MEDICAL POT WILL GET A HEARING

For the first time, the New Jersey Legislature will hear testimony on
a proposal to legalize marijuana for medical purposes. Those whose
minds are closed to any drug policy other than absolute prohibition
are enormously influential at the State House, but this is a step forward.

A Senate health committee chaired by Sen. Joseph Vitale, D-Woodbridge,
has scheduled a June 8 session at which experts will discuss a bill
sponsored by Sen. Nicholas Scutari, D-Linden, to allow the production,
sale and possession of pot under strict safeguards for the benefit of
those with a legitimate medical need. A similar measure has been
introduced in the Assembly by Assemblymen Reed Gusciora, D-Princeton
Borough, and Michael Patrick Carroll, R-Morris Township, but it never
has had a hearing.

Eleven states and the Dominion of Canada already authorize doctors to
prescribe marijuana under tight restrictions on grounds that the drug
appears to have significant medical value and can be safe and
effective in suppressing symptoms that don't respond well to
conventional drugs. But powerful forces oppose granting any exemption
for compassionate reasons, starting with the Bush Justice Department.
Last June, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed U.S. drug agents to arrest
and prosecute violators of the federal ban on the sale or possession
of pot, even though the accused were acting legally under California's
medical marijuana law.

More recently, the Food and Drug Administration, which the Bush
administration has extensively politicized, announced that "no sound
scientific studies support medical use of marijuana for treatment in
the United States." This contradicted a 1999 (pre-Bush) finding from
the Institute of Medicine, part of the National Academy of Sciences,
which reported that "marijuana's active components are potentially
effective in treating pain, nausea, the anorexia of AIDS wasting and
other symptoms, and should be tested rigorously in clinical trials."

Here in New Jersey, the forthcoming Senate hearings were criticized by
Terrence P. Farley, an Ocean County prosecutor, who called Sen.
Scutari's bill an effort "to get marijuana legalized" for general use,
which it manifestly is not. Replied Sen. Scutari: "We're walking in the
front door to attempt the legalization of a substance that has been
utilized for pain relief for centuries. This is about compassion for
people who are at their weakest or on their deathbeds."

For too many legislators, those people aren't part of their
constituency. But sentiment may be shifting. Gov. Jon Corzine has said
he would sign a medical marijuana bill if it came to his desk. The
co-sponsorship of the Assembly bill by Assemblyman Carroll -- one of
the most conservative members of the Legislature -- is evidence that
the ideological wall against the proposal can be breached. "There is
no such thing as an evil plant," Assemblyman Carroll has said. "If a
doctor using his or her best medical judgment thinks marijuana is the
best thing for the patient, he or she should be allowed to prescribe
it. Use it as medical science decides it should be used."