Pubdate: Mon, 27 Jan 2014
Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (PA)
Copyright: 2014 PG Publishing Co., Inc.
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/pm4R4dI4
Website: http://www.post-gazette.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/341
Author: Karen Langley
Page: A1

REPUBLICAN HELPS MEDICAL MARIJUANA ADVANCE IN STATE

HARRISBURG - Scan the Pennsylvania Legislature for a likely proponent
of legalizing medical marijuana, and you probably wouldn't pick Sen.
Mike Folmer.

A Republican whose district includes Lebanon and part of Lancaster
counties, Mr. Folmer was named by the American Conservative Union last
year as one of just 10 "defenders of liberty" in the General Assembly.
His website features a pledge to hamper tax increases and support the
right-to-work policies feared by labor unions.

But as of late, Mr. Folmer has become a public face of an otherwise
Democratic-led effort to allow cannabis in the treatment of certain
serious medical conditions.

He has appeared on PCN, the Pennsylvania Cable Network, to discuss his
legislation on the issue. He keeps in his car, for impromptu
interviews, a collage with pictures of children whose parents believe
the drug could have helped. His office has given other senators a
packet excerpting findings - from the LaGuardia report in the 1940s to
the 1972 commission led by former Pennsylvania Gov. Raymond Shafer to
more recent medical studies - supporting his case that medical
cannabis could help alleviate suffering without harming society.
(Aware of the cultural connotations that accompany the drug, he shies
away from the word marijuana, referring to it instead as cannabis.)

Though he says he had always questioned why a doctor can prescribe
certain opiate pain relievers but not cannabis, Mr. Folmer became an
advocate after meeting parents of children with epilepsy.

One mother, Dana Ulrich, who lives in Berks County, described the
situation of her 6-year-old daughter, Lorelei, who she said
experiences hundreds of seizures each day. Lorelei had tried more than
a dozen medications, as well as a highly specialized diet, without
success, when her mother saw a documentary in which Sanjay Gupta, the
CNN medical correspondent, described how oil extracted from a
particular strain of marijuana had helped a Colorado girl beset by
severe seizures. The next day, Ms. Ulrich said in an interview, she
began contacting legislators to seek changes in Pennsylvania law.

Mr. Folmer, who himself was completing a course of chemotherapy to
treat non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, was moved by the stories.

"I had some other preconceived notions before," he said in a recent
interview. "The more I got into it, I'm going, 'Oh my goodness, I was
wrong.' Here we have a plant that we could be getting medical benefits
from to help sick people."

He partnered with Sen. Daylin Leach, a Montgomery County Democrat, who
has also proposed legalizing recreational marijuana, on a bill to
allow medical use. With Republicans controlling the Pennsylvania
Senate, Mr. Folmer said, he feared Mr. Leach's medical bill would sit
dormant.

The pair hold opposing views on many issues, and Mr. Leach - known for
being mischievously blunt - described his response when Mr. Folmer
revealed an openness to joining the effort.

"I was like, 'Mike, you're a right-wing lunatic, you'd be perfect,'"
Mr. Leach said. "He agreed, and frankly showed great courage. It is
easier for me in my district to take these positions than I imagine it
is for Mike in his district."

Mr. Folmer, for his part, says the effort is in line with his
philosophy of limiting the role of government.

Their bill is now scheduled for a hearing Tuesday before the Senate
Law & Justice Committee, whose chairman, Sen. Chuck McIlhinney,
R-Bucks, said he wants to hear what medical professionals have to say.

"I would defer to our medical community," he said. "On the surface of
it, if it's something they think is going to be useful for an ongoing
treatment, then I would assume I would be in favor of it."

Those scheduled to testify include representatives of the Pennsylvania
State Nurses Association, which last week announced its endorsement,
saying it is bound to supporting relief for patients not helped by
conventional therapies, and the Pennsylvania Medical Society, which
wants to see more research.

"There may really be a role for it. The question is we don't really
know," said Bruce MacLeod, president of the medical society and an
emergency physician at West Penn Hospital. "We want to make sure
people have access to pharmaceuticals that help them, but also we have
to be very careful we're not hurting them."

As of now, the bill faces long odds. Gov. Tom Corbett, a Republican,
has said he would veto such a proposal if it were to reach his desk.
Jay Pagni, his press secretary, said Mr. Corbett opposes the bill
because marijuana remains illegal under federal law, though he said
the governor would be interested in clinical trials from the Food and
Drug Administration on cannabidiol, or CBD, the non-psychoactive
component of cannabis cited for treatment of children with epilepsy.

Marijuana continues to be categorized by the federal government as a
Schedule I drug, those considered to have a high potential for abuse
and "with no currently accepted medical use," according to the Drug
Enforcement Administration. Cocaine and methamphetamine are listed in
the next most serious category.

Erik Arneson, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi,
R-Delaware, said there are no plans to vote on the bill this year,
both because of Mr. Corbett's opposition and because there is not
reason to think majorities support the measure.

Pennsylvania is hardly at the forefront of the medical marijuana
movement. Since 1996, when California voters approved its use, 19
additional states and the District of Columbia have enacted public
medical marijuana programs, according to the National Conference of
State Legislatures. Colorado and Washington recently approved its
recreational use.

The inconsistency between federal and state regulation of marijuana
has been a developing topic. In August, the U.S. Justice Department
said in a memo to federal prosecutors that it expects states
permitting marijuana use to implement robust regulatory and
enforcement systems. Last week, Attorney General Eric Holder said
legal marijuana businesses should be permitted to move their money
through American banks.

The proposal to come before the Pennsylvania Senate panel Tuesday
would allow people diagnosed with debilitating conditions, such as
cancer, HIV/AIDS, glaucoma or a condition producing seizures or severe
pain, to purchase medical cannabis from licensed centers. It would
also establish a system to regulate the cultivation and dispensation
of the marijuana.

While the bill currently does not specify a particular strain of the
plant, Mr. Folmer has described the virtues of a form, cited in Dr.
Gupta's television report, that is low in THC, the component that
creates a high, and high in CBD, which has antiinflammatory properties
but is not psychoactive. In the report, it is not smoked but consumed
as an oil.

"If every hippie in Pennsylvania smoked this stuff, you would have a
bunch of disappointed hippies," Mr. Folmer said. "There's no way you
would be able to get a buzz from it."

When Ms. Ulrich's daughter, Lorelei, was 22 months old, she began to
experience absence seizures, losing consciousness for several seconds,
Ms. Ulrich said. The seizures - doctors estimated 400 a day, her
mother said - have affected her development, leaving her with little
impulse control and difficulty eating and drinking. Earlier this
month, she was put on a feeding tube.

While she does not know for sure that cannabis would help Lorelei, Ms.
Ulrich said reports of success treating children with epilepsy in
Colorado have given her hope.

"The biggest thing is her level of sadness," Ms. Ulrich said. "I watch
her every day, and I just feel it hurts my heart to see the kid she
was four years ago and to see what she is now. It's painful for a
parent to watch."
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