Albany -- A leading law-and-order Assembly Republican says it's high time New York made marijuana available for medicinal use.

Assemblyman Tom Kirwan, a former State Police lieutenant who is considered one of the most conservative members of his house, joined a growing number of Republicans yesterday in co-sponsoring a Democratic bill to legalize medicinal marijuana.

The bill, first introduced in 1997, would allow doctors to prescribe pot for patients suffering life-threatening, degenerative or disabling diseases such as cancer, multiple sclerosis and AIDS.

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