Poll Shows On Pot, No On Heroin And Lsd Controversial Initiative 685 Would Provide Illegal Drugs For Medical Use

Washington voters seem willing to let sick people get marijuana if a doctor thinks it will help their medical problem.

But they’re dead set against letting them have heroin or LSD.

That may be why a new poll shows support flagging for an initiative that would radically change the state’s drug laws.

The scientific survey of statewide voters, conducted by Mason-Dixon Political/Media Research Inc., shows voters about evenly split on whether they support or oppose Initiative 685. A fourth of voters polled said they hadn’t made up their minds on the proposal.

“If you had a law that dealt specifically with marijuana, that could pass,” said Del Ali, an analyst for the polling form. “When you start throwing heroin and other drugs in, even for medical conditions, the answer is overwhelmingly ‘No.”’

Initiative 685 would allow doctors to recommend - although not prescribe - any Schedule I controlled substance for medical use.

Marijuana is a Schedule I drug. So are heroin, LSD and most hallucinogens, methamphetamines and PCP. Opponents of the measure contend the law goes too far in opening up the kinds of drugs that could be recommended by physicians.

The poll, conducted for The Spokesman-Review and KHQ-TV, shows voters agree. While slightly more than half of voters said a doctor should be able to prescribe marijuana, three out of four said no to heroin, and four of five said no to LSD.

Rob Killian, a Tacoma physician who is a sponsor of the initiative, said the results are not surprising. They also realize that people who remain undecided by election day are likely to vote “No.”

“We’re aware that it’s looking tight,” Killian said. “We have a lot of education to do in the next 12 days.”

Their ads in the final week will feature cancer victims who can’t legally get marijuana, even though it helps ease their pain.

Opponents will spend the next 12 days trying to tell voters that the initiative includes other dangerous drugs, said spokesman Mike Suydam. But they don’t have the money for a massive ad campaign.

“We’re just trying like the dickens to get the message out … that this is more than just medical marijuana,” Suydam said.

Voters in the poll were evenly split on another aspect of the initiative, the issue of whether people convicted of possessing drugs should be sent to prison. The initiative would require people convicted of solely having or using drugs and not committing any violent act to be placed on parole. People in prison only for having or using drugs would be released.

People convicted of having drugs and committing a violent crime would be sent to prison and not be eligible for early release.

But the ballot title - the words voters will see in the polling booth - does not spell that out. It only asks if “penalties for drug possession and drug-related violent crime” should be revised.

Voters might think that means penalties for violent crime will get weaker, Ali said.

Both sides agreed the wording of the ballot title, written by the state attorney general’s office, is hard to understand.

“We would have written a much clearer and friendlier statement,” Killian said.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Graphic: 685 may have reached too far

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: TO LEARN MORE For a summary, the full text and past articles about Initiative 685, log on to The Spokesman Review’s Web site, Virtually Northwest, at www.virtuallynw.com, and click on “Election Central.”