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AS NY CONSIDERS MEDICAL MARIJUANA, CONTRASTING ARGUMENTS EMERGE

It's no surprise that area residents smoke pot.  But some of them aren't trying to get high.  They're trying to relieve chronic pain, quell chemotherapy-related nausea or reduce the muscle spasms of multiple sclerosis.  For those interested in medical marijuana, legal relief might be in sight.

It's no surprise that area residents smoke pot.  But some of them aren't trying to get high.

They're trying to relieve chronic pain, quell chemotherapy-related nausea or reduce the muscle spasms of multiple sclerosis.

But Little Falls resident Brian Kuprian has given up marijuana even though it helped the chronic pain from an accident in which he broke his back.  That's because he's a felon, convicted in 2007 for possession of marijuana.

Kuprian spent a few months in county jail, gave up hunting because he can't own a gun and lost his commercial truck driver's license - his last means of making a living to help support his wife and two children.

"I'm not a criminal and I don't want to be one," he said.  "I'm in a bad situation now."

For Kuprian and other patients interested in medical marijuana, legal relief might be in sight.  During his State of the State address, Gov.  Andrew Cuomo announced a plan to issue an executive order based on a 1980 law to allow 20 yet-to-be-determined hospitals to dispense marijuana in a research program.  It's not clear how many patients or what kind of patients would be included.

Legislation legalizing medical marijuana on a broader scale is pending in the state Legislature.  It already has passed the Assembly multiple times but has yet to clear the Senate.  Medical marijuana is legal in 20 states and the District of Columbia, including all the states bordering New York, except Pennsylvania.

And just this year, Colorado and the state of Washington legalized recreational use of pot.

Poll: Majority in favor

Kuprian personifies what many medical marijuana advocates consider the crux of the issue: Should patients with serious illnesses and debilitating symptoms have to choose between a drug that might help them and the risk of arrest?

But skeptics, including some in the medical and prevention fields, worry about weak evidence and the health and addiction risks of marijuana.

A poll of New York voters released earlier this month by the Siena Research Institute of Siena College in Loudonville found that more than two-thirds of voters want some form of legalized marijuana program.

Even if the state legalizes marijuana, though, it would remain illegal under federal law, leaving both patients and

doctors vulnerable to federal action.

"So, I think there will be some providers that won't even look at its use because it's an illegal substance," said Deanna Brady, a nurse practitioner with the Whitesboro office of Adirondack Community Physicians and with New Hartford Psychological Services.

Some skeptical

But legal fears aren't the only thing holding some doctors back.  Legalized medical marijuana would be an anomaly, the only legal drug not approved and regulated by the federal Food and Drug Administration following rigorous clinical trials.

Dr.  Nameer Haider, an interventional pain specialist in Utica, Clinton and Boonville, and Dr.  Kevin Mathews, director of palliative care services for the program jointly run by St.  Elizabeth Medical Center and Faxton St.  Luke's Healthcare, treat the kinds of patients likely to use medical marijuana.

Haider estimates that 5 percent of his chronic pain patients choose to smoke marijuana instead of taking opioid painkillers.  ( Patients are not allowed to take both and random drug tests keep them honest.  )

"If it was legalized, I think we would see it much more than the 5 percent," he said.

Mathews acknowledges that research supports the effectiveness of marijuana in relieving nausea from chemotherapy and stimulating the appetite of AIDS and cancer patients, he said.

But neither Mathews nor Haider is jumping on the medical marijuana bandwagon.  They want more research giving them better evidence of benefits, more information on risks and more guidance on how to use medical marijuana in conjunction with other treatments.

Among their concerns: the drug's addictive potential, its impact on adolescent brains, the carcinogens it contains and its impact on mood and judgment, including driving ability.

As for the anecdotes touting the drug's benefits, both pointed out that 20 to 30 percent of patients respond to placebos.

Those in favor

But science often is in the eye of the reader.  Medical marijuana advocates point to the strengths of the existing research, not its limitations.

"There's a body of evidence that provides guidance to both lawmakers and doctors to say that medical marijuana has some proven benefits," said Julie Netherland, state deputy director of the pro-medical marijuana Drug Policy Alliance.

For now, a few New York families are moving to states with medical marijuana laws so their children with severe seizure disorders can try a type of non-psychoactive marijuana in liquid form that has reportedly worked extremely well for some children, Netherland said.

And that's why states aren't waiting for the FDA to pull itself out of a political quagmire and act on medical marijuana, she said.

"They've made the determination that they would rather relieve the suffering of patients in their states than wait for action on the federal level, which hasn't been forthcoming," she said.

Utica resident Patricia Cittadino is all for state action.  She saw how much marijuana helped her brother Patrick Burr when he was dying of melanoma in 2001 at age 35, leaving behind a wife and three small sons.

When Burr's throat became so inflamed that he didn't eat or drink for three weeks, his doctor told him to smoke marijuana, Cittadino said.

It worked quickly, giving him an appetite and calming his anxiety, she said.

"It may not have saved my brother's life, but it made his last days on this Earth a little more enjoyable," she said.  "He loved my greens and that was his last supper.  He enjoyed every bite."