BIPARTISAN BLOC BACKS LEGALIZING MEDICINAL MARIJUANA

The move to make marijuana legal for medicinal use is gaining momentum in
its second year before the Maryland General Assembly.

Prince George's County Democrat Sen. Ulysses Currie has joined Baltimore
County Republican Delegate Donald E. Murphy in sponsoring legislation that
would let seriously ill patients use marijuana to relieve persistent nausea
or other debilitating symptoms without fear of arrest.

Marijuana Policy Project Executive Director Rob Kampia says that of 25
states considering legalizing medicinal marijuana use this year, Maryland
is among the three most likely to approve it.

The group is a national organization that advocates decriminalizing
marijuana, particularly --but not only -- for medicinal use.

Under this year's measure --which is similar to one Hawaii enacted last
year -- the state health department would authorize patients as legal users.

Health officials would issue identification cards and certification that
would serve to protect patients from arrest.

That documentation would also protect caregivers of patients unable to
cultivate and prepare the marijuana themselves as well as physicians who
recommend its use.

Patients would be allowed to possess up to seven plants and an ounce of
usable marijuana for each.

To qualify as an authorized user, a patient would have to get a physician's
recommendation or provide medical records that indicate he could benefit
from marijuana use.

Among illnesses that could qualify a patient are cancer, glaucoma, AIDS,
epilepsy, multiple sclerosis and Crohn's disease. At least three of the 28
delegates co-sponsoring the bill are cancer survivors, one has glaucoma and
several, including Mr. Murphy, have watched friends or relatives battle
symptoms some contend are often best relieved by marijuana --still an
illegal drug under state and federal law.

About a third of the House sponsors are Republicans; the rest are Democrats.

"I don't think you'll find another issue in this legislature that all these
delegates agree on," said Delegate Dana Dembrow, a co-sponsor and
Montgomery County Democrat, who called marijuana "an ancient herbal remedy."

Mr. Currie, who is joined by Prince George's County Democrats Nathaniel
Exum and Paul Pinsky in sponsoring the Senate bill, likened allowing
marijuana use for sick people to allowing morphine to relieve pain. Like
morphine, marijuana wouldn't be legal for use recreationally.

But activists such as Joyce Nalepka believe medicinal marijuana use would
open the door to full legalization.

And Mrs. Nalepka, a Silver Spring grandmother who founded a group to oppose
such measures, contends that groups supporting medicinal use do so partly
as a way to decriminalize marijuana.

"These young people have gotten the public so confused," Mrs. Nalepka said.

She says evidence is anecdotal and personal but not scientific, and that
users should be worried about research that shows marijuana can contain
unknown compounds and can weaken immune systems.

Gov. Parris N. Glendening is unlikely to review the bill until it clears at
least one chamber's committee, said spokesman Mike Morrill.

But Mr. Glendening would be concerned that the "message" such a measure
sends could undermine the state's drug-fighting efforts and do more harm
than good.

Last year, the bill died in the House Judiciary Committee on an 11-7 vote,
and no such bill has yet been considered in the Senate.

Of the seven states that have approved medicinal marijuana use, all but
Hawaii did so in referendums.

In 1998, 69 percent of D.C. voters approved legalizing marijuana for
medicinal use, only to have Congress use its budgetary power to stop the
city from loosening its drug law.