MONTPELIER -- The House has joined the Senate in endorsing legislation that would protect seriously ill Vermonters from arrest and prosecution if they smoke small amounts of marijuana to ease conditions such as intractable nausea or pain.

But, there's a hitch.

The House bill, which won all but final approval Thursday by a vote of 79-48, might be too restrictive for the Senate.

"I happen to believe the House-passed bill is woefully inadequate," Senate Health and Welfare Chairman Jim Leddy, D-Chittenden, said Thursday evening. "It is a symbolic statement rather than a commitment. Are we into symbolism or making a difference?"

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LEBANON - Lebanon officials have reinstated a zoning permit for a proposed methadone clinic that was initially opposed by some members of the city council and the mayor, according to an attorney for the clinic's operators.

Methadone is used as a legal substitute for heroin in treatment programs for drug addiction. The Lebanon facility would be New Hampshire's fourth methadone clinic.

City officials complained that the initial application was misleading because it represented the space as "retail" before they stopped construction last week. They had said they were unaware before last week that a methadone clinic was planned for the site, which is in West Lebanon.

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MONTPELIER - And on the 129th day, they are still here.

Abandoning all hope of adjourning Vermont's 67th biennium by tonight, lawmakers are expected to be back at work in an attempt to get out of town by the middle of next week.

"I think we can do it," said Sen. Susan Bartlett, D-Lamoille, who, as chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, wields great control over the only bill the Legislature is required to pass before adjournment: the $955 million general fund budget. "Right now, we're just waiting to see what else needs to be finished."

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MONTPELIER, VT - The House of Representatives spent four hours Thursday debating proposals to allow patients suffering from chronic pain to smoke marijuana to alleviate their pain.

The debate followed a vote late Wednesday in the Senate to allow certain seriously ill patients to possess limited amounts of marijuana. After the Senate amended a House bill by adding a medical marijuana section, the bill returned to the House for a vote.

The House debate was emotional and divisive. Supporters of the proposal to allow patients to possess marijuana said they believed allowing patients in intractable pain to smoke marijuana to relieve the pain was a kind and compassionate act that would be limited to a small number of people each year. Opponents said the bill would violate federal law, which makes the possession and use of marijuana, a Class A regulated drug, illegal. They said approving legislation that violates federal law violates the oath of office legislators took when they were sworn in.

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Following a historic vote by the House of Representatives to approve a bill that would allow severely ill patients to possess and consume marijuana, Rep. Loren Shaw, R-Derby, told the House that he would not be seeking re-election.

Moments earlier, representatives voted to approve a bill dealing with advanced directives for health care. The bill was amended by the House to include the creation of a program that allows certain patients to use marijuana to treat chronic pain.

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MONTPELIER - There were last-minute efforts to attach legalization of medical marijuana and provisions on genetically modified seeds to other bills.

There were dozens of hastily convened meetings, not just conference committees but groups of two or three legislators as deals were struck and pet projects were given the thumbs up or thumbs down.

And in a bit of goofiness of the sort that often erupts when adjournment is near, there was the House proposal of amendment on the capital construction budget bill calling for a legislative doghouse.

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Montpelier, Vt. -- The House gave preliminary approval Thursday to a bill that would allow people with certain life-threatening illnesses to use marijuana to relieve pain and nausea without fear of arrest and prosecution.

"This bill does not legalize marijuana," said Rep. Thomas Koch, R-Barre Town and chairman of the House Health and Welfare Committee. "What it does do is say that for a limited number of people with debilitating and intractable diseases who have registered with the Department of Public Safety, that we will not arrest and prosecute them, even though what they are doing is technically illegal."

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MONTPELIER -- For months, one man stood in the way of a bill intended to protect seriously ill Vermonters from arrest and prosecution if they used marijuana to ease painful symptoms or reactions to treatment.

Wednesday, House Health and Welfare Chairman Tom Koch, R-Barre, not only moved aside, he crafted a compromise that led to a surprising 8-3 vote of support by his committee -- and he was one of the supporters.

Koch has long argued that this kind of legislation isn't needed. Vermont lawmakers can't change that marijuana is an illegal substance under federal law. Its illegal status hasn't stopped some Vermonters desperate for relief from, for example, the nausea of chemotherapy, from buying marijuana on the black market and smoking it. Police haven't gone after cancer patients using pot.

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MONTPELIER - A bill decriminalizing marijuana for medical use appears headed to the House floor for a vote.

The House Health and Welfare Committee on Wednesday voted, 8-3, to allow people suffering with cancer, AIDS and multiple sclerosis to use marijuana to relieve "severe, persistent and intractable symptoms" like pain and nausea.

The vote was bipartisan as three Republicans and five Democrats supported the measure, which is much more restrictive than a medical marijuana bill that passed the Senate last year.

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MONTPELIER - A bill decriminalizing marijuana for medical use appears headed to the House floor for a vote.

The House Health and Welfare Committee on Wednesday voted 8-3 to allow people suffering with cancer, AIDS and multiple sclerosis to use marijuana to relieve "severe, persistent and intractable symptoms" like pain and nausea.

The vote was bipartisan as three Republicans and five Democrats supported the measure, which is much more restrictive than a medical-marijuana bill that last year passed the Senate.

