GROUP PUSHES MEDICAL USE OF MARIJUANA

Advocates Say Polls Show Support Among GOP, Conservative Voters

ALBANY -- After a bill to legalize medical use of marijuana passed
the Democrat-controlled Assembly but not the GOP-led Senate this
year, a national group is releasing polls showing that Conservative
Party members and voters in several Republican senators' districts
would favor the practice.

Bruce Mirken of the Marijuana Policy Project said the organization
succeeded in dispelling a common belief that right-wing voters are
against medical use of marijuana.

"Your voters aren't going to want to come and get you for wanting to
keep cancer patients out of jail," Mirken said.

Mason-Dixon Polling & Research Inc. of Washington, D.C., found that
61 percent to 76 percent of 500 voters surveyed in each of six GOP
Senate districts -- including that of Dale Volker, R-Depew, Erie
County -- said they favor "allowing seriously and terminally ill
patients to use and grow a limited amount of medical marijuana if
their doctors recommend it." A survey of 500 Conservative Party
voters found that 55 percent agreed.

Independent polls have also shown widespread support. A Gallup Poll
in 2005 found that 78 percent of Americans favored allowing doctors
to prescribe marijuana as a pain remedy.

The Conservative Party doesn't create its policies through polls,
Chairman Mike Long responded. Conservatives are against medical use
of marijuana because it "opens a Pandora's box. We think there's no
control on who's using it, who may be selling it."

Beyond that, he said, there is enough medicine on the market to make
sick people comfortable, and use of marijuana is against federal law.

Mirken said there is enough of a track record in states that have
grow-your-own provisions to show that the programs work.

Twelve states allow patients to use pot, which has been found to
relieve nausea, increase appetite, reduce muscle spasms, alleviate
chronic pain and reduce intraocular (within the eye) pressure. It is
used for such serious conditions as AIDS, cancer, multiple sclerosis
and glaucoma.

Not all studies about marijuana use have been positive. Researchers
from the United Kingdom recently released data showing that youths
who smoke pot could be increasing the likelihood of developing a
psychotic illness later in life by 40 percent.

There is support in the GOP-led Senate for limited pot use by
allowing state-regulated growers to produce it and registered
dispensaries to distribute it. The Democrat-dominated Assembly said
that could lead to raids by the federal Drug Enforcement Agency. Its
bill would allow patients to have up to 2.5 ounces and 12 plants.

Craig Miller, a spokesman for Volker, said there would have to be
oversight by medical professionals. "We can't just have folks growing
their own in their back yard with no oversight, and then have the
possibility of using that marijuana for purposes other than medical
needs," he said.

There also are proposals to make medical marijuana legal for patients
in Illinois, Minnesota and New Hampshire, according to the Marijuana
Policy Project, which also promotes pot legalization.

Last month, the federal government shut down several drug
dispensaries in California, where medical marijuana is legal. The
proprietors were accused of selling large quantities of marijuana,
including to minors, for big profits.