Pubdate: Tue, 19 Jun 2007
Source: Buffalo News (NY)
Copyright: 2007 The Buffalo News
Contact:  http://www.buffalonews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/61
Author: Tom Precious,  News Albany Bureau
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Marijuana - Medicinal)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?232 (Chronic Pain)

MEDICAL MARIJUANA: NEW YORK IS WAITING TO INHALE

It Could Become the 13th State to Legalize Medical Marijuana, a Move 
Some Say Could Mean Relief

ALBANY -- Joel Peacock, a registered member of the Conservative 
Party, has little use for liberal politicians.

"I'm as far from liberal as you're ever going to get," the 57- 
year-old Buffalo construction inspector said.

Yet Peacock said he hopes state lawmakers in Albany this week will 
pass a bill legalizing marijuana for certain medical uses.

Peacock, who said "never in a million years" did he think he would 
ever promote such a plan, has been in severe pain since a 2001 car 
accident on Elmwood Avenue in Buffalo. In the years since, it has 
affected nearly every facet of his life.

Doctors have tried an assortment of painkillers, settling on three 
drugs he now takes -- with a price tag for his wife's insurance 
company of about $2,800 a month.

Peacock and many medical experts believe marijuana could be a 
supplement to the powerful and sometimes addictive narcotics that 
people with life-threatening and debilitatingly painful conditions 
now turn to for relief.

He is adding his voice to those of physicians, nurses, home care and 
hospice workers, and patient advocates who are pushing for New York 
to become the 13th state in the nation to permit the medical use of marijuana.

Pending legislation has the support of leading Democrats and 
Republicans in the State Legislature, and last week, Gov. Eliot L. 
Spitzer said he has changed his mind from his days as a prosecutor 
and now supports the drug's limited use for certain kinds of patients.

But there remains a disagreement among lawmakers over controlling 
access to the drug, which has negotiators scrambling for a compromise 
before the Legislature ends its 2007 session later this week.

Physicians see marijuana as an adjunct type of drug to help 
everything from loss of appetite in patients with cancer and AIDS to 
providing a bit more comfort to the terminally ill.

"I think you'd be hardpressed to find somebody in our line of work to 
not support something of potential benefit to our patients," said Dr. 
Christopher Kerr, medical director at Hospice Buffalo, which cares 
for 500 patients in inpatient, nursing home and residential settings 
in Western New York.

"I just don't think people with terminal diseases should be reduced 
to what's viewed as illegal acts to obtain relief from their 
suffering," Kerr said. "If there are options, I don't think the 
politics should trump the science."

At the Capitol, the most vocal critic of the medical marijuana bill 
has been Peacock's state Conservative Party. Some conservatives argue 
that the state is sending the wrong message by legalizing marijuana 
for a certain segment and worry about a slippery slope that could 
lead to further relaxing of drug laws.

The Assembly approved its version last week during a debate that saw 
several lawmakers speak of terminally ill spouses and parents who 
either did use or who lawmakers said should have been able to use 
marijuana before they died of cancer and other diseases. During a 
floor debate last week, several lawmakers, including Assemblyman 
James Hayes, R Amherst, criticized the plan because it would leave it 
up to patients to find their own marijuana.

Backers said they want state licensed facilities to dispense the drug 
to qualified patients, but the federal government has raided such 
outlets in California, where medical marijuana is legal.

Senate Republicans said they won't pass a bill that could force some 
patients -- who would have to be approved by physicians and the state 
Health Department -- to find the drug through dealers. A measure was 
introduced Monday in the State Senate that would permit possession of 
medical marijuana but only if it was obtained through 
state-sanctioned dispensers.

Many patients in New York already have turned to marijuana.

Bruce Dunn, an Otsego County resident, added marijuana to the 
Oxycontin he has been taking for pain -- despite knowing he's 
breaking the law. "I resent the hell out of being a criminal because 
I use this herb," he told reporters at the Capitol on Monday.

Peacock already has seen the benefits of marijuana to help relieve 
neck pain that came following surgery to remove three disks in his spine.

During a construction business trip to Louisiana and Florida after 
Hurricane Katrina, he ran out of his medication and could not get the 
prescriptions -- which have different dispensing standards than most 
drugs -- refilled while out of town. Desperate and suffering from 
violent withdrawal symptoms, he turned to marijuana for temporary 
relief, he said.

Peacock said he has not had any of the drug since then because he 
relies on three powerful prescription narcotics, including Actiq, a 
potent drug used by cancer patients.

"It [marijuana] didn't make me act silly. It just took the pain 
away," Peacock said.

Peacock is a former construction manager and now performs 
construction inspections on commercial building projects.

Legislation pending in Albany would not cover Peacock or others 
suffering from chronic pain; it is limited to serious, 
lifethreatening conditions, though a provision would permit the state 
health commissioner to add other conditions, such as pain.

Peacock said policymakers should consider marijuana not just from a 
medical standpoint but as a way to help lower prescription drug 
costs, like the nearly $36,000 his drugs will cost his wife's 
insurance company this year. He said he strongly opposes laws that 
would loosen marijuana laws for anyone except those who medically qualify.

"It may sound corny, but the cost of my pain medications are 
absolutely insane," he said. "If they could provide something like 
medical marijuana, wouldn't that help everybody to see the costs 
going down instead of going up?"

Peacock talked of the various medications doctors have prescribed 
over the years, each with its own troublesome side effects.

In marijuana, Peacock sees a hopeful supplement to legal medications 
to deal with a chronic condition. "It just never goes away," he said 
of his pain. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake