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NC Legislature hears about medicinal marijuana
6/28/08|The Charlotte Observer| by Gary D. Robertson - Associated Press Writer



The North Carolina Legislature passes new laws every year designed to combat the latest crimes in the news, whether it's child sex predators, meth manufacturers or those who commit domestic violence.

And efforts to lower sentences to free up more prison beds usually get tripped up by lawmakers who argue it would turn the state soft on crime.

So lawmakers will need some strong and repeated persuasion before considering a measure to legalize an old crime - smoking marijuana - even for a narrow purpose. Lawmakers took a very small step last week when a House committee held a hearing on a bill looking at whether lawmakers should study the use of the drug for medicinal purposes.

"You can't bury your head in the sand," said Rep. Earl Jones, D-Guilford, the primary sponsor of the study proposal. "You do have people out there that are using marijuana illegally and many of them are sick. Some people are using it for pain purposes."

Many law enforcement and religious groups remain skeptical of carving out an exception, saying marijuana is a dangerous drug that can lead abusers to try other hard-core addictive drugs. The most frequently used illegal substance in the United States also has been linked recently to additional possible health risks.

"You don't set public policy on something that is as broad as this on a very small minority of people who say this is helping them," said the Rev. Mark Creech, executive director of the Christian Action League of North Carolina, who opposed the study.

Jones' bill would ask the Legislature to examine the public benefit of allowing physicians to prescribe lawfully marijuana and allow patients to possess and use it. A final report wouldn't be required until May 2010.

Twelve states - mostly in the West and Northeast - have approved laws since 1996 designed to allow patients to use marijuana to treat illness without threat of state punishment, despite federal law still barring its possession, according to the Washington-based Marijuana Policy Project.

The laws allow a patient to grow the marijuana or have a caregivers grow or purchase it, a 2007 project report said. Patients often register with the state.

Proponents say marijuana can relieve pain and nausea associated with chemotherapy and other chronic conditions and improve the appetite for sickly patients better than other pharmaceuticals, and even a tablet form that contains an active ingredient of the drug.

Dr. Joycelyn Elders, the controversial U.S. surgeon general during the Clinton administration, was the keynote speaker in support of the idea at a hearing of the House Science and Technology Committee which Jones chairs.

Elders said that marijuana was a common medicinal drug even well into the 20th century before laws were passed to prohibit the drug outright. She said the drug's impact on the brain - which creates the "high" users feel when smoking - can be controlled by growing the drug with less-potent forms with its active ingredient.

"We need to do this study on marijuana," Elders told the 50 or so people who attended the meeting in the Legislative Building's auditorium. "This is something we really need to get the hard facts on."

Jean Marlowe of Mill Spring, who said she smokes marijuana to help her with the pain related to a congenital liver abnormality, fibromyalgia and muscle spasms, was released from federal prison in January 2001 after serving 10 months in prison in 2000 after she was convicted in federal court of importing marijuana from Switzerland.

Marijuana told the committee the only medicine that wouldn't leave her getting sick and helped her function.

Lawmakers "don't want their citizens targeted, and they don't want them living in fear of being targeted," Marlow said. "It's sick and suffering people that we're talking about."

Only two other committee members - both Republicans - showed up for the hearing. One of them, Rep. Marilyn Avila, R-Wake, took issue with Elders' statement that marijuana is "safer than an awful lot of medications out there on the market."

Marijuana smoke contains as much as 70 percent more carcinogens than tobacco smoke, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

The only other talk about marijuana this year came under uncomfortable circumstances.

Sen. Julia Boseman, D-New Hanover, testified in December during a child custody hearing that she had smoked marijuana while a county commissioner, a year before she was elected to the Senate in 2004. Without going into details, Boseman said earlier this month she had received professional help. Approving a study could lead to "soft-on-crime" criticism among Democrats in an election year.

Jones, who also has been a supporter of state involvement in stem-cell research - said lawmakers need to keep an open mind.

"I'm sure that with the study our legislators here in the state of North Carolina will do the right thing and make the right decision," Jones said.