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Lit_Match

Patients to push for medical marijuana law
06-03-08|The Daily Star|By Denise Richardson

Two area men with serious, chronic medical conditions will join an assemblyman in Albany today to urge passage of a Senate bill allowing the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes.

``We're hopeful,'' said Bruce Dunn, of Morris, from a hotel in Albany on Monday night.

He and Richard Williams, of Richmondville, will join other patients and Assembly Health Committee Chair Richard N. Gottfried, D-Manhattan, who will announce a television advertising campaign seeking Senate approval of a bill before the lawmakers adjourn June 23. Later, patients will lobby their senators, according to a media advisory from Gottfried and the Marijuana Police Project in Washington, D.C.

``We want to see an effective law that's going to help people,'' Williams, 46, who has had HIV for 20 years and also has hepatitis C, said from his home Monday.

The men said separately they don't want to be criminalized because they use marijuana for their medical conditions. Dan Bernath, assistant director of communications for the Marijuana Policy Project, said the possibility of arrests are a fear among patients and today's lobby efforts are to inform senators of the importance of the issues.

The Assembly passed a bill last year, Bernath said, and the Marijuana Policy Project wouldn't ask patients to lobby for passage if there were no chance senators would approve the bill.

However, a local senator expressed doubt.

The U.S. Supreme Court has said the issue is a matter of federal law, said James Seward, R-Milford, and it is up to Congress to clarify whether states are empowered on the matter.

``I don't anticipate the Senate will take up this issue until the federal government tells us we can,'' Seward said. The Assembly is creating some false hope about an issue that isn't clearly in the state's jurisdiction, he said, and the fact that some other states have moved forward to approve laws ``isn't a road that New York should go down.''

Seward said he personally supports the use of medicinal marijuana for patients with chronic or terminal conditions if the drug is approved by the Federal Drug Administration and prescribed by a physician. The drug, like morphine, could be used for pain relief, he said.

``I could support legislation that is very, very tightly controlled,'' Seward said. But until federal and state jurisdictions are clarified, Seward said he has a responsibility to abide by the U.S. Constitution.

The Assembly bill sponsored by Gottfried legalizes the possession, manufacture, use, delivery, transport or administration of marijuana by a patient or designated caregiver for a certified medical use and directs the Department of Health to monitor uses. In its justification, the bill refers to the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine 1999 report that "nausea, appetite loss, pain and anxiety ... all can be mitigated by marijuana."

Doctors and patients have documented that marijuana can be an effective treatment _ where other medications have failed _ for some patients with HIV/AIDS, cancer, multiple sclerosis and other life-threatening or debilitating conditions.

A Senate bill regarding proposed medicinal use of marijuana is in committee, according to the New York State Legislature website.

Dunn said he has tried many therapies and medicines since his accident in 1988 and he needs the drug because it eases pain, softens muscles and motivates him. Marijuana is a safe drug that should be available to those who would benefit, he said.

``There are people who need that _ no other drug serves them as well with as few side effects,'' Dunn, 61, said. ``I'm in it for others as well as myself.''

Bernath said the TV ad is a new step in seeking passage of a law by the Senate. Burton Aldrich, a quadriplegic father of five from Kingston, is featured in the ads to be broadcast on CNN and CNN Headline News, among other channels, starting Wednesday, Bernath said. Montana, Vermont and Rhode Island are among states that have passed medicinal marijuana laws since 2004 and after TV ad campaigns, he said.

Bernath said he spoke Monday with Barbara Jackson, a cancer survivor from the Bronx, who expressed gratitude that she didn't go to jail after her arrest last year for using marijuana to treat appetite loss. The charges were dropped, Bernath said, but Jackson still faces the threat of arrest.

``This is not a theoretical problem,'' he said.

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Donation links to NORML (The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) | MPP (Marijuana Policy Project)

 

blackandgoldpride

I live in NY and while it makes me happy to see the effort I cant see this passing anytime soon although I will definitely be writing my local senators.

Unregistered

Being in NY, and facing more and more smoking bans, I doubt NY will pass marijuana for medicinal reasons, and if they did, you can count on the highest taxes in the country. lol

Unregistered

We should be able to use any medicine that helps us. As far as illegal drugs go... Prohibition has never worked and never will. From the place of origin to the point of sale there can be up to a 17000% markup in the illegal drug trade. We're building 900 new prison beds and hiring 150 more correction officers every two weeks in the USA. We arrest someone on a drug charge every 17 seconds. The "land of the free" now incarcerates more people than any other nation on earth, even more than far more populous communist China. More than 1 of every 100 adult Americans is now behind bars. We spend $69 billion per year on the drug war. In 1914 when all drugs were legal 1.3% of the American population was addicted to drugs, despite prohibition today 1.3% of our population is STILL addicted to drugs. Over 100,000 Americans have lost their lives as a result of the war on drugs, which is really a war on our own citizens. Enough is Enough. We were smart enough to end alcohol prohibition after 13 years, the drug war has been going on almost 4 decades and drug prohibition to some degree for over 9 decades. The ONLY way to control drugs is to regulate them, which will end the profits available to criminals just like ending alcohol prohibition did. The year alcohol prohibition ended violent crime FELL 65%. There has only been one drug success story in history, tobacco, which is hands down the most deadly and one of the most addictive of all drugs. Almost half of all users quit because of regulation, accurate information and medical treatment, not a war on tobacco users. No one went to jail and no one got killed. Contact your elected representatives every time there's legislation on the table regarding illegal drugs and tell them to end the drug war. Not one of the ridiculous arguments justify devastating society with prohibition. Watch the video:
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