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PROTESTORS OPPOSE CONGRESSWOMAN SUE KELLY'S MARIJUANA STAND

FISHKILL - Representatives of the National Drug Policy Alliance and the NYS Cannabis Action Network have called on Congresswoman Sue Kelly to reconsider her thinking and vote in favor of a marijuana amendment that will bar the Justice Department from prosecuting patients who use medical marijuana in compliance with state laws. 

A dozen members of the organizations peacefully demonstrated outside the congresswoman's Fishkill office last Friday in an attempt to pressure the Putnam-Dutchess-Westchester-Rockland and Orange representative to vote in favor of the Hinchey amendment expected to take place later this month. 

Last year, Kelly voted against the legislation introduced by her neighboring colleague Rep.  Maurice Hinchey and by California Rep.  Dana Rohrabacher.  The measure failed in the House of Representatives by a 273-152 tally. 

If approved, the amendment would have prevented federal law enforcement from "arresting, prosecuting, suing or otherwise discouraging doctors, patients and distributors from following state laws with regard to medical marijuana."

Robert Robinson of New Paltz, senior activist for the Cannabis Action Network, who organized the rally in Fishkill, described the Hinchey amendment as providing for state's rights.  "We don't understand Sue Kelly's vote since as a Republican and a Conservative, this is an issue that members of the GOP usually champion.  We are putting the pressure on her and others who failed to vote in favor of the amendment hoping they will reconsider."

According to literature distributed by the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, the vast majority of the public supports medical marijuana.  A Time/CNN poll taken last October indicated 80 percent of the American people believe "adults should be able to use marijuana legally for medical purposes."

The 2.6 million member American Nurses Association adopted a resolution last year in support of medical marijuana, specifically calling for "legislation to remove criminal penalties including arrest and imprisonment for bona fide patients."

The National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine's report, "Marijuana and Medicine: Assessing the Science Base," stated: "Nausea, appetite loss, pain and anxiety are all afflictions of wasting and all can be mitigated by marijuana."

Robinson said latest pollsters have indicated that one in five New Yorkers knows someone who is using marijuana to treat a serious illness illegally.  "We can debate the issue all day long concerning marijuana recreation but keeping medicine away from sick people is wrong and is an injustice," he said. 

Burton Aldrich, a resident of a tiny community in the Catskill Mountains, is a medical marijuana patient.  The spinal cord victim who is confined to a wheelchair suffers from severe spasms and neuropathic pain.  "My doctors prescribed Valium which was putting me to sleep.  My college grades slumped to a 2.8.  However, when I was switched to mar-knoll, a legal drug, my grades improved to a 3.8.  The expense became too great and my only salvation was marijuana," he said. 

Aldrich asked: "Am I really a criminal? This is something I have to use.  It works better with less side effects.  What would you do? This is all about fear," he said. 

Aldrich, who is a member of New Yorkers for Compassionate Care, asked Kelly to reconsider.  "Marijuana is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known," he said. 

A Putnam County grandmother who recently was diagnosed with cancer and after surgery underwent rigorous treatments of both radiation and chemotherapy, has used marijuana on occasion to alleviate nausea.  "I'm not a pot head by any sense of the imagination but the 'joint' was the only relief I had.  A couple of 'hits' and the nausea disappeared almost instantly," she said. 

Congresswoman Kelly was not at her office during the demonstration but 24 hours later while attending a community function in Putnam, the 19th District Representative, said a number of the demonstrators met with her staff following their protest.  "They left a pile of literature which is being forwarded to me for perusal.  Once I have the opportunity to digest the data, I will make an intelligent and informed decision concerning the amendment," she said.