SENATE OKS MEDICAL MARIJUANA BILL

SANTA FE -- For the third year in a row, the Senate has passed a bill
that would allow for the restricted medicinal use of marijuana.

The bill passed on a 34-7 vote Wednesday, and now moves to the House,
where it has been defeated in each of the past two sessions.

To qualify for usage, a physician would have to certify that the
patient is afflicted with one of a list of specific debilitating
diseases and that the use of medicial marijuana could be beneficial.
A physicians advisory board would then have to approve the
certification. The Department of Health would be responsible to
create rules for the provisions and distribution.

Sen. Carroll Leavell, R-Jal, said just because the state passes a
law, it doesn't make marijuana use legal. Federal law outlawing
marijuana would still take precedent, and people using medical
marijuana would still be liable to federal prosecution, he said.

Sen. William Payne, R-Albuqueruqe, noted that the Supreme Court has
ruled that medicial marijuana laws passed by the state are invalid.

That may be true, said Minority Leader Stuart Ingle, R-Portales, but
he said the state was sending a message to the feds.

"I think what we're trying to say, when you're dying of cancer there
may not be anything else that will let you eat a bite of food," he said.

Sen Tim Jennings, D-Roswell, whose wife is battling breast cancer,
said that the use of medical marijuana allows some patients to keep
their weight up and increase their chances of survival.

Leavell countered that drug abuse is a huge problem in New Mexico
that would be made worse by the bill.

"This bill, if we pass it here, sends a very terrible message to the
young people of New Mexico that the use of marijuana is somehow
legal," Leavell said. Sen. Sue Wilson Beffort, R-Sandia Park, said
she was concerned that the bill would lead to the kind of abuses that
have happened with medicial marijuana provisions in California. But
the bill's sponsor, Sen. Gerald Ortiz y Pino, D-Albuquerque, said New
Mexico's law would be much different.

"We think we have provisions in the measure that would make it
impossible for the abuses, or perceicved abuses, that have taken
place in California to happen here," Ortiz y Pino said.

Gov. Bill Richardson had said before Wednesday's debate that he
supports the bill.

"I continue to support a medical marijuana bill that includes proper
safeguards to prevent abuse," Richardson said. "I will work with
legislators to get it passed this session to provide this option for
New Mexicans suffering from debilitating diseases.