LAW DOESN'T OFFER LEGAL WAY TO BUY POT

Ralph Holt Jr. would rather not buy his pot from a drug dealer's place
where he sometimes sees children nearby. And he worries about how his
family would feel if he got caught during a police raid.

A new law that passed overwhelmingly in last November's referendum
made it legal for him to smoke marijuana to keep glaucoma's blindness
at bay, but it didn't suggest a legal way to buy the drug.

"There's times now when I have to buy it on the street," said Holt,
who lives in Cornville, a small town outside of Skowhegan. "Sometimes
places I go, there's people I wouldn't ever associate with."

It would be a relief to him if a bill approved for discussion by a
legislative committee last week passes and allows a
government-approved source.

The medical marijuana law has also prompted legislation and
discussions among state law enforcement officials.

"It starts a new era in Maine," said Attorney General Andrew
Ketterer.

He has begun talking with people about creating a committee to develop
a state approach to implementing the new law: Should there be an
official form for doctors to sign? Should there be a distribution system?

Holt is grateful that the law lets him grow six plants and possess 1*
ounces of the herb because he feels better around his 13-year-old daughter.

She's gotten mad at him for using marijuana because police at school
told her it was wrong.

He spends about $200 a month on the drug that he smokes when he wakes
up, and then later chews before a drink of juice.

This keeps enough in his system to relieve the pressure on his eyes
from glaucoma.

And it works better than the prescription drops that blinded him for
24 hours after he tried them.

Time For Action

Holt isn't alone in his dilemma. Cumberland County Sheriff and
Lewiston native Mark Dion said police need to see state-approved
reasons for not arresting people who are protected by the new law.

He was an outspoken advocate of the referendum because he thought it
was a compassionate response to people in need.

He has since talked with Ketterer about serving on a policy committee
along with others, including a representative of the lobbying group
Mainers for Medical Rights.

"The government has to have some conversation around the safety of the
material," Dion said. "We may have to regulate marijuana on some level
so people don't have to go into that black market bazaar."

His support makes Maine unique because law enforcement officials were
uniformly opposed to medical marijuana laws after they were passed in
other states, said Gina Pesulima, communications director for
Americans for Medical Rights, the California-based group that
sponsored the Maine organization.

"Maine is farther along than most states," said Pesulima.

The laws are in effect in Alaska, Washington, Oregon and California,
which is the only other state that has tried to develop a distribution
system.

Proposed legislation developed by the California attorney general's
task force was tabled as members could not agree on a plan that would
have set up county-run centers to grow and give marijuana to patients,
said Pesulima.

Since 1996 a system of private clubs has been providing the drug, she
said.

Dion said it's also important for Maine to develop a response to the
law so that people won't be afraid to use it.

"Almost to a person the criminal justice system in the state said 'no'
to this initiative," he said.

Opponents didn't want to permit some people to use a drug that federal
law still forbade, and they feared it could lead to the drug's
legalization.

Ketterer didn't want it to pass, but he also said his office does not
prosecute people using marijuana for medical reasons.

"I wouldn't want to waste the resources of a trial," he
said.

The federal prosecutor in Maine, who was also against the law, has a
similar response.

Even though federal law still says it is illegal to use, possess,
distribute or grow marijuana, U.S. Attorney Jay McCloskey will
continue to target large growers.

He would rather see marijuana available by prescription, just as other
dangerous drugs are, such as cocaine.

"I don't see much difference," he said.

Medical Response

While it's illegal to prescribe marijuana, doctors break no law by
suggesting that pot could benefit patients, McCloskey said.

"I think a doctor can say anything he wants and that's not a violation
of federal or state law," he said.

Oncologist and hematologist Owen Pickus of Portland treats AIDS
patients in central and southern Maine and said he would write a note
for someone who met the new law's criteria of symptoms.

They are:

* Persistent nausea, vomiting, wasting syndrome or loss of appetite as
a result of AIDS, or chemotherapy or radiation therapy used to treat
cancer.

* Glaucoma eye pressure.

* Seizures associated with a chronic, debilitating disease, such as
epilepsy.

* Muscle spasms associated with diseases, such as multiple
sclerosis.

Already Pickus has turned away three patients with HIV: They thought
the drug would make them feel better, but they did not have nausea or
other symptoms described in the law.

"I think the perception is if you don't feel good, you should be
entitled to smoke dope," said Pickus, who also wants patients to have
a safe, legal source for the drug instead of the current system.

How To Get It

Sen. Anne Rand, a Portland Democrat, has sponsored the yet-to-be
written bill that would arrange an approved distribution system.

Perhaps the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency could be a supplier, she
said, giving patients confiscated plants.

"I would expect they would not be excited about playing any role in
this at all," she said.

The details have yet to be worked out, and would be part of the
discussion once the bill is assigned to a committee, she said.

"The people of Maine have certainly spoken loudly and clearly," Rand
said. "I'd like to go one step further and try and provide a way so
that people can access this drug legally."

Portland neurologist Peter Richen plans to testify in favor of such a
system before legislators.

"I'm all for the referendum, but it's a hollow law without a viable
mechanism for distribution," he said. "It's just a piece of paper."

He has prepared pre-printed forms for his multiple sclerosis and
epilepsy patients who want notes.

But so far, no one has asked him for his official permission to use
marijuana.

"A lot of people are on it already," he said. "There's a variety
called West Buxton Gold that keeps people pretty happy."

For now, the group that lobbied for the law suggests that people ask
around and find someone they trust.

Perhaps a grandmother could turn to a grandson who has some, said
Elizabeth Beane, a licensed social worker and spokeswoman for Mainers
for Medical Rights.

"Sometimes the black market isn't all that dangerous," she said. "A
lot is grown in Maine. A lot of your friends and neighbors are
probably growing it at home and we don't even know it."

Robin Lambert has HIV and has asked his doctor for a note to approve
the pot he has been smoking for the past several years to keep himself
from vomiting the 25 pills he swallows every day.

"I don't want to think of myself as a lawbreaker," said Lambert. He
lives in Portland and had been afraid to grow his own pot for fear
someone would see the plants and report him to the police.

Now that the law allows him to grow six plants, he has studied
cultivation by reading magazines he found at Joe's Smoke Shop. He
plans to buy some seeds and start the plants in his house.

So far, he has been supplied by a marijuana dealer who he pays about
$200 for a month's worth of the drug - less than one ounce.

"In the beginning it bothered me, but after that it didn't," Lambert
said.