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Smizik re-files bill to legalize pot for medicinal use
12-03-04 | Monica Deady | TownOnline.Com

State Rep. Frank Smizik plans to re-file legislation for the 2005-2006 legislative session to legalize Marijuana for medical uses.

The bill, Smizik said, allows Marijuana in "very limited use" for sick individuals who can ease side effects and benefit from the drug. It also eliminates the need for federal approval to use it legally with a prescription in Bay State.

"It's a very limited law," Smizik said Tuesday. "We're not trying to legalize Marijuana. We're trying to stop suffering."

Marijuana, commonly referred to as pot, is the most commonly used illegal drug in the United States, according to the Web site for the Food and Drug Administration.

The main active chemical in Marijuana, THC, binds to the membranes of certain nerve cells in the brain, and once in place, THC causes a series of cellular reactions that lead to the "high" that users experience when they smoke Marijuana, the Web site said.

In addition, it said long-term Marijuana use can lead to addiction.

A law passed in Massachusetts in 1991 allows Marijuana to be prescribed to patients to alleviate nausea and possible side effects from chemotherapy and radiation treatments, but ultimately requires federal approval for the drug to be prescribed.

But that approval may never come, since the federal government classifies Marijuana as an illegal drug, regardless of a prescription.

"The federal government is controlled by people who come from the 1930s and the killer weed movies," Smizik said. "They're not enlightened at all, and they don't look at it as trying to solve pain."

Last year, Smizik said his bill has some support at the committee level, but the Senate chairman did not like the bill and it was put on hold for the year.

This time around, he said it has support from doctors.

In addition to some coverage in the Massachusetts Legislature, the U.S. Supreme Court began hearing a case this past Monday to consider whether sick people in 11 other states with medical Marijuana laws can get around a federal Marijuana law.

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