By Anjanette Riley and Amanda Crawford, anjanette.riley@azcapitoltimes.com

If supporters of the legalization of medical marijuana in Arizona gather enough signatures to put a measure on next year’s ballot, it would mark the fourth time in little more than a decade that residents have been asked to deregulate or decriminalize pot.

And judging by the history of such ballot measures in Arizona, the signature requirement might be nothing more than a formality.

To be sure, the measure would have plenty of opposition from people who want to make sure all use of marijuana stays illegal. Those who oppose such a measure said they plan to campaign against the measure for the next 19 months, recognizing still that the measure could be difficult to defeat.

The measure would allow seriously ill patients to use marijuana with a doctor’s recommendation to treat symptoms such as nausea, loss of appetite, chronic pain and muscle spasms, said Andrew Myers, campaign manager for the Arizona Medical Marijuana Policy Project.

His group plans to file official language for the initiative with the Secretary of State’s Office in the next few weeks in order to begin collecting the 153,365 valid signatures of registered voters needed by July 2010 to make the ballot.

Arizonans have approved marijuana for medical use once before. The 1996 measure, which passed with approximately 65 percent of the vote, still sits on the books. The law, though, is little more than symbolic due to a drafting error.

The language of the original initiative allowed patients to use marijuana only if they had a prescription from a doctor, not just a recommendation. Doctors, though, are barred from writing prescriptions for the drug because of a federal classification identifying marijuana as a harmful drug without medical value.

Seven other states allow patients to posses marijuana obtained through a doctor’s prescription rather than a recommendation.

In 1997, the Legislature overturned the initiative supported the year before, but a referendum in 1998 reinstated the measure.

That same year, voters passed the Voter Protection Alliance Act, which forbids the Legislature from undoing voter-passed measures.

The last time marijuana legalization came before the citizens of Arizona, though, it was defeated. An initiative in 2002 would have established a medical marijuana program in addition to decriminalizing small amounts of the drug and removing court control over non-violent drug offenders. The initiative was defeated, gaining 43 percent of the vote.

If Arizonans were to vote yes in 2010, Arizona would become the 14th state to legalize marijuana for medical use.

Arizona, along with 29 other states and the District of Columbia, already recognizes the medical value of marijuana.

Maryland statute allows citizens arrested for possession of marijuana to cite medical use as a defense in court, although state law bans the use of the drug. But only 13 of those states have legalized entirely the use of marijuana for medical reasons.

Most state laws that allow the use of marijuana for medical purposes were enacted as a ballot initiative voted upon by residents. The remaining four states passed legislation, although the governor of Vermont allowed the measure to become law without his signature in 2004.

An average of 0.17 percent of the population as of 2008 used medical marijuana in the nine states that track patient numbers, according to the Marijuana Policy Project.

Most states with such laws allow patients to grow their own marijuana, Myers said. California’s law created dispensaries where patients could obtain marijuana, but Myers said there were problems in California’s law that essentially created an unregulated industry.

The Arizona initiative would also create dispensaries, but Myers said the Arizona dispensaries would be operated by nonprofits regulated by the Arizona Department of Health Services. The dispensaries would be located in commercial areas and would be required to comply with strict security measures. They would be required to grow their own marijuana or obtain marijuana through another dispensary, so that there would be no connection to smuggling organizations, illegal operations or drug cartels.

Opposition to the initiative is two-fold. Skeptics question the research behind claims that marijuana is safe for medical use and worry that the fight for medical marijuana is little more than a backdoor effort to decriminalize the use of the drug for everyone.

Rick Romley, a former county attorney for Maricopa County and long-time opponent of the legalization of marijuana, said the organizations supporting a ballot measure in Arizona have a long history of trying to deceive voters.

“If what they want is to debate the legalization of marijuana,” Romley said, “they need to just come out and say it.”

Romley, who plans to stay on the outskirts of any debate spurred by the prospective initiative, said his opposition to legalization of marijuana has not receded since 2002, when he played a focal roll in defeating the legalization measure.

But one of the state’s most prominent elected officials seems to have relaxed his position over the years.

Attorney General Terry Goddard has said for many years that he does not support the legalization of marijuana. But last month, he presented testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs, saying legalization should be debated as a way to reduce the power of Mexican drug cartels, even though he doesn’t think it’s a good idea.

“The most effective way to establish a virtual barrier against the criminal activities is to take the profit out of it,” he told the subcommittee.

Myers said marijuana has proven effective in helping to ease the suffering of people with cancer, AIDS and other conditions.

“If we are going to fight a war on marijuana, let’s at least take the sick and dying off the battlefield,” Myers said.

Skeptics aren’t so sure. Research into the effectiveness of marijuana in fighting diseases and relieving pain is inconsistent at best.

The drug is commonly prescribed for patients suffering from glaucoma, an illness that causes blindness, because the drug relieves intraocular pressure. According to the Glaucoma Research Foundation, though, there are no studies to support the effectiveness of marijuana for glaucoma patients.

Additional research funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Cancer Institute seem to prove that marijuana can be safely used to counteract the side effects of chemical chemotherapy, such as nausea and dizziness. Some studies also connect marijuana use with a drop in tumor size.

But the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center has found a link between marijuana use and at least one type of cancer. Testicular cancer, the center found, is more than 70 percent more likely in men who smoked marijuana at some point in their life.

“The research can just go either way,” Romley said.

— Amanda Crawford is a freelance writer who contributes to the Arizona Capitol Times.