Pubdate: Thu, 24 Apr 2003
Source: Isthmus (WI)
Copyright: 2003 Isthmus
Contact:  http://www.thedailypage.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/215
Author: Bill Lueders
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)

'THIS IS MY MEDICINE'

But DA's Office Says Man's Pot Use Is A Crime, Plain And Simple

During last fall's campaign for Dane County District Attorney, Brian 
Blanchard told a forum his office "doesn't target marijuana use as a 
criminal event." Stephanie Rearick of Progressive Dane's drug policy task 
force adds that, in discussions with her, he gave "qualified support" for 
the concept of letting people use medical marijuana.

You couldn't prove it by Steve Wessing.

Wessing, 41, is facing two misdemeanor criminal charges as the result of 
being busted last October with a half-pound of pot and 30 grams of hashish. 
His Madison home was raided after Customs Agents allegedly intercepted more 
than a dozen packages of hash addressed to him from Amsterdam, which he had 
visited.

Wessing's defense, advanced by Madison attorney Peter Steinberg, is that he 
uses marijuana medicinally to control chronic pain, muscle spasms and 
headaches stemming from congenital spina bifida occulta and other ailments. 
Last November, two weeks after the raid on his home, Wessing was examined 
by Dr. Phillip Leveque, an Oregon physician sympathetic to medical 
marijuana patients. Leveque concluded that marijuana "gives the best pain 
relief" to Wessing, who has used it since age nine.

"I've made it clear over the years that this is my medicine," says Wessing, 
who receives SSI payments on account of his disability. "I don't use any 
other drugs. I almost never even drink."

Indeed, Wessing uses marijuana precisely it doesn't entail the debilitating 
narcotic effects of other medications, like Oxycodone and Darvon, that he 
could legally obtain. Marijuana, he says, "relieves my pain, relieves my 
muscle spasms, reduces my headaches." But it doesn't leave him unable to 
function.

Wessing, who has lived in Madison since 1990 and has no non-traffic 
criminal record, has given up pot for months at a time, proving to himself 
that he is not addicted. But, he says, "my muscle spasms get worse and I 
have more headaches."

Angela Chase, Wessing's "significant other," is a licensed social worker 
who has 15 years' experience dealing with mental-health and 
drug-and-alcohol-abuse issues. In her opinion, Wessing does not have a 
substance-abuse problem, because he does not use marijuana as an 
intoxicant. "He uses is to treat a medical problem. He uses it to decrease 
his pain. It's his method of pain management."

But Blanchard's office is seeking to shut down Wessing's defense. Assistant 
District Attorney Jason Hanson recently filed a motion seeking to bar "any 
evidence of the defendant's medical conditions or medical use of 
marijuana," deeming this to be "irrelevant." The only issue, argued Hanson, 
is that THC is a controlled substance, and Wessing knew it.

Blanchard, who knows of no other local case in which a defendant has sought 
to present a medical marijuana defense, says his office isn't buying it in 
this case because Wessing only sought a diagnosis after his arrest. And 
then he went to Dr. Leveque, who Blanchard calls "a semi-retired osteopath 
who specializes in handing out marijuana prescriptions." (Leveque, a doctor 
of osteopathy and longtime professor of pharmacology, has approved medical 
marijuana use for more than 2,000 patients, while rejecting some requests.)

If Wessing's claim to marijuana use for pain management were valid, 
Blanchard thinks there should be other physicians willing to say so besides 
"this guy in Oregon." He even suggests doing so would be in keeping with 
their Hypocratic Oath.

But Steinberg, who a few years back ran for DA on the promise that he would 
not prosecute marijuana cases, says patients with a valid medical need for 
marijuana must turn to physicians like Leveque because others are not as 
courageous.

"I'm not aware of any doctor around here who's prepared to take those 
risks," says Steinberg, adding that physicians' fears of repercussions may 
be well-grounded. "We're dealing with a federal government that's made it 
plain it intends to stop this concept of medical marijuana. There's no 
reason to assume it won't be heavy-handed."

Besides, says Steinberg, Dane County prosecutors have signaled that having 
a second opinion wouldn't matter anyway: "By filing a motion which says 
it's not a defense, they've basically said they won't accept the position 
of any doctor."

Blanchard demurs, saying this motion was filed only because his office does 
not accept that Wessing has a medical need. He says he never meant to 
suggest, during the campaign, that his office does not treat some pot 
offenses as crimes, only that it does not make such cases a priority. The 
prosecution against Wessing is proceeding, explains Blanchard, because of 
the quantities and circumstances: "This case is not just someone who has a 
few joints in his ash tray."

Steinberg says the quantity with which Wessing was caught is consistent 
with medical marijuana use. He's obtained an statement from Texas resident 
George McMahon, one of a handful of U.S. citizens whose use of marijuana 
for medicinal purposes in legally recognized by the federal government. 
McMahon goes through a half-pound of Uncle Sam's stash per month.

"This is a medical case," says Steinberg of Wessing's circumstance. "It's 
nothing but a medical case. And the district attorney chooses not to treat 
it as such."

Wessing, who uses marijuana three to five times a day, the level Leveque 
agreed was appropriate, says he has never sold or provided marijuana to 
others. The reason he had such a significant quantity is that supplies are 
never guaranteed: "I'm afraid of running out. Any time I have an 
opportunity to get marijuana, I get it."

In January, the DA's office offered what Blanchard calls a "very 
reasonable" plea bargain. Wessing could avoid jail time if he agreed to 24 
months probation and "the usual drug conditions," which includes regular 
testing. Steinberg rejected the deal, arguing that Wessing is 
"constitutionally entitled to make personal medical choices without 
interference from the state." He urged the office to dismiss the charges 
"on compassionate grounds."

Wessing is also intent on rejecting any deal that requires him "not to use 
my medicine. That's not in the cards for me. I don't plan to stop using 
marijuana."

The case is set for trial on Aug. 28.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager