INTO THE MAINSTREAM

A Battle Waged For Decades, The Legalization Of Marijuana Has Recently
Reappeared On State Legislative Agendas Across The Nation.

The medicinal use of marijuana in Texas may soon stand up to the
judicial gavel if a bill proposed by representative Terry Keel gains
approval.

The bill was introduced Feb. 27 to the Criminal Jurisprudence Committee
of the Texas House of Representatives to allow offenders to use the
defense that possessing the illegal drug was recommended by their
physician.

Keel, a Republican representative and former sheriff and district
attorney of Travis County, made provisions in the bill for a patient of
a licensed physician with a bona fide medical condition to use their
doctor's recommendation for the use of marijuana to ease pain and
suffering as an affirmative defense.

This provision stops short of the legalizing possession of the drug. It
only qualifies medicinal purposes as a legitimate defense in court.

In Texas, possessing less than an ounce of marijuana is still considered
a class B misdemeanor punishable by jail time, detective R.J. Ramos with
the Fort Worth Police Department narcotics division said.

"Having two to four ounces is a class A misdemeanor and above that it
goes into the felonies," Ramos said.

Other states have taken bolder steps in state legislation. A bill passed
by a 6-1 vote Tuesday in a New Mexico legislative committee to reduce
the penalties of possessing less than an ounce of marijuana, which is
presently punishable by jail time in the state.

The bill, proposed by Gov. Gary Johnson, would still make marijuana
possession punishable by a $300 fine, but reduces the charge from a
misdemeanor to the fine.

"It's not condoning the use of drugs, but it's making a statement that
it's not criminal," Johnson said in an interview with CNN.

Although New Mexico is only a border away, the likeliness for Texas to
reduce criminal penalties is unlikely, said Don Jackson, chairman of the
political science department.

"Anywhere in the Bible Belt is less likely to make that change," he
said. "There is a difference in conservative traditions. Texas is more
morally based than libertarian."

Similar propositions have passed in about eight other states, according
to Katharine Huffman, director of the New Mexico drug policy project for
the Lindesmith Center.

California passed Proposition 215 in 1996 allowing for the possession
and cultivating of marijuana when recommended by a physician for
medicinal purposes such as easing symptoms of glaucoma and cancer.

Arizona passed its own version of the bill, Proposition 200, in the same
year, approving marijuana "to treat a disease or to relieve the pain and
suffering of seriously or terminally ill patients."

It also prohibited judges from sending convicted nonviolent drug
offenders to prison until their third conviction.

Jackson said the federal government is a long way away from passing
legislation to even the penalties across the board.

"I think the war on drugs was lost a long time ago," he said. "The
government is now going to demand treatment not prevention. But it's
going to be difficult to get by Congress to get out in front of this
one."

However, a week ago congressman Barney Frank re-introduced legislation
to repeal some federal penalties for possessing marijuana.

Federal provisions currently ban federal financial aid up to a year to
students who have been convicted of any federal or state drug offense,
according to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

Passage of the bill would give authority to bar that provision based on
the severity of the crime and whether the offenders were taking steps to
rehabilitate themselves, Frank said on ( http://www.norml.org ).

Twenty-three co-sponsors have signed Frank's proposal and more than 70
civil and national education groups have endorsed it, according to the
NORML Web site.