Ganjika

Lansing (ap) -- Michigan voters on Tuesday passed a medical marijuana ballot measure - making the state the 13th to allow severely ill patients to use the illegal drug.

With 42 percent of the precincts reporting, 63 percent, or 1,077,103 people, voted "yes'' on Proposal 1, which removes state penalties for registered patients to buy, grow and use small amounts of marijuana. Thirty-seven percent, or 619,882 voters, were opposed.

Opponents couldn't derail the measure. In fact, only one state, South Dakota, has failed to OK a ballot attempt. Of the 12 other states with medical marijuana laws, eight stemmed from ballot initiatives; four were enacted by state legislatures.

Michigan Court of Appeals Judge Bill Schuette, chairman of the opposition group Citizens Protecting Michigan's Kids, said he was disappointed with the outcome but not the effort.

``It appears we came up short,'' he said. ``We waged a good campaign, a hard-fought campaign. But we were severely underfunded, and that's always a challenge.''

The coalition included more than two dozen medical, law enforcement, anti-drug and other organizations, including the Michigan State Medical Society, the Prosecuting Attorneys Association of Michigan and Citizens for Traditional Values.

Dianne Byrum, spokeswoman for the support group Citizens Protecting Michigan's Kids, called it a ``victory for patients and their families.''

``Voters knew right from the beginning the medical value of marijuana,'' she said.

Opponents launched their first TV ad last week that says so-called ``pot shops'' exploded in California when that state passed a medical marijuana law. Critics such as law enforcement officials say Michigan's law wouldn't prevent the proliferation of stores that grow and sell marijuana.

Backers responded that the Michigan measure was significantly different from California's law. Supporters' ads featured a woman who suffers from multiple sclerosis and experiences blindness from optic neuritis, and a retired physician who helped his wife by procuring medical marijuana to ease her symptoms of chemotherapy as she underwent treatment for ovarian cancer.

While the measure will remove state-level penalties for registered patients using marijuana, it won't create legal dispensaries for the drug. Nor will it affect the federal ban on marijuana, which makes possessing marijuana for any purpose illegal.

Proposal 1 advocates ran ads urging voters to support the measure. They featured Rochelle Lampkin of Detroit, who suffers from multiple sclerosis and experiences blindness from optic neuritis, and George Wagoner, a retired physician from Manistee who helped his wife of 51 years by procuring medical marijuana to ease her symptoms of chemotherapy Larry Lenchner, 56, of Birmingham, voted for the measure.

``If you got cancer and you're dying and you want to smoke weed, it's just another pharmaceutical to me,'' he said.

Patricia Ross, 40, also of Birmingham, voted against the measure because she's worried about children getting access to marijuana.
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