The deadline to file petitions to get an initiative on the Nov. 2 statewide ballot is still a month away, but on Tuesday an effort to legalize medical marijuana became the first to qualify for a spot.

The Secretary of State's Office on Tuesday determined that the Arizona Medical Marijuana Policy Project had submitted enough valid signatures to qualify. In April, the group turned in 252,000 signatures; they needed at least 145,698 valid signatures.

So far, 15 different groups have pulled papers to begin gathering signatures for various referendum and initiative efforts, including efforts to restrict property taxes, limit or eliminate photo enforcement, get voter input on Arizona's new immigration law and deny the possibility of parole to individuals convicted of felonies that are violent or sexual in nature.

The Arizona Medical Marijuana Policy Project is the only one so far to turn in signatures. The Arizona campaign is largely bankrolled by the Washington, D.C.-based Marijuana Policy Project, which provided most of the $487,250 spent by the state effort through Dec. 31, nearly all for paid signature collectors.

Dec. 31 was the latest deadline to report fundraising figures. Committees must next report contributions June 30.

Campaign manager Andrew Myers said the next step is to begin educating voters about what the initiative hopes to accomplish.

"This is about protecting our most vulnerable citizens from a really cruel and unnecessary law that forces them to live in fear when all they want to do is acquire medication that makes their life worth living," Myers said.

"This is about protecting people who are seriously or terminally ill from being arrested just for following their doctor's advice."

The initiative proposes to allow patients with a debilitating medical condition such as cancer, HIV or multiple sclerosis to purchase, possess and use 2.5 ounces of marijuana every two weeks with a doctor's recommendation.

Non-profit dispensaries regulated by the state would grow and sell the drug to approved patients.

It still would be illegal to use marijuana in a public place or to drive under the influence of marijuana in Arizona, but the initiative forbids employers from firing qualified medical-marijuana users who test positive for the drug unless they can prove patients used or were impaired while at work.

A campaign committee has been established to fight the initiative. Stop the Pot, run by Max Fose and Judy Connell of Phoenix, had collected no donations as of Dec. 31, but Fose had contributed $2,500 in in-kind work to develop www.stopthepot.com.

"Stop the Pot is a statewide grassroots organization created to stop liberal special interests groups from making illegal drugs legal in Arizona," the website states.

"If these liberal special interests groups have their way, a person in Arizona will be able to obtain about 200 joints every two weeks. (Two hundred) joints a person is a lot of drugs on our streets, in our neighborhoods, and around our children."

Thirteen states allow the possession of small amounts of marijuana for medical purposes, although only California has established a widespread network of dispensaries to distribute it.

This is the fourth time since 1996 Arizona voters have been asked to decriminalize marijuana as a medicine.

That year, voters approved a ballot initiative that allowed the use of the drug with a doctor's prescription.

But authorities threatened to revoke the license of doctors who prescribed the drug, and state lawmakers gutted the law.

In 1998, voters rejected a pair of referendums that would have hindered the legalization of medical marijuana - most notably by requiring Congress or the federal government to OK its use before any doctor could prescribe it.

In 2002, voters rejected an effort to make it legal to possess small quantities of marijuana and make the drug available for free to patients suffering from cancer and other diseases.