Pubdate: Fri, 07 Feb 2003
Source: Albuquerque Tribune (NM)
Copyright: 2003 The Albuquerque Tribune
Contact:  http://www.abqtrib.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/11
Author: Shea Andersen

MEDICAL MARIJUANA BILL ALIVE

SANTA FE - A bill to legalize medical marijuana got off to a lackluster 
start in its first legislative committee hearing.

The House Consumer and Public Affairs tied 4-4 Thursday on a vote to pass 
the bill, then voted unanimously to send House Bill 242, sponsored by 
Grants Democrat Ken Martinez, on with without recommendation.

Martinez's bill would legalize the use of a limited amount of marijuana for 
medical patients with debilitating diseases. Patients would be allowed to 
possess a small amount and grow a limited number of plants to use.

The committee's action does allow the bill to live another day. It has two 
more House panels - the Business and Industry and the Judiciary committees 
- - to get through before it reaches the House floor.

The measure drew emotional appeals from one longtime sufferer from HIV and 
a painful neuropathic syndrome.

David Obell of Santa Fe told the committee he had problems keeping a 
healthy weight and that his feet felt "like walking on sticks, or pins and 
needles."

Smoking marijuana, he said, would improve his appetite, help him sleep and 
relieve some pain.

"Smoking for me would not be recreation," Obell said. "It would be for 
medicine."

Martinez's bill is a slightly stricter version of one that passed the House 
last year, but died on the Senate floor.

That bill's sponsor, Albuquerque Republican Joe Thompson, said Martinez's 
bill is much better because it includes more safeguards, and removes 
questions about cultivation and sale of marijuana.

Medical marijuana bills have a long history in New Mexico.

A sponsor of a bill from 1978, former House Majority Leader David Salman, 
was on hand to support Martinez's proposal.

The new bill is named after Lynn Pierson, a Vietnam veteran and cancer 
sufferer who came to the Roundhouse in 1978 to legalize a practice that 
helped him endure his chemotherapy.

"He was very disturbed that he was doing something that was against the 
law," Salman said. "Lynn died before he was able to smoke a little 
marijuana, which is a great tragedy. It's not about drugs. It's about 
compassion for a suffering human being."

The bill was opposed by law enforcement groups that fear the bill would put 
the state crosswise with federal drug enforcement law.

"Federal law is still in effect," said Mike Bowen, a lobbyist for the State 
Police Association and the Municipal Chiefs of Police.

He said the distribution and growing of marijuana will still create 
problems for state law enforcement officers.

Seven other states have passed similar legislation, Martinez said.

A representative from Colorado's Department of Public Health was on hand to 
offer her guidance and support for the bill.

In that state, 240 patients have gone through a registration process with 
physicians who in turn are certified by the state to prescribe the use of 
marijuana.

"There have been no federal reprisals for patients or doctors," Gail 
Kelsey, administrator for Colorado's medical marijuana program, said.
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart