Pubdate: Sun, 09 Feb 2014
Source: Daily Citizen, The (Dalton, GA)
Copyright: 2014 Daily Citizen
Contact:  http://daltondailycitizen.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1929
Author: Christina A. Cassidy

MEDICAL MARIJUANA GAINS TRACTION IN THE DEEP SOUTH

Medical marijuana has been a non-starter in recent years in the Deep
South, where many Republican lawmakers feared it could lead to
widespread drug use and social ills. That now appears to be changing,
with proposals to allow a form of medical marijuana gaining momentum
in a handful of Southern states.

Twenty states and the District of Columbia have legalized medical
marijuana, and this year powerful GOP lawmakers in Georgia and Alabama
are putting their weight behind bills that would allow for the limited
use of cannabis oil by those with specific medical conditions. Other
Southern states are also weighing the issue with varying levels of
support.

The key to swaying the hearts of conservative lawmakers has been the
stories of children suffering up to 100 seizures a day whose parents
say they could benefit from access to cannabidiol, which would be
administered orally in a liquid form. And proponents argue the
cannabis oil is low in tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the psychoactive
compound in marijuana that makes users feel high.

"I'm an unlikely champion for this cause," said Georgia Rep. Allen
Peake, a businessman from Macon who attended the evangelical Dallas
Theological Seminary. "Once people realize it's not a 6-year-old
smoking a joint, most folks realize this is the compassionate thing to
do."

Peake's bill has already earned the backing of more than 80 state
lawmakers, including several members of the House Republican
leadership, who signed on as co-sponsors and the state's largest
professional association of doctors. The bill would revive a
long-dormant research program allowing academic institutions to
distribute the medical cannabis and would be "limited in scope,
tightly restricted, well regulated and managed by doctors," Peake said.

Alabama Rep. Mike Ball, a retired hostage negotiator for the State
Patrol, is behind a bill that would allow people to possess the
cannabis oil if they have certain medical conditions. It passed a key
committee vote on Wednesday.

"The public is starting to understand what this is," said Ball, who
chairs a powerful House committee and is a prominent voice on law
enforcement issues. "The political fear is shifting from what will
happen if we pass it, to might what happen if we don't," Ball said.

The bills in Georgia and Alabama still have more vetting, and their
ultimate prospects are not certain. But what is happening offers a
strong signal of what's to come in other states.

In Louisiana, although a bill has yet to be introduced, a recent
committee hearing at the Capitol on legalizing medical marijuana drew
a standing-room-only crowd, and Gov. Bobby Jindal made comments last
month indicating he was willing to consider it.

"When it comes to medical marijuana ... if there is a legitimate
medical need, I'd certainly be open to making it available under very
strict supervision for patients that would benefit from that," Jindal
said, according to a report in The Advocate.

Technically, both Georgia and Louisiana have laws on the books from
the 1980s and 1990s that allow for the use of medical marijuana, but
those programs essentially ended before they could start. Georgia's
law established the academic research program for those diagnosed with
glaucoma and cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy and radiation,
but the program stalled when the federal government stopped delivery
of legal cannabis.

Louisiana's law allowed for glaucoma and cancer patients and those
suffering from spastic quadriplegia to receive marijuana for
therapeutic use but regulations to govern the program were never developed.

In Mississippi, Republican state Sen. Josh Harkins of Brandon is
sponsoring a cannabis oil bill similar to the ones in Alabama and
Georgia. Harkins said one of his constituents has a 20-month-old
daughter with Dravet syndrome, a form of pediatric epilepsy, and the
oil can help reduce the number of seizures.

Elsewhere, both Kentucky and Tennessee have medical marijuana bills
under consideration although they have yet to gain traction. Kentucky
Senate President Rover Stivers, R-Manchester, has said he's not
convinced marijuana has legitimate medical purposes and called it an
area ripe for abuse.

In Florida, it's likely to become a campaign issue in the fall given
that Gov. Rick Scott is up for re-election and a proposed
constitutional amendment will be on the ballot that would allow for
the medical use of marijuana as determined by a licensed physician.
Former Republican Gov. Charlie Christ, now a Democrat seeking to
challenge Scott, has called it "an issue of compassion, trusting
doctors and trusting the people of Florida."

Meanwhile, Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley has signaled a willingness to
discuss medicine that might be derived from marijuana with appropriate
federal regulation.

"If someone wants to use the medicine that is in marijuana, go through
the same testing that you have to go through when you do that through
the (U.S. Food and Drug Administration), you go through all of that,
do the testing, the drug testing, that's fine," Bentley said last
month. "I have no problem with that. I am not just for prescribing
marijuana."

Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal has declined to take a position, but noted
the "strong case being presented by some of the families with very
serious situations involving their children."

Dustin Chandler, a police officer in Pelham, Ala., has been a major
part of the effort there. His daughter, 2-year-old Carly, has three to
five seizures each day from a severe neurological condition she has
had since infancy. Chandler believes cannabidiol could help control
his daughter's seizures and improve her cognitive functioning based on
anecdotal evidence seen elsewhere.

"We've been battling the stigma from the m-word," Chandler said. "I'd
love to hear my daughter talk. I'd love to hear her say one word. You
know that is something most parents take for granted."

Overall, public opinion in support of legalization has shifted in less
than a decade, according to William Galston and E.J. Dionne, who
co-wrote a paper last year on the topic for The Brookings Institution.
The authors noted proponents were shrewd in focusing the earliest
campaigns on efforts to allow the use of marijuana for medical
purposes, citing a 2013 Pew Research Center survey that three-quarters
of Americans, including 72 percent of Republicans, believe marijuana
has legitimate medical uses.

Among critics' biggest concerns is that allowing medical marijuana
even under a narrow list of circumstance would eventually open the
door to widespread use. Peake, the Georgia lawmaker, has been adamant
that will not be the case.

"I am concerned as anyone that we would get to a slippery slope of a
broader scope of marijuana use in the state," Peake said. "I promise
you I will fight that with every bit of energy in me."

Georgia Rep. Terry England, chairman of the powerful House
Appropriations Committee and a deacon at his Baptist church in Auburn,
is a prime example of a state lawmaker who never thought of legalizing
medical marijuana but is now open to it, even signing on as a
co-sponsor to Peake's bill.

"I've not made a complete 180-degree turn, but I'm probably at 178
degrees," England said.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Matt