LAWMAKERS CONSIDER LEGALIZING MEDICINAL MARIJUANA

BOSTON - Marcy Duda, a 40-year-old grandmother, wants to smoke pot, the
drug that she says best eases the debilitating headaches she gets after she
suffered aneurysms several years ago. But the Ware mother of four is afraid
of getting arrested and afraid of losing her kids.

Duda and other patients with asthma and multiple sclerosis on Monday urged
a legislative committee to approve a bill that would legalize marijuana for
patients who have a doctor's permission to use the drug. They could also
grow as much weed as they need should the bill become law.

"Demerol, Percocet, they made me useless," Duda told the committee. But
after smoking a little pot, "I can get up 10 minutes later and function,"
she said.

Though federal law makes marijuana possession a crime, eight states and the
District of Columbia allow patients to use marijuana for medical purposes,
and many others have similar bills pending, according to Richard Evans, a
Northampton lawyer who wants to legalize the drug in Massachusetts.

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear a case Wednesday to decide whether the
drug can be provided to patients out of "medical necessity," despite
federal law.

Should the high court rule in favor of allowing marijuana for medicinal
purposes, Massachusetts should have a law in place giving patients the
right to use the drug, Evans said.

The bill was sponsored by Reps. Shirley Gomes and Eric Turkington, Cape Cod
Democrats, after voters in Harwich, Chatham, Orleans, Eastham, Truro,
Provincetown and Dennisport approved a nonbinding referendum to approve the
use of marijuana for medicinal purposes.

The committee will take a few weeks before voting on the bill, said Richard
Moore, Senate chair of the Joint Committee on Health Care.

"The Supreme Court may make a difference," said Moore, an Uxbridge
Democrat. "We'll see what they have to say."