MEDICAL MARIJUANA BILLS GAIN SUPPORT

Lawmakers Near Agreement On Letting Doctors Prescribe Pot

ALBANY - A bipartisan agreement on legislation that would let doctors
prescribe marijuana to ease the pain and other medical symptoms of very sick
patients could be reached before the year is out, state lawmakers said
Wednesday.

A bill initially introduced in 1997 by Assemblyman Richard Gottfried,
D-Manhattan, that would legalize pot for medical use was
overwhelmingly passed Tuesday by the Assembly Ways and Means Committee
and is now in the Rules Committee -- the last stop before a full house
vote.

For the first time, the measure now also has a sponsor in the
Republican Senate majority. State Sen. Vincent Leibell, R-Brewster,
said his introduction of a medical marijuana bill is "imminent" and
the legislation has a good shot at being identical to the version
pending in the Assembly.

Aides to Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, R-Brunswick, said he is
sympathetic to the medical marijuana issue and is interested in seeing
something done on it this session.

Aides to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, said he is
waiting to see what the Senate does on this topic before he decides
whether to let the Assembly bill to the floor for a vote.

On Wednesday, Gottfried said he believes his bill would be approved by
the Assembly if it is allowed out of the Rules Committee. The measure
so far has 49 assembly sponsors, 10 of whom are Republicans.

The biggest remaining roadblock the state Legislature appears to face
on this issue is Republican Gov. George Pataki.

On Wednesday, Pataki spokesman Andrew Rush said the governor is
willing to "review" a medical marijuana bill passed by both houses.
But, Rush added, Pataki still backs the state Health Department's
belief that drugs like Marinol, a synthetic version of
tetrahydrocannabinol -- marijuana's main psychoactive ingredient --
provide similar benefits to smoking or eating pot.

Support for legalizing marijuana for medical use has been gaining
nationally over the past several years. To date, 10 states allow
doctors to prescribe marijuana, including California, Oregon and Vermont.

In New York, a 2003 Zogby International poll found 66 percent of New
Yorkers favored changing state law to allow seriously ill people to
smoke pot. The poll included 834 likely voters statewide and had a
margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.

Support for legalizing medical marijuana in New York has accelerated
rapidly over the past several weeks. One event that helped push the
issue at the state Capitol was a lobbying effort in May by TV talk
show host Montel Williams, who uses marijuana to assuage the pain of
multiple sclerosis and has launched a nationwide campaign to have the
drug legalized.

Williams met with Silver, Bruno, Leibell and other lawmakers, many of
whom described the television star as a passionate and effective
advocate for his cause.

On Tuesday, Williams appeared at a pro-medical marijuana news
conference in New York City with Manhattan District Attorney Robert
Morgenthau, who endorsed legalizing the use of pot for sick people.

In addition, a host of medical experts and associations have signed on
to Gottfried's bill, including the Medical Society of the State of New
York, which represents 30,000 licensed doctors, medical residents and
medical students.

Leibell said the presence of such high profile and reputable
supporters helped convince him to sponsor the medical marijuana
legislation, as did his personal relationships with people who are
suffering from MS and cancer.

"(Marijuana) is not good for the average person," Leibell said. "But
for a very limited set of people, it would provide substantial relief
from pain."

Leibell said he is not concerned that legalizing medical marijuana at
the state level would run New York afoul of federal laws. Over the
past year, the federal government has lost several court cases after
it tried to crack down on pot use by people who are ill in places
where medical marijuana is legal.

Pot should be no different from other narcotics that are illegal on
the street but can be prescribed by a doctor, Leibell said, adding
that he doesn't see making medical marijuana legal as a "slippery
slope" that some opponents say will lead to its full
legalization.

"We certainly don't want to send out signals that smoking marijuana is
good for the average person," the senator said. "This bill is very
narrowly written to help a limited set of people. Any number of
prescription drugs are harmful in the hands of the wrong people."

Gottfried's bill would require doctors to certify that patients have a
serious condition and could benefit from the use of marijuana, which
would allow them to receive a month's supply of pot from organizations
authorized by the state Health Department to grow and distribute it.

In 1980, New York was the first state to approve limited marijuana use
in a program that required a prescription from a doctor involved in
marijuana research and approval from a state board. The program, which
advocates say was too cumbersome for patients, has been inactive since
the late 1980s.