OHIO GROUP WRITES BILL PROPOSAL ON MEDICINAL MARIJUANA USE

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- If members of For a Better Ohio had their way, the state
legislature would pass a law allowing Ohioans with illnesses to smoke
marijuana to alleviate pain.

The organization is sending Ohio legislatures a bill proposal because it
believes it is a patient's right to use marijuana if a physician deems it
will be helpful in alleviating the patient's illness.

"Thousands of research studies have stated marijuana has many medical
values," said Al Byrne, the co-founder of For a Better Ohio. "A 1999
research study funded by the Clinton government, which questioned the
medical aspects of marijuana, contradicted every claim the DEA (Drug
Enforcement Agency) previously stated, by classifying marijuana as a
schedule-one drug."

"The first claim being that marijuana has no medical value, which it does,
the second claim being marijuana is highly addictive, which it is not, and
the third claim stating marijuana is abused readily and is a gateway drug,
which was also proved to be an inaccurate statement," he said.

Byrne is also co-director of Patients Out of Time, a national medical
rights organization, which is involving six of the eight patients who have
received medical marijuana for the past 20 years. These patients believe
they would die if they did not use marijuana for medication.

Eddie Smith, who has had AIDS for 12 years and cancer for 10, said he would
not be able to take his other medication without marijuana.

"Some of my medication makes me nauseous and I would throw up if I didn't
use marijuana," Smith said. "Todd McCormic, an AIDS patient, died choking
on his own vomit because he could not keep his medication down and he
couldn't stop vomiting. This happened one week after a judge ordered him to
stop smoking and the only reason he did is because his mother's mortgage
was used for bail. I feel the judge who sentenced Todd, sentenced him to
death."

By pushing for such a law, For a Better Ohio wants to accomplish two key
points, said Brian Horstman, president of the organization.

First and most important this law is to protect the grower of the
medication, the doctor prescribing the medication, and the patient using
the medication, Horstman said. The second goal of the law is to make the
schedule of marijuana more consistent with the drug according to recent
research, he said.

"In recent years, concentrated THC pills, named Marinol, have become more
readily available for patients and marijuana has become less available, and
this needs to change," Horstman said.

Not everyone agrees with For a Better Ohio's stance.

"Marijuana is already too available," said Detective Julie Joseph of the
Columbus DEA. "Normally the patients wanting to use marijuana for medical
purposes are already using the substance under their own will."

The bill proposal does not specify a proper dosage, who will dispense it,
how it will be dispensed, and it does not state what would happen to a
patient if they acquire marijuana from an illegal proprietor, Joseph said.
She has not seen the draft of this particular legislation.

"Right now it is too premature to create new legislation, there are too
many questions," Joseph said. "More studies in the state need to be
documented and more doctors need to be consulted."

Although the initial draft of the bill proposal does not contain a specific
dosage, Byrne said the doctor treating the patient should provide the
prescription as he or she deems fit, as is done with all other prescription
drugs.

Byrne also said if the legislation is passed, the state of Ohio would be in
charge of dispensing the drug and it would be available at local pharmacies.