Source: Lexington Herald-Leader Contact: Monday, January 12, 1998 Website: http://www.kentuckyconnect.com/heraldleader/ Author: John Cheves GALBRAITH ASKS JUDGES OK POT AS 'NATURAL REMEDY' Prosecutors in five counties want to put Gatewood Galbraith's marijuana-smoking clients on trial. So, in his inimitably colorful and passionate way, Galbraith plans to seize the initiative and put Kentucky's marijuana laws on trial instead. Galbraith -- a Lexington lawyer, occasional gubernatorial candidate and self-proclaimed lover of the weed -- has filed a flurry of motions in the criminal cases in Allen, Butler, Clark, Rowan and Trimble counties. He's asking the judges to recognize marijuana as a medicine and "the safest therapeutic substance known to man." Each of Galbraith's clients claims to have cultivated and used marijuana for personal medical use, not for sale to the public. It's illogical to deny people access to a plant that grows naturally in the ground if it can improve their conditions, Galbraith said this week. "If Jack Kevorkian can walk around and dispense his particular brand of medical cure, I don't see why my clients can't use this God-given, all-natural remedy," said Galbraith. The challenge to the state's marijuana laws comes one year after California and Arizona voters opted to permit the medical use of marijuana in those states. Marijuana is widely recognized to assist people suffering from chronic pain; ease the suffering of AIDS victims and cancer patients who are undergoing chemotherapy; and sometimes nullify the symptoms of ailments such as glaucoma, arthritis and migraine headaches. But area lawmakers on the state Senate Judiciary Committee said the Bluegrass State is a far cry from California, and citizens here are not prepared for legalized marijuana. Cultivation of four or fewer marijuana plants is a misdemeanor in Kentucky and can bring up to a year in jail; cultivation of five or more plants is a felony. "I do not want to legalize controlled substances. I would not be inclined to do so," said state Sen. Ernesto Scorsone, D-Lexington. Added state Sen. Tim Philpot, R-Lexington: "I don't think the people of Kentucky are ready to follow Gatewood anywhere." However, Galbraith's crusade to change the law may not be all that far-fetched. Just last summer, in a case prompted by actor Woody Harrelson, Lee Circuit Judge William Trude ruled that part of a state law lumping industrial hemp with marijuana is unconstitutional. That decision is pending before the Kentucky Court of Appeals. The next logical step, Galbraith's clients argue, is to realize that marijuana itself isn't the evil substance its critics claim. Randell Carter, 39, is a self-employed handyman in Allen County. He suffered for years from stress and extreme nervousness, to the point that his hands shook uncontrollably when he tried to work. Since he started smoking marijuana in 1994, Carter said he's found relief that drugs like Valium couldn't deliver. "I'm not so stressed out anymore," Carter said. "The nervousness wears off for about three or four hours after I smoke -- longer than the actual high lasts." The prosecutors said they're skeptical about some claims to medical use of marijuana. If the need truly was legitimate, though, authorities might show some tolerance, said Rowan Commonwealth's Attorney George Moore. "I'm not interested in cookie-cutter justice," Moore said. "If I had some guy who was 45 years old and into the last stages of cancer with three months to live, and he was using it to offset the chemotherapy, would I prosecute? I don't know," he said. But allowing broad marijuana use is likely to lead to an increase in addiction to more serious drugs, said Butler Commonwealth's Attorney Greg Seelig. "It's a gradual progression," Seelig said. "That's why legalization is a bad idea. I've seen what drugs do to our society. Probably one-third of my cases are drug-related, and another third of the cases are burglaries and thefts related to people who need money for drugs." ) Copyright 1998 Lexington Herald-Leader.