BILL COULD ALLOW VOTERS TO DECIDE MARIJUANA ISSUE

With the failure of a bill to permit the medical use of marijuana
likely this year, supportive lawmakers are trying to send the issue to
voters.

Del. David Valderrama, D-26th-Fort Washington, submitted a referendum
bill Monday to let voters decide the question.

Because the bill was introduced after normal deadlines, the House must
vote whether to allow it. That vote is scheduled today.

"We're taking this bill directly to the people and telling the people
to decide whether they want it or not," Valderrama said. "I want to
revive it and fight for it."

If the voters get the issue, it likely will pass. A University of
Maryland, College Park survey last year showed 73 percent of
Marylanders believe terminally ill patients should be allowed to use
marijuana without fear of arrest.

"That's what encourages me," Valderrama said of the survey results.
"The poll is very clear. They want it."

No medical marijuana ballot initiative has ever failed. In the eight
states with similar legislation, most passed with nearly 60 percent
support.

"If the people actually have the chance to decide, we should be
ensured a victory," said Chuck Thomas of the Marijuana Policy
Project. "This is probably why the more heartless will oppose
allowing the people to decide. Some people are just determined to have
a relentless war on sick people."

The original bill, sponsored by Del. Don Murphy, R-Baltimore County,
would allow medical marijuana users or their caregivers to possess
seven plants and three ounces of usable marijuana. An identical bill
was killed Friday in the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee. The
House version is still pending in the Judiciary Committee, which is
scheduled to vote tomorrow.

At last week's Senate hearing, committee members said the bill did not
protect the people who sell marijuana to the patients.

"There's no virtue on the supply side unless the government is the
supplier, and that's a whole new ballgame," said Sen. Timothy
Ferguson, R-Carroll.

Meanwhile, under a bill Murphy submitted Monday, doctors who recommend
marijuana to patients who are arrested would face the same penalties
as their patients.

This latest act is in response to the Maryland State Medical Society,
which opposes Murphy's medical marijuana bill because it places
doctors in the position of recommending illegal activity.

"Doctors can't have it both ways," Murphy said. "If they want to
oppose a bill to protect their patients and privately endorse
marijuana use, they should suffer the same consequences as the patient."

Doctors sometimes recommend marijuana to their patients for the
treatment of nausea and loss of appetite, and for pain relief and
reduction of muscle spasms. However, even with a doctor's approval, a
person caught using the drug can be sent to prison and fined $1,000.
Medical necessity cannot be used as a defense in court, Thomas said.

But Murphy plans to change his original bill to include a provision
allowing the medical necessity argument in court. He also said he
intends to cut some definitions of possession included in the original.

"I think it's a shame that it [the bill] has to be that watered
down," Thomas said. "It's a shame that we need to cater to
[opponents'] general intolerance of medical marijuana. I guess we have
to do what we can to appease them."

"When you're desperate," Murphy said, "you grasp at any ray of hope
you can find."