Pubdate: Sun, 21 Dec 2003
Source: Meriden Record-Journal, The (CT)
Copyright: 2003, The Record-Journal Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.record-journal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/555
Author: Paul Hughes, Record-Journal Staff

EFFORTS RENEWED TO OK POT FOR ILL

State Rep. Penny Bacchiochi, R-Stafford, says smoking marijuana eased her 
late husband's pain as he fought a rare bone cancer to the end.

The side effects of chemotherapy left Bacchiochi's terminally ill husband 
incapacitated for days. The pills the doctors had prescribed did not work. 
A grim time turned even bleaker. Then, one doctor privately suggested 
giving marijuana a try. The illegal pot worked wonders, according to 
Bacchiochi.

The first-term Republican told the story of her husband's marijuana use on 
the House floor last session. The disclosure came during a debate on 
legislation that sought to make it easier for seriously ill patients to 
take advantage of a 1980 law that permits the medicinal use of marijuana in 
the state. The bill fell a dozen votes of short of approval despite the 
impassioned pleas and personal stories of Bacchiochi and other House members.

Bacchiochi is again asking colleagues in the General Assembly to change 
Connecticut law on the medical use of marijuana.

She and Rep. James W. Abrams, D-Meriden, the chief sponsor of last year's 
failed legislation, sent a letter out to all legislators earlier this month 
asking for their support.

The letter signaled the renewal of the legislative effort that Abrams and 
some advocates first mounted three years ago.

"We are going to push for the medical marijuana bill as hard, if not 
harder, than last year," said Robert Rook, executive director of A Better 
Way Foundation, a New Haven-based nonprofit group that supports a shift in 
state policy on illegal drug use.

The bill last session proposed to allow seriously ill people to present a 
defense of medical necessity to state charges of growing, using or 
possessing marijuana. It was not a sure-fire guarantee against arrest or 
conviction, however.

The advocates of medicinal marijuana use are not sure what legislative tack 
they will take in the upcoming 2004 session. The one certainty is that 
whatever they propose, there will be opposition.

"There is absolutely no reason for anybody to smoke marijuana," said Rep. 
Robert Farr, R-West Hartford, the ranking House Republican on the Judiciary 
Committee.

Once a bill is drafted, advocates will need a strategy for selling the 
legislation to lawmakers, Gov. John G. Rowland and the public. They say 
they have learned lessons from last session's failings.

"This year, we are going to be smart," Rook said.

Opponents last session harped about the lack of expert medical testimony. 
"When we had the hearing last year, we did not have doctors lining up and 
saying, you ought to smoke a joint when you have a drug treatment," Farr 
said. The only doctor that testified before the Judiciary Committee was a 
professor of ecology and evolutionary biology from Yale University. Abrams 
said practicing physicians must testify next session. Rook said that is 
going to happen.

A Better Way Foundation plans to recruit witnesses from the 400 or so 
doctors it said signed a letter of support for last session's legislation. 
Advocates of medicinal use also plan to have patients and family members 
meet with legislators and the news media as part of a lobbying and public 
education campaign. They will ask lawmakers to consult their personal 
physicians. Additionally, supporters are counting on the personal stories 
of legislative colleagues such as Bacchiochi to sway opinion. "Her story is 
so compelling," Abrams said. Opponents will counter such stories with their 
personal experiences. Farr said none of the doctors who treated family 
members and friends for cancer, glaucoma or multiple sclerosis ever 
recommended they smoke marijuana.

Bacchiochi insists that she is no crusader out to reform marijuana laws. "I 
am not trying to change people's minds." Bacchiochi said she came to her 
own conclusion after seeing how marijuana helped ease her husband's 
suffering. She said fellow legislators must make up their own minds. 
However, she said she is asking colleagues to be open-minded.

Advocates of the medicinal use of marijuana say research shows marijuana is 
effective in treating such ailments such as AIDS, glaucoma, cancer, 
multiple sclerosis, epilepsy and chronic pain. They claim that it is 
sometimes more effective than prescribed drugs and has fewer side effects.

