FLORIDA: GROUP TO CAMPAIGN FOR MEDICAL MARIJUANA USE

      Florida will join Arizona and California in permitting
 doctors to prescribe marijuana if a new effort to legalize
 medical use of the drug is successful, Miami Herald reports. 
 Floridians For Medical Rights is expected to announce at a Fort
 Lauderdale press conference today a statewide petition drive to
 place a medical marijuana use amendment before the voters.  The
 group needs to obtain 435,000 signatures from registered Florida
 voters in order to place its "Freedom To Use Medicinal Marijuana"
 amendment on next year's ballot.  The group "claims backing" from
 several "mainstream medical and political groups, including the
 Florida Medical Association, the Governor's Red Ribbon Commission
 on AIDS, the Dade County Medical Association, the Libertarian
 Party of Florida and the American Civil Liberties Union of
 Florida."
      THE AMENDMENT
      The Freedom To Use Medicinal Marijuana amendment would allow
 Florida physicians to prescribe medicinal marijuana for patients
 suffering from such ailments as cancer, AIDS, glaucoma,
 arthritis, spasticity, migraines, anorexia and other specified
 ailments.  Toni Leeman, the group's campaign coordinator, said,
 "Our goal is to remove the threat of criminal prosecution from
 people who are suffering from various afflictions.  The human
 side is being lost in the war on drugs."  Leeman claimed that
 medical studies support the beneficial effects of marijuana use
 for people with AIDS and cancer.  Specifically, Leeman cited a
 Harvard Medical School survey that "found that 44% of oncologists
 had recommended marijuana to patients undergoing chemotherapy."
      OPPOSITION & SUPPORT
      Sheriff Frank McKeithen of Gulf County, FL, announced his
 opposition to the medical marijuana law in a letter to the
 county's Board of Commissioners.  "The potential for criminal
 abuse far outweighs the dubious evidence of medical benefit," he
 wrote.  However, the Herald reports that medical marijuana laws
 won widespread support in referendums in Arizona and California,
 while "nationwide surveys show about four in five voters favor
 such legalization" (Fiedler, 9/3).  Click here for related
 stories.