Pubdate: Sat, 11 Aug 2007
Source: Press & Sun Bulletin (NY)
Copyright: 2007 Press & Sun Bulletin
Contact:  http://www.pressconnects.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/878
Author: Cara Matthews
Cited: Marijuana Policy Project http://www.mpp.org
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Marijuana - Medicinal)

MARIJUANA GROUP SAYS N.Y. SUPPORT IS GAINING

Many GOP District Voters Favor Idea for Medical Use

ALBANY -- After a bill to legalize medical use of  marijuana passed
the Democrat-controlled Assembly but  not the GOP-led Senate this
year, a national group is  releasing polls showing that Conservative
Party members  and voters in several Republican senators' districts
would favor the practice in New York.

Bruce Mirken of the Marijuana Policy Project said the  organization
succeeded in dispelling a common belief  that right-wing voters are
against allowing people who  have serious illnesses access to marijuana.

"Your voters aren't going to want to come and get you  for wanting to
keep cancer patients out of jail,"  Mirken said of lawmakers.

Mason-Dixon Polling & Research Inc. of Washington,  D.C., found that
between 61 percent and 76 percent of  500 voters surveyed in each of
six GOP Senate districts  -- including those of Thomas Morahan, R-New
City,  Rockland County, and Dale Volker, R-Depew, Erie County,  said
they were in favor of "allowing seriously and  terminally ill patients
to use and grow a limited  amount of medical marijuana if their
doctors recommend  it." A survey of 500 Conservative Party voters
found  that 55 percent would back limited medical use of  marijuana.

Independent polls have also shown widespread support. A  Gallup Poll
in 2005 found that 78 percent of Americans  favored allowing doctors
to prescribe marijuana to  reduce "pain and suffering."

The Conservative Party doesn't create its policies  through polls,
Chairman Mike Long said in response.  Conservatives are against
medical use of marijuana  because it "opens a Pandora's box. We think
there's no  control on who's using it, who may be selling it."

Beyond that, he said, there is enough medicine on the  market to make
sick people comfortable, and use of  marijuana is against federal law.

Mirken said there is enough of a track record in states  that have
grow-your-own provisions to show that the  programs work. Patients who
gave marijuana to people  who weren't part of the program would be
breaking the  law.

Twelve states allow patients to use pot, which has been  found to
relieve nausea, increase appetite, reduce  muscle spasms, alleviate
chronic pain and reduce  intraocular (within the eye) pressure. It is
frequently  used for serious conditions like AIDS, cancer, multiple
sclerosis and glaucoma. 
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