Marijuana Referendum Divides Both Sides

By KIRK JOHNSON

Published: October 13, 2012

SEATTLE — Most efforts to legalize marijuana possession have generally run aground in the face of unified opposition. Mothers Against Drunk Driving led the charge in helping to defeat a ballot measure in California in 2010. Law enforcement groups, not too surprisingly, have also been largely opposed in the past.

Matthew Ryan Williams for The New York Times

Rick Steves of the advocacy group Norml speaking in Olympia on Friday in support of a ballot initiative that would legalize the possession of an ounce of marijuana or less.

But in Washington State, as a measure that would legalize possession of small amounts of marijuana heads toward a vote next month, the opposition forces have been divided, raising hopes by marijuana advocates of a breakthrough. A poll conducted last month by Elway Research showed that 50 percent of voters either definitely or probably were in favor of legalizing the possession of an ounce of marijuana or less.

Some former law enforcement officials have appeared in television ads in favor of the legalization. Safety concerns about drugged driving have been muted by a provision of the measure, called Initiative 502, that would create a standard to measure impairment. A promised flood of tax money to drug and alcohol treatment programs from legal marijuana sales has also kept some antidrug groups on the sidelines.

But if opponents are in disarray or disagreement, supporters of legalization are as well. And that is making the outcome hard to predict, both sides say.

In fact, some of the most vehement opposition to the initiative is coming from what might seem the least likely corner of all: medical marijuana users. Organized through a group called No on I-502, they say the plan, especially the new legal standard of impairment while driving, creates a new legal risk for regular users because THC, marijuana’s primary psychoactive ingredient, can stay in the bloodstream for days after consumption, and thus be measurable by a blood test whether a person is impaired or not.

At a recent debate at the University of Washington here in Seattle, a medical marijuana provider and the leader of the No on I-501, group, Steve Sarich, brought out a marijuana plant as a prop, but spoke to the mostly student crowd as if he were trying to scare them straight.

“They can take you to the hospital, they can take your blood,” Mr. Sarich said about the driving provisions. “And if they find any trace of THC in your system, there goes your Pell grant, there goes your college.”