Pubdate: Thu, 12 Apr 2001
Source: Capital Times, The  (WI)
Copyright: 2001 The Capital Times
Contact:  http://www.thecapitaltimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/73
Author: Sarah Wyatt, Associated Press
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)

PANELS HEARS PROS, CONS OF MEDICAL POT

Jacki Rickert says she is tired of risking arrest every time she smokes 
marijuana to treat the pain and loss of appetite caused by a tissue 
disorder and degenerative bone marrow disease.

Rickert testified Tuesday before the Assembly State Affairs Committee, 
which held a hearing to gather information on the merits and pitfalls of 
medical marijuana, Committee chairman Rep. Rick Skindrud, R-Mount Horeb, said.

Rickert, executive director of the group " Is My Medicine Legal Yet?" 
testified that marijuana has been more helpful than any of the other drugs 
she has tried, including morphine.

Rickert of Mondovi said her weight dropped down to 68 pounds and cannabis 
- -- or marijuana -- has been the only drug that has been substantially 
effective in increasing her weight. She said it allows her to take half the 
amount of drugs she would otherwise.

" You have a few puffs, when it works, you put it out. That's not something 
you can do with a pill, that's not something you can do with a liquid, " 
she said. " I don't sit down and get high or anything that everyone talks 
about. I do this to have an appetite, to be able to have a quality of life."

Dr. Michael Miller, president of the Dane County Medical Society, said 
there is not sufficient medical evidence showing that smoked marijuana is 
effective in treating the symptoms of various diseases. Legalizing smoked 
marijuana could be a detriment to society by making more people addicted to 
the drug, he said.

" Medical marijuana is an oxymoron, " he said. " Smoked marijuana is not 
medicine. ... Wait until the science catches up."

The State Medical Society is now opposed to any bills that would legalize 
smoked marijuana, Miller said. The Wisconsin Nurses Association supports 
legalized marijuana but has not specified how it is best used -- taken 
orally as a pill, inhaled using an inhaler, or smoked, said association 
president Gina Dennik-Champion.

Rep. Frank Boyle, D-Superior, said he is in the process of drafting a bill 
modeled after Hawaii's legalized marijuana law, which gives doctors the 
authority to give patients registration certificates to use marijuana to 
ease pain caused by debilitating diseases such as cancer and AIDS.

Dane County Sheriff Gary Hamblin said law enforcement should defer to the 
medical community to evaluate and conduct reliable, significant research 
about whether marijuana has medicinal effects.

While law enforcement officials do not want laws that will make their jobs 
more difficult, Hamblin said they are " not oblivious to the need for 
pharmaceutical relief for those who are in pain and suffering."

Boyle said the reason there isn't enough research is that it is illegal to 
grow marijuana, so the University of Wisconsin Medical School and other 
research facilities have been legally barred from conducting research.

California passed one of the nation's first medical marijuana laws in 1996, 
but it has been held up by a court fight.
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