Pubdate: Sat, 09 Jun 2007
Source: Norwich Bulletin (CT)
Copyright: 2007 Norwich Bulletin
Contact: http://www.norwichbulletin.com/customerservice/contactus.html
Website: http://www.norwichbulletin.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2206
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Marijuana - Medicinal)

FEDS SHOULD SETTLE DEBATE REGARDING MEDICAL MARIJUANA

A bill allowing terminally and chronically ill people with certain 
conditions to grow and use marijuana for medical purposes is making 
its way to the governor's desk, where it is anyone's guess whether it 
will get a veto or a signature.

It may seem like a radical bill for Connecticut, but it is not. 
Connecticut has allowed doctors to prescribe marijuana to treat 
glaucoma and cancer patients since 1981. Not one doctor in the state 
has ever written a prescription. Federally, marijuana is not an 
acceptable treatment, even though 46 states have a law of some kind 
acknowledging its use for medicinal purposes or granting patients the 
legal right to possess and use it.

Numerous high-profile medical groups have come out in support of the 
use of medical marijuana and the bill. Almost as many groups have 
withheld comment on the issue.

More of the Same?

We wonder if this new law is different enough to change anything. 
Under the 1981 law, doctors had to register with the Department of 
Consumer Protection to prescribe marijuana. No one did. The new law 
requires physicians to certify patients who can use medical 
marijuana, and the patient then registers with Consumer Protection. 
Patients can then grow four 4-foot plants of marijuana and use them 
for their treatment. Nowhere in the bill does it explain where 
patients will get the seeds to grow the marijuana, nor does it 
establish a legal way of selling them.

The bill is a more conservative version of a Rhode Island law that 
passed last year as a one-year experiment and has now been made 
permanent. More than 250 patients have used the program and the 
response was overwhelmingly positive.

But this issue will never be settled until it is dealt with on the 
federal level. It cannot be an issue that is political or centered on 
the nation's battle with drug use. There is no evidence that allowing 
medicinal use of marijuana promotes recreational drug use in any way.

Gov. M Jodi Rell should sign the bill if she wants to make it clear 
this is an issue she believes needs broader debate. Only as states 
challenge the federal law will Congress be forced to evaluate the issue.