MEDICAL-POT BILL WAITS ON DETAILS

SANTA FE -- A bill to legalize marijuana for medical use was put on hold
Thursday after lawmakers raised concerns over who would cultivate and
distribute the drug.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Joe Thompson, R-Albuquerque, would allow
patients suffering from certain chronic and debilitating diseases to use
marijuana to relieve their pain.

However, the measure does not specify who would cultivate, distribute or
sell marijuana for those patients.

"I don't want an 80-year-old grandmother growing her own marijuana," Rep.
Alfred Park, D-Albuquerque, said at a hearing of the House Consumer and
Public Affairs Committee.

Park, a committee member, said the language in the bill needed to be more
specific before the committee could act on it. The committee tabled the
measure until Tuesday.

Thompson said after the hearing that he would clarify the language to
specify that the state Department of Health would dispense the drug.

Rep. Patsy Trujillo Knauer, a Santa Fe Democrat and chairwoman of the
committee, said she expects the bill to clear her committee and move to the
full House for consideration.

The new bill would update the Lynn Pierson Act, passed by the Legislature
in 1978. Under that act, patients could receive medical marijuana as part
of a medical research program.

Thompson's bill would make a qualified patient and his or her physician
immune from prosecution on drug charges if the amount of marijuana were
within prescribed limits.

However, the bill would not relieve the patient from liability for damages
or criminal prosecution arising out of driving while intoxicated on
marijuana. The patient also could be prosecuted for smoking pot on a school
bus or school property or in public vehicles and public places.