Pubdate: Fri, 22 Feb 2013
Source: Telegraph, The (Nashua, NH)
Copyright: 2013 Telegraph Publishing Company
Contact:  http://www.nashuatelegraph.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/885
Author: Kevin Landrigan

NH HOUSE COMMITTEE HEARS EMOTIONAL TESTIMONY IN SUPPORT OF MEDICAL 
MARIJUANA USE

CONCORD  Clayton Holton, 27, of Rochester, suffers from advanced 
Duchenne muscular dystrophy that's left him at 66 pounds and for 
years the only gotten relief he's found has come from smoking, 
illegally, marijuana.

Holton gave emotional testimony to a House committee Thursday on 
legislation to legalize marijuana use for those suffering with a 
debilitating illness and warned he can't wait any longer for the 
Legislature to act.

"I've been coming to these hearings for six years now and the same 
arguing comes out for and against and it's not getting anywhere," 
Holton said during the 3 -1/2 hour hearing. "It's coming towards the 
end of my time. This may be the absolutely last time I can make it here."

Former Democratic State Rep. Evelyn Merrick of Lancaster sponsored 
the first medical marijuana bill to pass the New Hampshire House six 
years ago after using it to relieve pain from her own cancer.

"If there is a God, you will be back here next year," Merrick said to 
Holton before breaking down in tears. "There are many patients who 
benefit from this. They can't wait until the onerous burden of trying 
to prove to get this through the Food and Drug Administration. They 
can't wait and they need it now."

Since 2007, the Legislature under Republican and Democratic control 
has twice passed this law to have New Hampshire join 18 states and 
the District of Columbia that allow for medical use of marijuana. But 
then-Gov. John Lynch vetoed both of them.

New Gov. Maggie Hassan supported the legislation as a state senator 
and repeated support for the concept while saying she wants to make 
certain only clearly-defined patients get the drug and it's dispensed 
under a tight, state regulatory system.

The amended bill (HB 573) would not only permit the dispensing of 
marijuana to patients through five, state-licensed centers but allow 
patients or caregivers to grow up to four of their own plants at home.

Rep. Donald Wright, R-Moultonborough said his wife with Stage 4 
breast cancer for the past 17 years only stopped a steep decline in 
weight by taking marijuana and pleaded for the committee to retain 
the "grow your own" option.

"What is really important is to be able to have that grow option," 
Wright said. "Someone in our position is not about to divert this. We 
stand to lose the ability to have this available to my wife if we did 
divert it."

The bill at issue would make it a felony for a patient with marijuana 
to sell it to a non-patient.

Sen. John Reagan, R-Deerfield, recalled the lack of relief his wife, 
popular lobbyist Liz Murphy, got during her final year before 
succumbing to cancer.

"I can tell you in the last year we spent out of pocket about $1,000 
a month for the Oxy family of drugs that had the most horrible side 
effects which we don't find when we use a plant," Reagan said.

But not all those coping with serious illness supported this measure.

Speaking as an individual, Tym Rourke, chairman of the governor's 
alcohol and substance abuse commission, opposed it even though his 
young son at 18 months had a severe brain tumor.

"There are medicinal benefits to the marijuana plant but if we are 
going to treat it as medicine, let's do it. It is not the job of the 
state to circumvent the Food and Drug Administration," Rourke said. 
"There are medications that are currently available."

Seddon Savage, past president of the New Hampshire Medical Society, 
said her group opposes it too and views it as too broadly written.

"The actual distribution chain for dispensed marijuana in other 
states rarely is limited to people for whom other interventions 
haven't worked, but makes marijuana widely available to those who 
simply want to use marijuana and find a doctor to certify a 
qualifying condition," Savage said.

Spokesmen for the New Hampshire Police Chiefs Association and State 
Police Narcotics Unit testified against it as well

Advocates point out Attorney General Eric Holder has said the federal 
government is not aggressively prosecuting those who use marijuana 
for medical purposes even though it remains against federal law to possess it.

But New Hampshire Assistant Attorney General Elizabeth Woodcock 
warned lawmakers can't rely on that being the case in the future.

"This could change and the new president may take a very different 
view," Woodcock said adding there have been federal raids on centers 
in Michigan, Montana and California. "This is something that can be 
given and then be taken away."

State officials say they will need to hire two staff to manage this 
program that will cost $200,000 in the first year and about $135,000 
a year after the start up.

Richard Kearns of Bethlehem is a former state legislator and 
legislative lawyer in Rhode Island that passed medical marijuana in 2006.

"The key to doing it here as in every state is the legislation merely 
sets forth a broad public policy has to be followed up with a strong 
regulatory structure," Kearns said.

Any law should include a standing committee that monitors and makes 
corrective changes to it, Kearns urged.

"It is imperative you have an iron-clad regulatory regime. Without 
that the whole house of cards could collapse," he added.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom