Pubdate: Mon, 10 Sep 2012
Source: Republican, The (Springfield, MA)
Copyright: 2012 The Republican
Contact: http://www.masslive.com/contactus/
Website: http://www.masslive.com/republican/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3075
Author: Dan Ring

CHAIRMAN OF PROGRESSIVE CORP. CONTRIBUTES NEARLY $1 MILLION TO EFFORT 
TO LEGALIZE MEDICAL MARIJUANA IN MASSACHUSETTS

BOSTON -- The chairman of insurance giant Progressive Corp. this year 
provided another $465,000 for a ballot question to legalize medical 
marijuana in Massachusetts.

Peter B. Lewis, who supports medical marijuana, has now contributed 
$990,000, including $525,000 last year, to the Committee for 
Compassionate Medicine, the organization leading the effort to 
legalize medical marijuana in Massachusetts. Lewis is nonexecutive 
chairman of Progressive, which is based in Mayfield Village, Ohio.

This Associated Press file photo shows marijuana plants in Seattle at 
a medical marijuana growing operation. Tax enforcers have started 
auditing medical marijuana dispensaries in Washington, escalating a 
dispute over whether the outlets should be collecting money for state 
government.

According to reports filed with the state Office of Campaign and 
Political Finance last last week, the Committee for Compassionate 
Medicine has raised $512,850 this year and spent $405,825. Including 
last year, the committee has now raised $1.039 million and spent $924,000.

The group opposed to medical pot raised $600. Voters will decide 
medical marijuana and another statewide ballot question on Nov. 6.

The ballot question would make Massachusetts the 17th state, 
including Maine and Rhode Island, to have laws allowing the medical 
use of marijuana.

In another new report filed with the state Office of Campaign and 
Political Finance, a group raised $900,550 to work in opposition to a 
second ballot question -- the Death with Dignity Act. The Committee 
Against Physician Assisted Suicide reported that it spent $605,481 of 
that money so far this year.

The committee is opposing Question 2, which if approved by voters 
would allow adults to self-administer lethal drugs after requesting a 
prescription. The proposed Death with Dignity Act is modeled after 
similar laws in Oregon and Washington, also passed by voters. To be 
eligible, people would need to be diagnosed with a terminal illness 
and given six months or less to live by a primary doctor with 
verification by a consulting doctor.

The Committee Against Physician Assisted Suicide received $250,000 
from the American Family Association in Tupelo, Mississippi; $10,000 
from the Archdiocese in Kansas City, $20,000 from the Catholic Health 
Association in St. Louis and $200,000 from the Knights of Columbus in 
New Haven.

The four Roman Catholic bishops in Massachusetts, including Bishop 
Timothy McDonnell in Springfield, are opposing the proposed Death 
with Dignity Act.

Dioceses, or related groups, in different parts of the nation 
contributed to the organization opposing Death with Dignity, 
including dioceses in Providence, Oklahoma City, Houston, New York, 
Indiana and Minneapolis.

Dignity 2012, the organization seeking the ballot question to allow 
the terminally ill to take their own lives, raised $302,637 this year 
and spent $246,390. Counting last year, Dignity 2012 now has raised 
about $395,000 and spent about $332,000.

The reports are the first filed for financial activities this year by 
organizations opposed and supporting ballot questions.

Another group, Massachusetts Against Doctor Prescribed Suicide, 
raised $109,786 and spent $66,486.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom