BILL PITS ATTORNEY GENERAL AGAINST MEDICAL-MARIJUANA PROPONENTS

Editor's note: This is another in a series of stories on ballot
issues and candidates facing South Dakota voters in the Nov. 7
general election.

Voters will decide next week whether South Dakota citizens should
legally be allowed to use medical marijuana to treat symptoms caused
by certain medical conditions.

The controversial Initiated Measure 4 would allow people with
"debilitating" medical conditions to grow, possess and use small
amounts of medical marijuana.

Proponents say the bill would enable those who have painful
conditions to legally ease their pain.

"I think it's very important for all the sick people who want to have
choices in the way they treat their medical conditions," said Valerie
Hannah, a Deerfield resident who has used marijuana to ease pain
resulting from her exposure to sarin gas during the Gulf War.

Rapid City resident Cynthia Siragusa, a multiple-sclerosis sufferer,
agreed.

"I'm a decent person, and I don't want to be a criminal because I use
this to alleviate my pain," she said.

But opponents of the bill say that it is too broad and would increase
the overall use of marijuana.

"My problem with this bill is, this isn't about just getting
marijuana to people who have a serious medical condition," Attorney
General Larry Long said. "This is about getting marijuana to a lot of
other people, too."

"This bill is big enough you can drive a truck through it," he
said.

A primary argument Long has with the bill is section 11, which he has
called a "get-out-of-jail-free card."

The wording in that section states "no qualifying patient or
caregiver who possesses a registry identification card issued
pursuant to this act may be arrested, prosecuted or penalized in any
manner, or be denied any right or privilege."

The wording, which is designed to protect those who medically use
marijuana and those who care for them, allows the holder of the card
immunity for any crime, Long said.

Hannah said wording problems with the bill could be fixed after it
passes.

"Anything that we have in the disagreement with Mr. Long can be
settled by proper channels in the Legislature," she said.

She said Long could help South Dakotans for Medical Marijuana instead
of badmouthing the bill.

"If he would only sit down with our organization and talk about this
wording with us - but he hasn't done that," she said. "But he's been
very successful in using the wording to scare South Dakotans into
thinking his way."

One of the sponsors of the bill, Hermosa resident Bob Newland, said
wording was inadvertently left out.

"The word 'for any act committed pursuant to this act' should have
been put at the end of that sentence," Newland said.

Long said he is not interested in fixing the bill in the legislature,
especially since the fix couldn't be done until next summer, when the
session closes.

"What are we going to do between November and July?" he
asked.

He doesn't believe that a mistake was made in drafting the
bill.

"I'm not willing to give them the benefit of saying that they over
drafted it by accident," Long said. "I think it was carefully drafted
by someone who knew exactly what they were doing to make it look like
this was a tightly controlled, regulated system that would allow
people with serious medical conditions to use marijuana."

Other points of controversy in the bill have included the severity of
illnesses covered under the bill.

"You're supposed to have a debilitating medical condition," Long
said. "They list a lot of serious ones. But it says any condition
that causes chronic pain."

Long said chronic pain is too broad.

"How many people are going to take advantage of that?" he
asked.

Hannah said stipulations in the bill prevent it from being taken
advantage of.

"First off, you've got to understand the definition of chronic pain,"
she said. "You've got to be debilitated for over two years and have
to have an underlying cause that's not really curable."

"So, if a doctor's being true to himself, he's not going to write the
person with a sprained ankle or a backache a recommendation for this
or a certificate for this," she said.

Siragusa says that M.S. causes her pain on a daily basis -- pain that
prescription drugs don't help.

"As far as the symptoms, there really isn't as much for medicines,"
she said.

She said marijuana loosens her up when she wakes up in the
morning.

"When I wake up, I'm so stiff, I'm almost paralyzed," she
said.

Medical marijuana bills have been passed in 11 other states, Hannah
said.

Long said he has been told Initiated Measure 4 was crafted after
those bills, which he has not read and compared with the South Dakota
measure.

Initiated Measure 4 would permit the patient and caregiver alike to
possess not more than six marijuana plants and 1 ounce of "usable"
marijuana.