Pubdate: Fri, 11 Jan 2008
Source: Green Bay Press-Gazette (WI)
Copyright: 2008 Green Bay Press-Gazette
Contact: http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/contact/forms/editor_letter.shtml
Website: http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/879
Author: Gary Storck
Note: Gary Storck of Madison is a longtime medical marijuana patient 
and advocate. He serves as director of communications of Is My 
Medicine Legal YET? (www.immly.org) and co-founded the Madison and 
Wisconsin chapters of the National Organization for the Reform of 
Marijuana Laws (NORML).
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Marijuana - Medicinal)

STATE MEDICAL MARIJUANA LAW REMAINS ELUSIVE

I was sorry to read of the passing of former Wisconsin Gov. Lee 
Sherman Dreyfus. Gov. Dreyfus signed Wisconsin's first medical 
marijuana bill into law April 19, 1982. As a glaucoma patient 
fighting each day to save my precious eyesight, I had already been 
using cannabis for 10 years at that time, and had lobbied for the bill.

The Therapeutic Cannabis Research Act passed both houses easily, the 
Assembly 77-19 and the Senate 32-1. Similar legislation was passed in 
more than two-thirds of U.S. states. Unfortunately, these bills were 
written with the expectation that the federal government would supply 
the program's medical marijuana. With federal authorities unwilling 
to supply marijuana to sick and dying U.S. citizens, the law became symbolic.

While Dreyfus remained a supporter of medical marijuana in his later 
years, even writing about it, many of the Republican legislators who 
followed him in state government have failed to honor his 
compassionate vision by blocking medical marijuana legislation each 
time it is introduced. This session, the Jacki Rickert Medical 
Marijuana Act is awaiting action in the Assembly's Health and 
Healthcare Reform committee. So far, committee Chairwoman Rep. Leah 
Vukmir, R-Wauwatosa, a nurse, has stated the bill will not receive a 
hearing. If the bill does not receive a hearing soon, it will die in 
committee like previous attempts dating more than a decade.

Polling has established popular support for medical marijuana exceeds 
80 percent in Wisconsin. As an advocate for medical cannabis, I 
constantly receive calls from patients and family members who 
indicate there is a crisis in pain management in our state. I know 
the good folks who call me and tell me about their pain represent 
only the tip of the iceberg.

Memo to the GOP leadership: The sick and dying are not your enemy. I 
get calls from Republicans, too. Serious illness knows no party affiliation.

Let's get this done, this session, in honor of the memory of a man 
ahead of his time, Gov. Lee Sherman Dreyfus, who did his best to try 
to help patients and families with nowhere to turn, as well as the 
thousands and thousands of Wisconsinites who died in pain and those 
still suffering and waiting for state lawmakers to finally do the right thing.

Please make passage of AB 550, the Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana 
Act, a true priority when the Legislature reconvenes Jan. 15.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake