Pubdate: Wed, 17 Mar 1999 Source: Saint Paul Pioneer Press (MN) Copyright: 1999 PioneerPlanet / St. Paul (Minnesota) Pioneer Press - All Contact: http://www.pioneerplanet.com/ Forum: http://www.pioneerplanet.com/watercooler/ Author: Patrick Sweeney PANEL DELAYS DECISION ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA Senate Sponsor, Ventura May Re-Tool Over Distribution, Enforcement Issues In less than one minute of testimony to a state Senate committee Tuesday, Nancy Briggs argued an emotional case for allowing patients with debilitating medical conditions to smoke marijuana. Briggs, who calls herself a ``cancer survivor,'' described suffering intense nausea and severe headaches that accompanied chemotherapy and radiation treatments she underwent after breast surgery last spring. ``I tried a dozen different prescription medicines to combat the side effects,'' said Briggs, 44, of Golden Valley. ``Nothing worked, nothing even came close. . . . Someone then gave me a marijuana cigarette. It stopped the nausea, it stopped the headaches. The relief was thorough, immediate and quite extraordinary.'' Briggs was one of string of witnesses who testified for and against a bill that would allow a patient -- with a note from his or her physician -- to possess up to 1.5 ounces of marijuana without having to worry about facing state criminal charges. The Senate Health and Family Security Committee postponed a vote on the bill to allow the Senate sponsor and top officials in Gov. Jesse Ventura's administration to try to negotiate compromise amendments addressing concerns Public Safety Commissioner Charlie Weaver said Ventura has with the bill. The committee tentatively is scheduled to resume debate on the bill at 7:30 tonight in Room 15 of the Capitol. As the bill stands, its chances of passage are not good in the Democrat-dominated Senate, and even weaker in the Republican-controlled House. Sen. Dan Stevens, R-Mora, a committee member and opponent of the bill, said it would send a ``terrible message'' to children that recreational, as well as medical, use of marijuana is acceptable. But the bill's prospects will improve significantly if it's endorsed by Ventura and Weaver, a respected former Republican House member who was a law-and-order candidate for attorney general. ``What the governor supports,'' Weaver said, ``is figuring out a way to allow people who are terminally ill, or seriously ill, access to marijuana without creating a nightmare for law enforcement.'' Weaver said he envisioned amendments that would allow the state Health Department or the University of Minnesota to seek federal permission for marijuana to be tested in a strictly controlled research project. Weaver said he and Ventura also want to tighten the bill's language about who could qualify to use marijuana. ``The governor doesn't want this to apply to just anybody with a bad back,'' Weaver said. The bill's author, Sen. Pat Piper, DFL-Austin, and an official of the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension were expected to resume meeting today to try to negotiate acceptable language. Darrell Paulsen of South St. Paul, who has cerebral palsy and attended the hearing Tuesday to support passage of the bill, said he thought the changes proposed by Weaver would gut Piper's bill. Paulsen said he met briefly with Ventura after the hearing and urged him to overrule the position Weaver took in the hearing. ``I think he is missing the boat when he thinks we can design a pilot project so these people can get it,'' Paulsen said of Weaver. As originally drafted, the bill would remove the already-small state criminal penalties for use and possession of less than 1.5 grams of marijuana by people who have demonstrated to their doctors they need the drug for the treatment of cancer, AIDS, Crohn's disease, scleroderma, chronic pain or similar ailments. The bill also would protect doctors from any criminal penalties for prescribing marijuana. But the legislation would not have created a mechanism for anyone legally to sell the marijuana. And, according to Weaver, the bill would have done nothing to protect patients from federal anti-drug laws. People selling the marijuana would be committing felonies, Weaver said. He said he and Ventura do not want patients seeking marijuana for medicinal purposes to have to rely on street purchases of marijuana of widely varying potency. The committee Tuesday approved an amendment that calls for the state Health and Public Safety departments to create a system for the distribution of marijuana under the auspices of the state Board of Pharmacy. But Weaver said that amendment would not fix the problem of patients potentially facing federal charges. Two physicians testified in favor of the bill on Tuesday; one opposed it. Dr. Dennis Dykstra, a University of Minnesota Medical School professor, said the active ingredient in marijuana, tetrahydro-cannabinol or THC, helps reduce spasticity in patients who have suffered spinal cord injuries or who have cerebral palsy. He said he thinks that for many patients, smoking marijuana produces better results than taking an oral version of the drug. ``Some of my patients are smoking cannabis -- marijuana -- and they're getting far better results than with the oral medicine,'' Dykstra said. A psychiatrist, Dr. Mark Willenbring, who directs an addiction treatment program at the Veterans Administration Medical Center at Fort Snelling, said smoking marijuana can help patients suffering from nausea and vomiting. ``There is more evidence for medical marijuana than for many other medicines we use,'' he said. But a third doctor, Dr. Mary Bhvsar, an ophthalmologist, urged the committee members not to believe that marijuana is the only, or best, treatment for patients suffering from glaucoma. Some new medicines work better, she said. Briggs, the breast cancer survivor from Golden Valley, said she tried marijuana several times two decades ago when she was in college, but did not use the drug again until a friend offered it as an antidote to the side effects of her chemotherapy, which included loss of appetite and open sores in her mouth. After she tried the marijuana, it never occurred to her let the law deter her from using it, she said. ``It never concerned me,'' she said. ``My relief was so extreme that I would have been willing to do anything.' (Patrick Sweeney, who covers state government and politics, can be contacted at or (651) 228-5253.) - --- MAP posted-by: Patrick Henry