HEARING SET ON MEDICAL POT USE

Proponents of medical marijuana in Michigan are gearing up for their
cause's most significant initiative in the state in decades.

The Government Operations Committee of the Michigan State House on
Tuesday will host a hearing in Lansing on House Bill 5470, which
would allow marijuana use under a doctor's supervision.

Speakers will include Penny Bacchiochi, a Republican member of the
Connecticut state legislature, and Don Murphy, a former state
legislator from Maryland who now heads the Republicans for
Compassionate Access.

Testimonials from patients are scheduled as well, including Florida
stockbroker Irvin Rosenfeld, who according to the National
Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws is one of five
surviving patients still receiving medical marijuana from the federal
government as part of a program that was closed to new patients in
1992. Cancer and multiple sclerosis patients from Kalamazoo and
Detroit are scheduled to speak and hundreds of activists are expected
to attend. The committee will also hear from opponents, though no
organizations have begun lobbying against the bill, officials said.

"This is a real important day for our continued progress," said Chuck
Ream, a Scio Township trustee who in 2004 spearheaded a ballot
measure decriminalizing marijuana use when recommended by a
physician. It passed with 74 percent of the vote in Ann Arbor. Voters
in Detroit, Ferndale and Traverse City passed similar laws, and the
issue will appear on the ballot in Flint in February.

A hearing on the bill, co-sponsored by seven Democrats (including
Chris Kolb, D-Ann Arbor) and lone Republican Leon Drolet, R-Macomb
Twp., follows Election Day setbacks on similar statewide ballot
proposals in Colorado, South Dakota and Nevada. Those defeats have in
turn raised the national profile of efforts in Michigan, Ream said.

"It's very important for the movement to have a stronghold in the
Midwest because so far it's only been adopted predominantly on the
West Coast, and it needs something to continue some momentum," Ream said.

If passed, the law would put Michigan with 11 other states in
protecting from arrest and possibly jail seriously ill patients who
use marijuana with their physician's recommendation.

Tuesday's hearing may have a lot to do with whether the issue ever
comes up for a vote.

Drolet, chairman of the Government Operations Committee, said he
hadn't talked to committee members about sending the legislation to
the House floor, but intended at least to give it a formal hearing.