Pubdate: Thu, 08 Jun 2006
Source: Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ)
Copyright: 2006 Newark Morning Ledger Co
Contact:  http://www.nj.com/starledger/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/424
Author: Robert Schwaneberg, Star-Ledger Staff
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?232 (Chronic Pain)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)

TV HOST PUSHES N.J. ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA

His voice quaking with emotion, TV talk show host Montel Williams 
offered this self-introduction: "I want you to meet someone who's not 
a drug dealer, not a dope addict, just somebody who's trying to get 
up every morning and go to work."

Williams went on to explain how marijuana eases the symptoms of his 
multiple sclerosis enough to let him function. Registered with 
programs in California and Canada that permit possession of small 
amounts of marijuana for medical use, he urged New Jersey to adopt 
one of its own.

Today, the Senate Health Committee is scheduled to discuss such a 
bill. Its sponsor, Sen. Nicholas Scutari (D-Union), said it is "basic 
human decency" to allow people with AIDS, cancer, multiple sclerosis 
and other afflictions to find relief through marijuana.

"It's not a back-door attempt at wholesale legalization, as some have 
charged. I want to make that clear," Scutari said.

Eleven states have enacted laws permitting the "compassionate use" of 
marijuana by patients who have a physician's certification that they 
need it for medical reasons. Last June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 
6-3 that those laws are trumped by the federal Controlled Substances 
Act, which prohibits possession of marijuana nationwide.

"I break the law every day and I'll continue to break the law," Williams said.

Scutari's bill says states are under no obligation to enforce the 
federal ban on marijuana. It adds that "99 out of 100 marijuana 
arrests in the country are made under state law," so passing his bill 
"will have the practical effect of protecting from arrest the vast 
majority of seriously ill people who have a medical need to use marijuana."

Diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1999, Williams said he lives 
with twitching and constant pain.

"I have tried every form of pain medication known to man," some of 
which produced debilitating side effects, he said. Finally, he said, 
a doctor recommended he smoke pot, and "immediately I slept through 
the night." He said he eats and smokes marijuana to keep his pain 
under control.

"By doing that, I can go to work," he said.

Bertha Madras, deputy director for demand reduction at the Office of 
National Drug Control Policy, said in a telephone interview: "We 
cannot base medical decisions on anecdotes."

"There isn't any recognized use for medical marijuana in the long 
term," Madras said. "It is simply not a modern medicine. You cannot 
tightly control the composition of a plant in the same way you can a 
regular pharmaceutical."

At yesterday's news conference, the Drug Policy Alliance released a 
poll of 700 registered New Jersey voters that found 86 percent agree 
that seriously ill patients should have access to medical marijuana.

"It's an unequivocal endorsement under those circumstances," said 
Kellyanne Conway, president of The Polling Company of Washington, 
D.C., which conducted the survey.

The issue is one on which U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) and his 
opponent, state Sen. Tom Kean Jr. (R-Union), disagree.

On June 15, one week after last year's Supreme Court ruling, the 
House considered an amendment that would have prohibited federal 
interference with state laws establishing medical marijuana programs. 
It was defeated 264-161, with Menendez and every Democrat in the New 
Jersey delegation voting for it.

Kean, a member of the Senate Health Committee, "is completely against 
medicinal marijuana," according to Rogan Kelly, deputy press 
secretary of his campaign.

Gov. Jon Corzine supports medical marijuana in concept, according to 
his spokesman, Anthony Coley.

"If a doctor prescribes medical marijuana, we should honor his or her 
judgment and do what is in the best interest of the patient," Coley said.

Scutari said he is unsure of his bill's prospects for passage.

"Right now, we're trying to educate people," he said.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman