TV TALKER SAYS POT IS HEALING

After he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1999, TV talk show
host Montel Williams tried a battery of prescription drugs to combat
the extreme pain in his legs and feet.

OxyContin. Vicodin. A morphine drip that left him "in the corner,
drooling." Nothing worked.

Then he tried pot.

"I tell you that the only thing that seems to work for me and make me
a contributing member of society is marijuana," Williams said from
London during a recent telephone interview.

Williams said he prefers eating marijuana, but in a pinch, a few tokes
can bring his pain from a "level five down to a three."

Williams has even started a company to package and market pot in
countries where it's legal for sick people to use.

And, he'll be in Albany Tuesday to lobby for legalization of medical
marijuana. He said he is scheduled to meet with Assembly Speaker
Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, and Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno,
R-Brunswick.

The Democrat-led Assembly Health Committee has twice passed a bill to
allow marijuana prescriptions primarily for terminally ill patients.
It is widely endorsed by the medical community.

Nine states have passed such laws, but Bruno and Republican Gov.
George Pataki are opposed.

Williams, an ex-Marine and U.S. Naval Academy grad who says he voted
Republican or independent all his life, isn't for legalizing marijuana
- -- or any other drug -- for general use. But for those who are ill,
his opinion is clear.

"A doctor told me I could take up to 30 pills of OxyContin a day, yet
you're going to tell me it's not OK for me to take the equivalent of
one gram of pot and eat it in a cookie in the comfort of my own home?"
said Williams, 47. "Do you want a junkie or someone who's paying their
taxes? I've been paying them real well for the past four years."