PANEL KILLS DRUG BILL

Move To Legalize Medicinal Use Of Marijuana Fails; Relief Sought For Sick;
Supporters Speak Of Compassion While Foes Point To The Law

A bill that would have permitted patients with cancer and other diseases to
use marijuana to relieve their symptoms and side effects of treatment was
defeated last night after an emotional debate in a House of Delegates
committee.

Turning aside its sponsor's plea for more time to craft a broadly
acceptable bill, the House Judiciary Committee voted 11-7, with one
abstention, to keep the bill from going to the full House.

The legislation, sponsored by Baltimore County Del. Donald E. Murphy, had
been the subject of a four-hour hearing last month that brought out cancer
and AIDS patients and other witnesses who told committee members that
marijuana was the only drug that relieved their suffering.

Witnesses who supported the bill included two delegates -- both
conservative Republicans like Murphy -- who had cancer. "Each one of us and
each one of our constituents potentially could be the victims of cancer or
some other debilitating disease for which this drug works like no other,"
Murphy told fellow committee members.

Scientific evidence that marijuana can help certain patients is growing,
and earlier this week both houses of the Hawaii Legislature passed separate
bills allowing medicinal use of marijuana.

The Institute of Medicine, an affiliate of the National Academy of
Sciences, reported last year that the drug's active ingredients can ease
anxiety, stimulate the appetite, ease pain and reduce nausea and vomiting,
thereby helping AIDS and cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.

But Del. Ann Marie Doory, a Baltimore Democrat, said that while she wanted
to be compassionate, "I can't get past the fact it's against federal law."

Other opponents cited the lack of mechanisms in the bill for ensuring that
marijuana cultivated for medical use would not be diverted to other purposes.

Proponents noted the case of Darrell Putnam, a former Green Beret officer
and Howard County farmer who turned to marijuana to relieve the nausea
caused by chemotherapy for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

"This gentleman was not interested in getting stoned. He did what he did to
save his life," Murphy said. Putnam, whose case prompted Murphy to
introduce the bill, died recently -- but not before persuading the Howard
County

Farm Bureau to back the bill.

If the bill had been successful, Maryland would have joined a half-dozen
states -- including Arizona, California, Oregon and Washington -- that have
legalized pot for medicinal use. In most of those states, the legalization
measures were approved by voters in initiatives rather than by state
legislators.

In each state, proponents had to overcome the vigorous opposition of law
enforcement authorities and the federal government.

One supporter of the Maryland bill, Del. Lisa A. Gladden, told committee
members that "we need to send a message" to the federal government.

"If these folks are suffering -- and they are suffering -- they're not
concerned if they're going to get addicted," the Baltimore Democrat said.
"If they die high, so be it."

Fear of illegal use

The bill struck close to home for several members of the committee. Del.
John A. Giannetti Jr., a Democrat who represents Howard and Prince George's
County, said members of his family had used marijuana for medicinal
purposes. But he voted against the bill, saying he could not see any way
that legalization for medicinal purposes would not lead to illegal use.

In the end, Murphy was unable to persuade any of his fellow Republicans to
join him. He won the support of six Democrats: Baltimore's Gladden and Del.
Kenneth C. Montague Jr.; Montgomery County Dels. Sharon M. Grosfeld and
Dana Lee Dembrow; Baltimore County's Robert A. Zirkin; and Prince George's
County's Pauline H. Menes.

Expecting defeat before the vote, Murphy noted that members were casting
ballots immediately after taking a break for pizza.

"There are a lot of people who can't eat because of their chemotherapy," he
said.