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MONTPELIER (AP) -- A House committee has passed a revised version of a medical marijuana bill that would exempt patients with certain illnesses from arrest and prosecution for possession of limited amounts of the drug.

Wednesday's vote by the Health and Welfare Committee ends the latest chapter in what has been a lengthy and sometimes hotly debated voyage for the measure, an earlier version of which was approved by the Senate last year.

Committee Chairman Rep. Thomas Koch, R-Barre, said last month that he was reluctant to pass that version of the legislation.

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When a heckler interrupted a question-and-answer session held in Montpelier Tuesday between state lawmakers and Dr. Andrea Barthwell, the deputy director of the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy, he highlighted the depth of emotion that surrounds the issue of legalizing the use of marijuana for sanctioned medical purposes.

Legislators are grappling with a bill that has already passed the state senate which would allow for physicians to prescribe marijuana to patients when they feel it is an appropriate treatment. Right now those doctors would be breaking the law here, although not in British Columbia, Canada and nine other states - Arkansas, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, Oregon and Washington - where such use has been legalized for medical purposes.

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On April 21, U.S. District Court Judge Jeremy Fogel issued a preliminary injunction barring the federal government from raiding or prosecuting a medical marijuana cooperative in California. This historic action is just the latest in a series of decisions in which federal courts have shown great skepticism toward federal attacks on state medical marijuana laws.

These federal court actions have particular significance here in Vermont, where officials, including Gov. James Douglas, have claimed that federal hostility prevents the state from protecting medical marijuana patients from arrest.

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MONTPELIER - The two sides of the medical marijuana debate collided here Tuesday, when a supporter of the controversial state legislation loudly interrupted a presentation given by President George W. Bush's deputy drug czar, who was in town to advise local lawmakers on drug policy.

The Bush administration strongly opposes decriminalizing marijuana for medical purposes. The protester was among about 60 people who attended Dr. Andrea Barthwell's hour-long public presentation at the Pavilion Building auditorium. He said he was upset that the White House is trying to influence the local debate.

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As a family physician caring for patients for over 20 years, I have had the unfortunate experience of prescribing medicine that later turned out to have unintended consequences, to have actually caused harm to my patient. This can and does happen, even when doctors are careful to stay up-to-date on the latest scientific developments, and even when they are fully informed about their patient's symptoms and conditions.

Good doctors take care to minimize the risks of bad effects. Together with our patients, we carefully consider the benefits and risks of a medication based on the individual's needs, history, health condition and possible interactions with other medications. We learn to prescribe doses conservatively, and to monitor reactions closely - increasing or decreasing dosages or discontinuing drugs according to the effect they are having.

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MONTPELIER, Vt.- The Democratic and Republican candidates for governor aired their differences over using marijuana for medical purposes yesterday, while the personal, legal and scientific facets of the issue intertwined in testimony before a panel of legislators.

"I believe that we as Vermonters need to ask ourselves whether it makes any sense for Vermonters with life-threatening illnesses to face arrest or legal penalties for the simple act of taking a natural medicine that relieves their suffering," Burlington Mayor Peter Clavelle, the Democratic candidate for governor, told lawmakers.

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MONTPELIER - Key Democrats in the Vermont House are poised to suggest greater restrictions on medical marijuana use than did their Senate counterparts.

The House Health and Welfare Committee heard a full day of testimony Wednesday from physicians and law enforcement officials. Two Democrats on the committee said a Senate proposal - which would allow marijuana use by people suffering from severe nausea, seizures and severe pain - might be too broad.

They are considering narrowing the proposal to cover only medical conditions that are terminal. They hope the restriction would widen the bill's political appeal to House Republicans and Gov. James Douglas, who oppose the Senate proposal.

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Three major developments on the medical marijuana front since last week.

In a symbolic vote on the House floor last Wednesday, a tripartisan majority backed an amendment by Prog Rep. David Zuckerman to add medical marijuana to the list of medications that would be studied for "pain management" in "the medical school, residency programs and nursing schools in Vermont."

Zuckerman's amendment was adopted on a 79-57 roll call vote. It was supported by several Republicans, including Judiciary Committee Chairman Peg Flory and Ways and Means Chairman Dick Marron.

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A just-released Zogby International Poll sponsored by the Washington, D.C.-based Marijuana Policy Project -- www.mpp.org -- shows incredibly strong support among Vermonters for passage of medical marijuana legislation this year.

According to the statewide poll, 71 percent support allowing the sick and dying to legally benefit from the medicinal properties of cannabis.

The telephone poll of 502 randomly selected Vermonters was conducted March 19-22 by Zogby, one of the nation's most respected polling outfits.

Last year, a medical marijuana bill easily swept through the Vermont Senate on a 22-7 bipartisan vote. Five Republicans, including the Senate GOP leader, Sen. John Bloomer, and Sens. Phil Scott, Bill Doyle, Dick Greenwood and Rob Ide supported it.

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MONTPELIER - A long awaited legislative showdown over medical marijuana now appears imminent after supporters Wednesday found a way to get a key House committee to take up the controversial issue.

The House voted, 79-57, to instruct the Department of Health to study using marijuana as an effective pain-management tool. The vote, which is considered symbolic, shows there is likely significant support among lawmakers to take the next step, which would be allowing physicians to prescribe marijuana for people with serious illnesses, such as cancer or AIDS.

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