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Activist to push medical marijuana

Court ruling won't affect legislative efforts

6-07-2005 | Kate Nash | Albuquerque Tribune

SANTA FE - Reena Szczepanski says she won't let the U.S. Supreme Court get in her way when she lobbies state legislators to legalize medicinal marijuana next year.

The nation's high court Monday ruled the federal government can prosecute people whose doctors have recommended they use medical marijuana to help alleviate their illnesses, regardless of state laws that allow it.

But Szczepanski said the ruling wasn't on the merits of medical marijuana use and basically leaves matters the way they have been. The justices did not strike down state laws but affirmed the authority of federal law officers to enforce federal law.

"Unfortunately, what's kind of in play out there is that this annuls state laws. . . . That's very far from the truth. We're in the same situation we were before," she said this morning.

Szczepanski and members of the Drug Policy Alliance New Mexico unsuccessfully pushed for a state law this year to allow seriously ill and registered patients to have access to regulated amounts of medical marijuana.

And while the 2006 session is primarily to be about budget matters, Szczepanski said, her understanding is Gov. Bill Richardson will put the topic on his call, allowing lawmakers to consider it in the 30-day session.

Richardson during the session said he supports a "sensible, compassionate plan that makes medical marijuana available to patients suffering from life-threatening disease."

Szczepanski said the measure she pushed for had a good chance of becoming law. Time ran out on the 60-day session, however.

"I think the political will and support were there last session, but we got caught in that last-minute bill debating," Szczepanski said.

Because supporters were able to frame the issue in terms of helping the seriously ill, not drug legalization, she said a majority of lawmakers were supportive.

"It's not a Democrat-Republican issue. It's an issue all of us can understand because we all know someone who's been seriously ill," she said.

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