Pubdate: Sat, 21 Apr 2007 Source: Contra Costa Times (CA) Copyright: 2007 Knight Ridder Contact: http://www.contracostatimes.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/96 Author: P.J. Huffstutter, Los Angeles Times Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Marijuana - Medicinal) PASTORS UNITE IN FAVOR OF MEDICAL MARIJUANA Illinois Church Leaders Urge State Lawmakers to Approve Bill That Would Legalize Appropriate Use CHICAGO -- Arguing that Illinois lawmakers have a moral duty to legalize medical use of marijuana, dozens of pastors and church leaders are urging them to allow doctors to recommend the drug for seriously ill patients. The religious leaders say they feel compelled to support doctors who want to use whatever tools necessary to ease the pain of the extremely sick. A petition was e-mailed to state senators late last month. The state Senate was expected to vote on the bill this week, said Sen. John Cullerton, the bill's author. If passed and signed into law, Illinois would become the 13th state to allow the use of medical marijuana. "This is about compassion for people," Cullerton said. "Many patients are not having trouble finding it. They just don't want to be criminals for using it." Countered Calvina Fay, executive director of the Drug Free America Foundation, a national drug policy group critical of such measures: "People can't just call anything medicine. Just because they're religious leaders does not mean they can judge the merits of something like this." The letter - which asked that neither medical practitioners face criminal sanctions for recommending the drug, nor patients for using it if their doctors have told them it could help - reflects the recent trend among religious leaders toward taking a firmer stand on policy issues with which they normally are not identified. The signers included representatives of Protestant, Jewish, Unitarian and other Advertisement faiths. In recent years, a growing number of religious denominations have spoken in favor of marijuana's medicinal value. Though most faith-based groups oppose recreational use of the drug, some have started to ask state and federal government agencies to intervene on behalf of patients who struggle with glaucoma, cancer or AIDS. "I've been a pastor for more than 30 years, and I know some of my parishioners, and their doctors have thought that they need this tool for better pain management," said the Rev. Bob Hillenbrand, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Rockford, Ill. Hillenbrand, along with 49 other religious figures in Illinois, signed the petition that had been pulled together by the Interfaith Drug Policy Initiative, a Washington area group that lobbies religious leaders on drug policy issues. "For me, the question is, 'Should it be the government deciding out of hand that something is medically wrong to use? Or should it be decided by research and the medical industry itself?'" Hillenbrand said. Illinois has a law on its books, dating to 1978, that allows doctors to dispense the drug for cancer and glaucoma patients, and other procedures "certified to be medically necessary." The bill was signed into law by then-Gov. James Thompson. But political debate over the issue at the time, as well as some restrictions that were tied to it, essentially nullified the law, Cullerton said. The current national fight over legalizing medical uses of the drug can be traced to 1996, when a California referendum opened the door to medical marijuana use in that state. In its wake, a number of other states - Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington - have enacted similar laws that legally allow certain patients to use the drug, regardless of federal restrictions. Last year, however, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that federal laws that ban marijuana sales take precedence over state measures.