HOUSE BILL WOULD LEGALIZE MEDICAL USE OF MARIJUANA

CONCORD -- Will, a 49-year-old health care worker, risked losing his
privacy and his professional license Monday but wanted a legislative
committee to know the medical relief he got from smoking marijuana.

A Merrimack resident and respiratory therapist, Will said he used pot
for 18 months to deal with the vomiting, nausea and sweats that came
from intravenous drug treatment for Hepatitis C, a deadly virus.

"Marijuana would mitigate these side effects. I was allowed to stay
fully employed and that would not have been the case without
marijuana,'' Will told the House Health, Human Services and Elderly
Affairs Committee in a hearing on legalizing medical use of marijuana
(HB 721).

Will insisted he did not find the need to increase his use of marijuana.

"You feel so lousy. You aren't trying to get a buzz on. You are
trying to feel all right,'' he said.

But Enfield Police Chief Peter Giese, representing the New Hampshire
Police Chiefs Association said the group opposes the bill. He
insisted the agenda was more about drug legalization than alleviating
suffering.

"I am here because we believe this is nothing more than an entree
into the legalization debate,'' Giese said. "This is a bill to
legalize marijuana in the state of New Hampshire. If this debate were
about relieving suffering, why not just make heroin available on
demand?''

If adopted, the state risks losing federal money because proscribing
marijuana for medical use is against federal law, Giese warned.

Janet Monahan of the New Hampshire Medical Society said her
organization joins the American Medical Association to oppose the
smoking of marijuana for any reasons.

"Patients currently have a pill form of marijuana (Marinol) available
to them for relief of symptoms and side effects caused by certain
medical conditions and treatments,'' Monahan said.

John Dalco, a former doctor and mental health care consultant for the
insurance industry, said studies have not shown marijuana to be an
indispensable drug for pain caused by any condition.

Scientific research has shown it can help with sickness associated
with cancer chemotherapy and counteract the loss of appetite for
patients with the AIDS virus, but other legal drugs work as well, he
said.

"There are a lot of drugs on the market that don't have the side
effects that marijuana has,'' Dalco said.

"It does relieve pain. But will a physician prescribe its use in a
state when it's barred by the federal government? I would be very
intimidated by the FDA," he said, referring to the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration.

The House of Representatives has rejected similar bills three of the
past four years.

Rep. John Tholl, R-Whitefield, a retired state trooper and part-time
police chief in Dalton, said the bill would allow a patient to
possess enough pot to use for 51 months, which Tholl considered
"extremely excessive.''