MARIJUANA USERS LAUD DRUG'S MEDICAL BENEFITS

Jacki Rickert says she is tired of risking arrest every time she
smokes marijuana to treat the pain and loss of appetite caused by a
tissue disorder and degenerative bone marrow disease.

Rickert testified Tuesday before the Assembly State Affairs
Committee, which held a hearing to gather information on the merits
and pitfalls of medical marijuana, committee Chairman Rep. Rick
Skindrud, R-Mount Horeb, said.

Rickert, executive director of the group ``Is My Medicine Legal
Yet?'' testified that marijuana has been more helpful than any of the
other drugs she has tried, including morphine.

Rickert, of Mondovi, said her weight dropped down to 68 pounds and
cannabis -- or marijuana -- has been the only drug that has been
substantially effective in increasing her weight. She said it allows
her to take half the amount of drugs she would otherwise.

``You have a few puffs, when it works, you put it out. That's not
something you can do with a pill, that's not something you can do
with a liquid,'' she said. ``I don't sit down and get high or
anything that everyone talks about. I do this to have an appetite, to
be able to have a quality of life.''

Dr. Michael Miller, president of the Dane County Medical Society,
said there is insufficient medical evidence showing that smoked
marijuana is effective in treating the symptoms of various diseases.
Legalizing smoked marijuana could be a detriment to society by making
more people addicted to the drug, he said.

``Medical marijuana is an oxymoron,'' he said. ``Smoked marijuana is
not medicine. . . . Wait until the science catches up.''

The State Medical Society is now opposed to any bills that would
legalize smoked marijuana, Miller said. The Wisconsin Nurses
Association supports legalized marijuana but has not specified how it
is best used -- taken orally as a pill, inhaled using an inhaler, or
smoked, said association president Gina Dennik-Champion.

Dane County Sheriff Gary Hamblin said law enforcement should defer to
the medical community to evaluate and conduct reliable, significant
research about whether marijuana has medicinal effects.