In what appears to be a glimmer of progress towards the goal of unity in the movement, local activists in Washington state have filed an initiative that appears to have consensus support from the grassroots activists in Washington.  The initiative was written with the approval funders-reperesenatives Bill Zimmerman (from California) and Sam Veganas (from Arizona).  We hope that the folks in Washington can continue to move forward together towards a workable initiative.  The Washington initiative is modeled after a bill which recently died in the Washington state legislature.  The initiative does not contain any of the provisions of other AMR initiatives to which patients so strongly object, ie, no harmful quantitative limits on possession and cultivation by patients and no mandatory registry system required to achieve protection of the law.

    Perhaps the funders of the Washington state campaign have learned from the failure of Initiative 685 in the 1997 election.  I-685 contained language that would have allowed the prescription of any Schedule I controlled substance, including LSD and heroin.  This was probably the deciding factor in the defeat of I 685 by a vote of 60% to 40%.  I-685 should have shown the funders that the language of an initiative IS important and that it is not “symbolic” as they have indicated the Colorado initiative is.