THE JOINT WILL BE JUMPING

On Sunday, June 18, a group of Woodstock-area musicians will play for
pot-the legalized kind, that is, under the aegis of the New York Association
for the Legalization of Medical Marijuana.

"We want to create awareness about what’s going on with medical marijuana
and kick off the organization," says the fledgling association’s organizer,
who asked to be referred to as "Richard Star Mountain."

The concert, which will take place at the Woodstock Community Center, will
feature the Dharma Bums, guitarist Becki Brindle, guitarist Chris Zaloom,
singer-songwriter Antonie Hinx, guitarist T.J. Cole, bassist Allen Murphy,
guitarist Jay McHugh, singer Emmaretta Marks and drummer George Leary.

Unlike Tony Villodas, an epilepsy sufferer who formed the now-defunct
Woodstock Association for Medical Marijuana (WAMM) several years ago, Star
Mountain has no physical health problem that might be alleviated by
marijuana. "I believe in this cause," said the 53-year-old Star Mountain,
who has lived in Woodstock about 10 years and was involved in WAMM. "I
believe marijuana is going to help a lot of people with health problems."

A Saugerties woman who has been helping Star Mountain distribute flyers
about the concert and did not want to be identified said that she’s used
marijuana in the past to relieve cramps and muscle contractions from PMS,
premenstrual syndrome. "I’m supportive of this cause because I believe in
giving someone medicine who needs it," she said. "Especially those with
chronic pain or terminal illness."

Neither of the state legislators who represent this area has much of a
problem with the possibility of legalization of marijuana for medical
purposes. Senator John Bonacic, R-New Hope, said, "If it’s medically
appropriate with safeguards, I could see that we could use marijuana for
medical purposes." Bonacic’s "safeguards" included documented serious
illness, and control by the doctor or a hospital. "I don’t want people to be
able to just go into a drugstore and get a prescription," he said. "That can
be abused."

Assemblyman Kevin Cahill, D-Kingston, said he wouldn’t have a problem with
pending medical marijuana legislation put forth by Assemblyman Richard
Gottfried, D-Manhattan, who chairs the Assembly Health Committee. But Cahill
said he didn’t see the bill moving forward.

The bill, A-8082, which was introduced by Gottfried during the 1997-98
legislative session and re-introduced this session, has never been reported
out of Gottfried’s own committee. The bill would allow the medical use of
marijuana for a serious medical condition under the supervision of a
licensed practitioner. A certified patient could possess up to eight ounces
of marijuana for his/her medical use. Using a coded identifier,
practitioners would report on each patient to the state Health Department,
which would periodically review the whole process.

Gottfried’s legislative associate, Matthew Badalucco said that the bill hasn
’t been moved because there was no Senate sponsor, so the odds of it
becoming law were very low. Even though Badalucco admitted that the majority
of New Yorkers would support the bill, he said, "Assemblyman Gottfried doesn
’t want a member to take a vote on a politically controversial issue and pay
a price for this. It’s conceivable that an opponent in an election could use
this position to make someone appear soft on drugs."

Richard Schmitz, director of State Policies of the Marijuana Policy Project,
in Washington, D.C., an organization working to reform marijuana laws that
focuses on the medical issue, said that the climate for support of medical
marijuana use is improving. He cited a Zogby International poll in April
1999 said that 80 percent of registered voters in New York state favored
allowing doctors to prescribe marijuana for medical purposes.

New York has actually had a medical marijuana law on the books since 1980.
The Antonio G. Oliveri Controlled Substances Therapeutic Research Act, which
became law on June 30, 1980, was named in honor of the New York City
Democratic legislator who fought for the legislation and died shortly after
its enactment. Participation in the program, which was established in the
Department of Health, was limited to cancer patients, glaucoma patients and
patients afflicted with other diseases approved by the commissioner of
health. Between 1982 and 1985, about 200 patients received marijuana through
the program, which the Health Department no longer operates.

