BILL MAKING IT EASIER TO PRESCRIBE PILL GOES TO GOVERNOR

(03-16) 19:24 PST SACRAMENTO (AP) -- Legislation making it easier for
doctors to prescribe synthetic marijuana in pill form has won
legislative approval, but a spokesman for a patients' rights group
says that won't resolve the debate over medical marijuana.

The bill, by Sen. Patrick Johnston, D-Stockton, moves the drug
dronabinol to a less-restricted level of government control. Federal
agencies have initially approved the same step.

For example, physicians who prescribe the drug to control nausea and
vomiting would no longer have to write the prescription in triplicate
and submit a copy to the Justice Department.

But Dave Fratello, a spokesman for Americans for Medical Rights, said
dronabinol, which is sold under the trade name Marinol, won't satisfy
the needs of all patients who need marijuana.

``For many patients it's too powerful,'' he said. ``And the delayed
onset of effects makes it inferior to marijuana, which has instant
effects.

``That doesn't mean that it's useless. It's just that for many
patients who have no good alternative Marinol does not work and
marijuana does.''

Proposition 215, which was passed by California voters in 1996,
legalized cultivation of marijuana for medical use in California. But
federal law still bans marijuana possession.

Johnston's bill was given final approval by the Legislature on
Thursday when the Senate adopted Assembly amendments, 28-0.