"The fact of the matter is there no medical use of marijuana," Farr said.

The American Medical Society opposes legalization of the sale and 
possession of marijuana, and it recommends that it be prohibited for public 
use. The AMA says more study is required to determine if the potential 
benefits of smoking marijuana outweigh the known risks associated with the 
drug. The American Cancer Society also does not advocate the legalization 
of marijuana. Because many cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy today 
will survive their disease, the society's experts say patients would be 
unwise to increase risk of another cancer by smoking marijuana. The 
National Multiple Sclerosis Society also does not recommend the medical use 
of marijuana at this time.

The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, however, lists 
more than two dozen national and state medical and health groups that 
support the use of marijuana as a medicine, including the AIDS Action 
Council, the American Academy of Family Physicians and the American Public 
Health Association.

The 'First Seed' Question

The legal questions are as prickly as the medical arguments for supporters 
of the medicinal use of marijuana.

The first and foremost issue is procurement, which has dogged the 
legislative effort to allow the medicinal use of marijuana.

One reason no doctors have written prescriptions for marijuana since 1981 
is that there is no legally available supply of it. There is also what has 
become known as the "first seed" question. If you allow seriously ill 
people to grow marijuana, they must obtain the seeds or plants illegally. 
Additionally, if you decriminalize possession of marijuana for them, many 
will buy it illegally, and that means putting money into the pockets of 
criminal groups. Marijuana is the most readily available illicit drug in 
Connecticut, and most of the state's supply comes from Mexico, according to 
the Justice Department's National Drug Intelligence Center.

No representatives of law enforcement in Connecticut testified for or 
against the medicinal use of marijuana last session. The U.S. Drug 
Enforcement Administration says marijuana has no medical value that cannot 
be met more effectively by legal drugs. The DEA also says advocates of 
broader legal drug use are using the medical argument as a "red herring" in 
order to advance their cause. Farr said he believes advocates of 
legalization are at work in Connecticut.

Abrams said the legislative effort to carve out an exception to allow the 
medical use of marijuana is not about legalizing or decriminalizing 
marijuana for the public at large; it is about helping sick people.

Federal law presents another obstacle. Physicians risk federal prosecution 
for prescribing marijuana and the loss of their medical license. However, 
Abrams said there have been encouraging developments in federal courts 
lately. In a California case, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 
Dec. 10 that a federal law outlawing marijuana does not apply to sick 
people who are allowed to smoke pot with a doctor's recommendation. The 
Justice Department had argued that federal drug laws trumped state medical 
marijuana laws. In October, the U.S. Supreme Court let stand a 9th Circuit 
Court decision that barred the federal government from punishing physicians 
who recommend patients try marijuana.

Abrams and Bacchiochi said it is too early for handicapping the chances of 
passing a medical marijuana bill in the 2004 session.

"I think people each year are getting more and more comfortable with the 
concept of marijuana being used legally within certain parameters," 
Bacchiochi said.

"I think if we can get it out of the Judiciary Committee, we have a decent 
chance of getting it through the House," Abrams said.

The committee barely approved last session's bill 21-18. It only passed 
because several opponents missed the vote, and because two members promised 
Abrams to support it in committee. The Public Health Committee later 
approved the legislation in a 12-7 vote along party lines.

The legislation last session had bipartisan support. "We have found this is 
not an issue that is Democrats versus Republicans, which is great," said 
Rook, of A Better Way Foundation. House Democrats were almost evenly 
divided last session, with supporters of medical marijuana slightly edging 
opponents. More than a third of the Republicans voted for the bill. The 
measure, however, failed 64-79. It needed 72 votes to pass.

Advocates of the medicinal use of marijuana do not intend to give up the 
fight if they fail a fourth time in 2004.

"If it doesn't pass this year, it just really is a matter of time," 
Bacchiochi said.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman