment recommended
by a physician, even though the plant is otherwise illegal in the
United States. 
   The initiative also stipulates that it be legal for doctors to
recommend marijuana to their patients.