Pubdate: Fri, 22 Feb 2013
Source: Concord Monitor (NH)
Copyright: 2013 Monitor Publishing Company
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/WbpFSdHB
Website: http://www.concordmonitor.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/767
Author: Ben Leubsdorf

TESTIMONY KICKS OFF LATEST EFFORT TO LEGALIZE MEDICAL MARIJUANA IN N.H.

For some of the patients, law enforcement officials and advocates who 
spoke during a nearly four-hour House committee hearing yesterday on 
medical marijuana, it wasn't their first time. Similar bills have 
passed the Legislature twice in the last four years, only to fall to 
gubernatorial vetoes.

But there was a sense yesterday at the House Health, Human Services 
and Elderly Affairs Committee that this could be the year New 
Hampshire joins the rest of New England in allowing the medicinal use 
of marijuana, despite the fact it remains illegal under federal law.

"Today begins what so many of us hope will be the final chapter in 
creating a law to give safe, legal access to an alternative treatment 
for disease-stricken patients," said Evelyn Merrick, a former 
Democratic state representative from Lancaster who sponsored three 
medical marijuana bills before losing her seat last year. "Herbal 
marijuana has been proven to bring comfort and pain relief, and 
minimize suffering, for so many of our sickest and terminally ill patients."

Hope and opposition

Eighteen states plus the District of Columbia allow the medicinal use 
of marijuana, including the five other New England states.

Eight medical marijuana bills have been introduced in New Hampshire 
since 1998. Twice, in 2009 and 2012, bills passed the Legislature but 
were vetoed by then-Gov. John Lynch. In both cases, attempts to 
override Lynch's veto fell short of the two-thirds majority needed in 
the Senate.

But Lynch was replaced this year by fellow Democrat Maggie Hassan, 
who has said she supports legalizing medical marijuana. That's given 
new hope to advocates that, if a bill makes it through the 
Democratic-led House and Republican-led Senate, it would be signed 
into law by Hassan.

The bill introduced this year by Rep. Donna Schlachman, an Exeter 
Democrat, is co-sponsored by nine other representatives and four 
senators. It would allow patients, with a doctor's certification and 
a state-issued registry card, to possess up to two ounces of 
marijuana without fear of arrest or other punishment.

The bill would limit the program to patients suffering from cancer, 
glaucoma, HIV, AIDS, hepatitis C, Lou Gehrig's disease, muscular 
dystrophy, Crohn's disease, Alzheimer's disease or multiple 
sclerosis. It would allow patients to obtain marijuana from five 
licensed centers or grow it at home, though Hassan has indicated that 
latter provision could be a stumbling block.

"I do have concerns about going beyond a regulatory dispensing 
model," she told The Telegraph of Nashua on Wednesday.

But broader concerns were aired during yesterday's hearing by 
opponents of the medical marijuana bill, including the attorney 
general's office, the state Department of Safety, the New Hampshire 
Medical Society and the New Hampshire Association of Chiefs of Police.

Those concerns included the potential for proliferation of marijuana, 
especially among youth, and possible legal entanglements with the 
federal government.

Assistant Attorney General Elizabeth Woodcock said the U.S. Justice 
Department isn't showing much interest in going after medical 
marijuana users in states where it's legal, but that could change 
under a new attorney general or administration.

After all, she said, marijuana is still illegal under federal law.

"To the extent that this leads New Hampshire residents into believing 
that medical marijuana is legal, it misleads them," Woodcock said.

And Dr. Seddon Savage, a former president of the New Hampshire 
Medical Society, said marijuana is an herb, not a medicine, and 
hasn't gone through the usual review and approval process by the Food 
and Drug Administration. Supplies could be contaminated by pesticides 
or be otherwise unsafe.

"I don't believe it's in the interest of the citizens of New 
Hampshire to pass legislation which is opposed by leaders in the 
medical community and in the law enforcement community, who are the 
communities who are going to be tasked with implementation of this 
bill," Savage said.

Patient appeals

But emotional appeals came during yesterday's hearing, which lasted 
nearly four hours, from advocacy groups, patients and their families. 
They argued that marijuana is safe and effective for patients 
suffering from pain or loss of appetite, without the side effects of 
traditional pain medications.

Susan Bruce of Dunbarton said her husband, David Emerson, who died in 
2009, suffered pain and had trouble eating while undergoing treatment 
for multiple myeloma, a form of cancer.

But, she said, he found some relief after a friend brought him some marijuana.

"David shouldn't have had to suffer and feel like he was breaking the 
law to get through a course of radiation," Bruce said. "He wasn't 
about to be going down to the schoolyard to sell drugs."

She added, "We treat our dying pets better than we treat our dying people."

Theresa Earle of Henniker said she uses marijuana to help treat 
post-traumatic stress disorder. She said, regardless of what federal 
law might say, a large majority of New Hampshire residents support 
medical marijuana. (A University of New Hampshire Survey Center poll 
taken Jan. 30-Feb. 5 found 79 percent of residents supportive of 
medical marijuana and just 14 percent opposed, with a 4.1 percent 
margin of error.)

"That's not a request. That's a mandate," Earle told the committee. 
"You don't work for the federal government. You work for the people 
of New Hampshire. So I beg you, please pass this. I don't want to 
live my life like a criminal."

And Darlene Wilson, a Manchester woman with chronic pancreatitis, 
noted she'd spoken to the committee on previous bills. Her situation 
hasn't changed, she said, except that she's continued to lose weight, 
despite attempts to use FDA-approved medication with a synthetic form 
of cannabis.

"I've tried everything now, from the dronabinol to the Marinol to 
whatever they'll give me that's legal, and I'm losing ground at this 
point. Nothing is working," Wilson said.

Marijuana, she added, is "my only hope at this point."

The House Health, Human Services and Elderly Affairs Committee is 
scheduled to debate and vote on the bill March 5.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom