Pubdate: Sun, 15 Apr 2012
Source: Staten Island Advance (NY)
Copyright: 2012 Advance Publication Inc.
Contact:  http://www.silive.com/advance/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/646
Author: Tom Wrobleski

WILL MEDICAL MARIJUANA GET OK'D IN NEW YORK?

Not everybody is buying state Sen. Diane Savino's bid to legalize 
medical marijuana in New York state.

"It brings us one step closer to legalizing marijuana for 
recreational use," said Luke Nasta, head of Camelot Counseling Centers here.

Democratic Gov. Mario Cuomo is also a buzz-killer, saying that the 
risks associated with medical marijuana outweigh the benefits.

Ms. Savino (D-North Shore/Brooklyn) plans to introduce her bill 
tomorrow, which she said will likely be the beginning of a 
months-long effort to get the legislation approved.

"We should start the ball rolling," she said, "start the conversation."

While the Assembly in the past has backed medical marijuana, no bill 
has ever come to the Senate floor.

Cuomo said that he doubted that any bill would come to the floor 
before the end of session in June.

Said Ms. Savino: "We have to sit down and evaluate, answer 
everybody's questions, and come up with solutions."

Should the use of marijuana for medical purposes be legalized in New York?

Ms. Savino said that people in chronic pain -- such as those in 
end-stage cancer or with multiple sclerosis or HIV/AIDS -- "could 
benefit from the option" of having medical marijuana.

She said that some controlled substances prescribed for pain, like 
Vicodin and oxycodone, are "far worse" than marijuana and "do nothing 
to improve the quality of life."

"If it is a drug that would help people, why would we say no?" she 
said. "We should give doctors the best options to make decisions for 
their patients."

She said that lawmakers "don't tell doctors that they can't prescribe 
oxycodone" even though that drug is at the center of the borough's 
prescription drug epidemic.

"We do not suggest that people not have access to prescription drugs 
that are controlled substances if they have a palliative effect," she said.

Cuomo has gone back and forth on medical marijuana. He said he was 
opposed when campaigning for governor in 2010, but last year said he 
was re-assessing his position.

Nasta is opposed to using smokable marijuana for medicinal purposes. 
He said that the active ingredients in pot, including THC, can be 
taken in pill form.

"We don't need it to be smokable," he said. "We don't smoke aspirin. 
We don't smoke antibiotics."

Ms. Savino said she is open to various forms of medical marijuana, 
including smokable, pill and vaporized form.

"I'm not prepared to dictate how it's dispensed," she said.

Nasta said he feared that medical marijuana would be misused just 
like other prescription drugs, including oxycodone, especially among 
the young. There is already a problem among youth using synthetic, 
pot-like substances like Spice and K2.

"Marijuana is a dangerous drug," he said. "It can be a gateway drug 
to experimenting with other drugs."

Nasta also doubts that marijuana actually helps dull the pain for 
cancer patients or others.

"Since when is pot a painkiller?" he said. "If I have a toothache, do 
you think that I want to smoke a joint? It's a smokescreen. It's hype."

GOP District Attorney Daniel Donovan said he is "open to the idea of 
allowing the use of marijuana for medical purposes."

"I believe the medical community is best suited to decide what drugs 
or therapy should be used to treat patients -- not the law 
enforcement community," he said.

But he said medicinal pot must be regulated and dispensed lawfully 
and with proper oversight.

"We shouldn't allow individuals to grow their own marijuana plants, 
nor should we allow medical marijuana dispensaries to pop up on every 
corner in our state," he said. "The drug should only be prescribed by 
licensed physicians and dispensed at licensed pharmacies."

State Sen. Andrew Lanza (R-Staten Island), part of the Senate GOP 
majority that would have to move the bill in the upper house, said he 
could support medical marijuana "under the right conditions."

Lanza said that marijuana must have the same controls as other 
medicines and prescription drugs. That means controlling how it's 
grown or manufactured, and how it's prescribed and distributed.

As with many other prescription drugs, he said there should be no 
automatic refills.

"When someone proposes legislation like that, I'll support it," Lanza said.

He said he hasn't seen Ms. Savino's bill yet.

Medical marijuana is legal in 16 states, including some where 
patients are allowed to grow their own pot as well as smoke it.

Nasta and Lanza said that in California, support for medical 
marijuana has merely been a back-door attempt to legalize pot for 
recreational use.

Other California opponents have said that legalization only 
encouraged pot-growing cartels to set up shop in the Golden State, 
where they can grow marijuana openly.

"It's been a complete disaster there, as far as I'm concerned," Lanza said.

The Obama administration has been cracking down on pot dispensaries 
and on large marijuana cultivators in California, where marijuana for 
medical use has been legal since 1996.
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