MEDICAL MARIJUANA BILL REVIVED

Gov. Gary Johnson Ordered The Legislation Be Drafted. It Would Provide
$150,000 To Restart The Program That Lawmakers Stopped Appropriating In 1986.

SANTA FE -- State Health Secretary Alex Valdez has drafted a measure to
revive a New Mexico law that allows marijuana to be used for medical
purposes, such as relieving the nausea associated with chemotherapy.

"We need to move forward on this deal," Valdez said Tuesday.

Valdez drafted the measure on orders of Gov. Gary Johnson, and said the
legislation, which would appropriate $150,000 for the program, had been
submitted to Johnson's office.

New Mexico lawmakers in 1978 passed the Lynn Pierson Act, named for a
26-year-old cancer patient. The law allows marijuana to be used to relieve
nausea associated with chemotherapy and to ease eye pressure from glaucoma
in connection with a research project.

It also allows a review board appointed by the Health Department secretary
to approve other legitimate medical uses. The board, made up of a
psychiatrist, ophthalmologist and oncologist, must approve all applicants
and their physicians.

More than 250 people used marijuana under the law until 1986, when
lawmakers stopped appropriating the $50,000 needed annually to run the
program.

Valdez began studying the law last summer after threats of a class action
lawsuit by its supporters.

"It says the administrator -- that's me -- shall appoint a patient
qualification review board," Valdez said. "It says the administrator shall
obtain marijuana. There's no discretion in here in terms of what I must do,
and the fact of the matter is we're mandated to have this program in place."

Critics contend medical marijuana is a smokescreen for legalization.

"I don't want any back-door approach trying to legalize this stuff, and I
will fight it as far as I can," said House Minority Leader Ted Hobbs, an
Albuquerque Republican. "If this is a campaign to figure out a way to slide
in the closet with this thing, I don't like it at all. I'd rather have it
straight out -- and straight out it's going to lose."

Rep. Max Coll, a Santa Fe Democrat and the vice chairman of the Legislative
Finance Committee, said he wanted to see the legislation before commenting
on the issue.

"I'd probably vote to fund it if it's just a straight vote to fund," said
Coll. "We passed that (Pierson Act) . . . to help people who are badly in
need of that kind of help. I think in those kinds of cases it's OK."

Last Monday, attorney Charlie Knoblauch sued Valdez for nonfeasance and
asked the state Supreme Court to force the secretary to provide marijuana
for his client, electronics technician Tony Cognetto of Albuquerque, who
has non-Hodgkins lymphoma. No hearing has been set.

"Last January, Tony went through an initial round of chemo and radiation,
and they thought they had it," Knoblauch said. "But about three weeks ago
it was discovered again, and he's going through intensive chemotherapy
right now. And he needs the stuff to control his nausea and vomiting."

Two other men, University of New Mexico nurse Bryan Krumm and Ed
McWilliams, have threatened a lawsuit to reactivate the program. Krumm has
said he wants marijuana to ease knee pain from an accident and for
depression. McWilliams hopes to get it to treat his migraines.

Valdez said last month funding a marijuana therapeutic research program
would not be a priority in his budget request. But Johnson's legislative
liaison, Dave Miller, said the governor -- who has pushed to legalize drugs
such as marijuana and heroin -- told Valdez to get a medical marijuana
program going.