Schmitz believes the program became dormant because of the federal Food and
Drug Administration approval of Marinol, a synthesized analog of THC,
tetrahydrocannabinol, the primary psychoactive ingredient in marijuana.
Marinol, which has been available since 1982, is prescribed primarily for
nausea from chemotherapy and AIDS treatment, and can also be used for
glaucoma, bipolar disorders and spasticity-related disorders, such as
multiple sclerosis and epilepsy. But some people, including Arlene Cohen, a
clinical nurse specialist in oncology at Benedictine Hospital, believe that
Marinol doesn’t work as well as marijuana.

In an interview with Woodstock Times in 1998, Cohen said, "The side effects
of marijuana are what works. Marijuana gives you an appetite and helps with
nausea. THC doesn’t do that and it takes one-and-a-half to three hours for
it to work," said Cohen.

And in an editorial in the January 30, 1997 edition of the New England
Journal of Medicine, Dr. Jerome Kassirer wrote, "Federal authorities should
rescind their prohibition of the medical use of marijuana for seriously ill
patients and allow physicians to decide which patients to treat. The
government should change marijuana’s status from that of a Schedule I drug
(considered to be potentially addictive and with no current medical use) to
that of a Schedule 2 drug (potentially addictive but with some accepted
medical use) and regulate it accordingly."

In November 1996, voters in California and Arizona passed referenda
permitting the use of marijuana as medicine. Although Arizona’s referendum
was invalidated five months later, the votes galvanized a national response.
In November 1998, voters in six states-Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada,
Oregon and Washington-passed ballot initiatives in support of medical
marijuana. In the wake of state medical marijuana initiatives, The White
House Office of National Drug Control Policy asked the Institute of Medicine
(IOM) of the National Academy of Sciences to conduct a review of the
scientific evidence to assess the potential health benefits and risks of
marijuana and its constituent cannabinoids.

The review, which began in August 1997, culminated in a report called,
"Marijuana and Medicine: Assessing the Science Base," issued in 1999. The
report concluded that scientific data indicate the potential therapeutic
value of cannabinoid drugs for pain relief, control of nausea and vomiting,
and appetite stimulation. The researchers recommended that research continue
into the physiological effects of synthetic and plant-derived cannabinoids.
They also said that the psychological effects of cannabinoids, such as
anxiety reduction and sedation, which can influence medical benefits, should
be evaluated in clinical trials. But the researchers were concerned with the
respiratory health effects of marijuana smoke and with the possible
dependence on the psychoactive effects of THC.

Though the report recommended clinical trials of marijuana use for medical
purposes, the stated purpose of the trials "would not be to develop
marijuana as a licensed drug but rather to serve as a first step toward the
development of a nonsmoked rapid-onset cannabinoid delivery systems."

After the release of the IOM report, the federal government released new
guidelines, effective December 1, 1999, for the provision of marijuana for
medical research.

Walter Wouk is the former president of the Capital Region chapter of NORML,
the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, and is now
director of the Thomas Paine Project in Cobleskill, which lobbies against
the "collateral [damage] caused by the war on marijuana. According to Wouk,
"The government says we need more research on medical marijuana, but they
put every roadblock in the way of research."

While medical experts and bureaucrats continue to debate the pros and cons
of medical marijuana, Woodstock’s Richard Star Mountain has high hopes for
the New York Association for the Legalization of Medical Marijuana.

"I’d like to start a non-profit corporation, with the purpose of legalizing
medical marijuana," said Star Mountain.

He also wants to make the Dharma Bums song, "Sacred Herb," a rallying cry
for the movement.

Woodstock resident Antonie Hinx said she’s performing because she believes
in the cause. "I feel the public should become aware of the good things
about marijuana, instead of the bad ideas about drugs," she said. "My whole
background is about making people come together. I feel good about the
opportunity to do that."

The concert, which begins at 8 p.m., has no admission, but Star Mountain
would like donations of food. "Bring munchies. This is a marijuana show," he
said.