Pubdate: Tue, 07 Dec 2004
Source: Village Voice (NY)
Copyright: 2004 Village Voice Media, Inc
Contact:  http://www.villagevoice.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/482
Author: Jennifer Gonnerman
Cited: Raich v. Ashcroft ( www.angeljustice.org/ )
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)

MEDICAL MARIJUANA KEEPS ON ROLLING

Pot for patients may run into trouble with the Supreme Court, but the
issue is gaining here at home

When Assemblyman Richard Gottfried proposed a bill legalizing
marijuana for sick people in 1997, his odds of success seemed slim.
State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, a Republican, vowed to
defeat Gottfried's bill. And even Gottfried, a Democrat from Chelsea,
admitted that turning his bill into law would be "an uphill battle."
Back then, only two states permitted sick people to smoke pot legally.

Fast-forward seven years and the cause of medical marijuana has become
a full-fledged political movement, with two national organizations
running campaigns across the country.

Medical marijuana is now legal in 11 states.

And in New York, the cause has grown in popularity. Now even Bruno,
who battled prostate cancer last year, has begun to sound much more
receptive.

The battle over medical marijuana was back in the news again last
week, when the U.S. Supreme Court heard the appeal of two sick women
from California. Their case seeks to stop federal law enforcement
agents from arresting pot-smoking patients who are obeying the laws of
their own state.

A ruling is not expected for months.

Even if the court decides against the two women, the medical-marijuana
laws in states like California would not change; they would still
permit patients to smoke pot (though these patients would be
vulnerable to arrest by federal agents). "Nobody ever expected this
case to get this far," says Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the
Drug Policy Alliance, which helped finance this lawsuit as well as
medical-marijuana campaigns in eight states. "If we win this, it would
be a very significant step forward.

If we lose, it's just a tiny step backward."

Whatever the court's final decision, it will certainly affect the
movement's momentum, and may determine the fate of Gottfried's bill in
Albany next year.

For New Yorkers with long memories, the debate over medical marijuana
may feel like old news. During the 1980s, New York was one of seven
states in the country that distributed marijuana cigarettes. The pot
came from a federal farm down South. Through a research program, it
was dispensed at hospitals around the state to people with glaucoma or
cancer. (According to doctors and patients, marijuana relieves eye
pressure in glaucoma sufferers and fights nausea induced by
chemotherapy.)

New Yorkers had former assemblyman Antonio Olivieri to thank for this
program. In 1979, Olivieri discovered he had a brain tumor.

He underwent chemotherapy, and smoked marijuana to battle the side
effects. Along the way, he became an outspoken crusader for legalizing
medical marijuana. From his hospital bed, he lobbied the chair of
the senate health committee by phone.

The bill passed in 1980, and Olivieri died shortly afterward.

Between 1982 and 1989, the New York State Department of Health handed
out almost 6,000 joints, to more than 200 people.

Eventually the availability of Marinol capsules--which contain THC,
the active ingredient in marijuana--decreased the demand for the
cigarettes. (Many people do prefer marijuana, however, which they say
is more effective.) At any rate, by the end of the decade, New York's
medical-marijuana program had shut down, as had all the programs in
other states.

California kicked off the recent wave of medical-marijuana victories
in 1996, when Proposition 215 prevailed, with 56 percent of the vote.
Now, with a doctor's recommendation, people in California who suffer
from AIDS, cancer, or glaucoma can legally grow and smoke marijuana.

Over the next four years, several states followed California's lead:
Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Maine, Colorado, Nevada. Each state put
the issue on the ballot, and every time voters approved it. Last
month, voters in Montana approved yet another medical-marijuana ballot
initiative, this time by 62 percent.

Meanwhile, in 2000, Hawaii became the first state to remove criminal
penalties for medical marijuana by using a different method: passing
state legislation instead of putting an initiative on the ballot.
Campaigns for ballot initiatives can be incredibly costly; given a
choice, medical-marijuana activists usually prefer to achieve their
goals through legislation. While it can be much more difficult to win
over state legislators than regular voters, this strategy has begun to
work. The Maryland state legislature passed a medical-marijuana bill
in 2003, and Vermont did the same earlier this year.

A legislative victory in New York State--getting Gottfried's bill
through the assembly and the senate, and then signed by Governor
Pataki--would represent yet another substantial victory for the
pro-pot movement. The Marijuana Policy Project, a national
organization that spent $3 million on campaigns this year, will be
targeting New York in 2005, as well as Rhode Island, Illinois, and a
few other states. Already, the group has a lobbyist working in Albany.

Gottfried's bill would permit people to smoke marijuana legally with a
doctor's certification if they have a "life-threatening condition."
These include cancer, HIV, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, Lou Gehrig's
disease, non-Hodgkins lymphoma, and hepatitis C. Doctors who certify
patients to obtain pot would be required to send a copy of their
certification to the state health department. Patients would be
allowed to receive a month's supply of marijuana at a time.

The bill has 45 sponsors in the assembly; seven are Republicans. One
of the first Republicans to join the cause was Patrick Manning, who
represents Dutchess County. A close friend of his has cancer, and has
been smoking marijuana to battle the effects of chemotherapy. "If this
could help someone make their life a little bit better, a little more
pleasant, while they're going through such a horrible disease, then it
would be wrong for me not to stand up," Manning says. "I started
talking to my colleagues and asked them to join me, so we can really
make it a bipartisan bill."

The talk show host Montel Williams traveled to Albany to lobby
legislators in May. Williams, who uses pot to combat the pain caused
by multiple sclerosis, met with Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver,
Bruno, and others.

In June, Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau met with
Williams, then announced his support for legalizing medical marijuana.
A few weeks later, the New York City Council passed a resolution
supporting Gottfried's bill. And in September, Williams returned to
Albany to have a meeting about the issue with Governor Pataki.

For any state that does legalize medical marijuana, the crucial
question is always: Where does the pot come from? The federal
government grows marijuana on a farm in Mississippi, and supplies
joints to seven patients across the country through a research program
run by the University of Mississippi. But this farm does not supply
pot to new patients in states where medical marijuana has been
legalized. These patients must either grow their own weed, or else buy
it on the black market.

One idea that has been floating around for years is to redistribute
marijuana that has been confiscated by the police.

In past years, in New York State, this pot has been handed over to the
state health department. Workers placed it on a conveyor belt, which
delivered it to an incinerator. (The process wasn't always seamless;
in 1986, workers took 63 pounds of marijuana for themselves, lifting
it off the conveyer belt.) Gottfried's bill suggests a few possible
sources of medical marijuana, including the state's confiscated stash.

While some legislators will likely want to wait to make a decision
about Gottfried's bill until the Supreme Court makes its decision,
Gottfried is pushing for faster action. "I think the fact that the
Supreme Court decision is pending creates one argument for passing a
bill at this very moment, because state action helps send a message .
. . to the Supreme Court," he says. That message, of course, would be
that the public wants to permit sick people to smoke pot without
having to worry about a phalanx of police officers bursting through
their front door.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake