Tampa Bay Online - tribletters@tampatrib.com

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - Opponents of a statewide initiative to legalize marijuana for medicinal use proclaimed victory Thursday, but supporters of legal pot said their campaign is far from over.

The Drug Free America Foundation hailed failure of supporters to submit petitions by a deadline earlier this month for getting proposed state constitutional amendments on the Nov. 3 ballot.

``They were unable to muster any semblance of an organized campaign,'' said Terry Hensley, the anti-drug use foundation's executive director, in a news release. ``Our education efforts must be working.''

Such celebration was premature, though, countered Toni Leeman, chairwoman of Floridans for Medical Rights. She said the Fort Lauderdale-based group is aiming to place the marijuana legalizing measure on the state ballot in 2000, not this year.

``They cannot `defeat' an initiative that's not on the ballot, so this `victory dance' is inane,'' Leeman said. ``When we gather the 435,000 signatures, then it will appear on the ballot, and they can do nothing about that.''

Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Tim Moore disputed Leeman's year 2000 scenario.

``That'd be my story, too, if I'd failed miserably,'' Moore said.