MAINE FOLLOWS CONNECTICUTS LEAD ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA

A law allowing doctors to prescribe marijuana for medical purposes has been
on the books in Connecticut for 18 years and it has never been used.

This week voters in Maine passed a similar referendum, and doctors say
though different from Connecticut's law, it may also go unused. In
Connecticut, doctors not only have no way to legally obtain marijuana but
they also face the loss of their licenses to prescribe narcotics as a
result of their possession and distribution of marijuana, which remain
federal crimes.

In addition, says Dr. Peter D. Byeff, an oncologist who heads the George
Bray Cancer Center at New Britain General Hospital, medications have been
developed and approved in recent years that prevent nausea and stimulate
the appetite without psychological and legal risks of marijuana.

While marijuana typically produces euphoria in younger users, it can have
the opposite effect, creating reactions such as anxiety and sadness, in
older patients, he said.

Connecticut's law permitting physicians to dispense marijuana to patients
requires that the doctors first obtain a license from the state Department
of Consumer Protection's drug control and enforcement unit. Byeff, who has
been an oncologist for 18 years, said he hasn't had a patient request
marijuana in ''many, many years.''

''I don't know where you would get it in Connecticut, either,'' Byeff told
The Hartford Courant. ''If there's no mechanism for dispensing it, that
doesn't help many of my patients. They're not going to go out and grow it
in their backyards.''

In Maine, the first Eastern state to approve the medicinal use of marijuana
by referendum, patients can do just that.

Legislation already set up to take effect with the proposal's passage,
permits a patient with AIDS, glaucoma, cancer, neurological seizures or
severe muscle spasms to possess up to 1.2 ounces of marijuana for personal
use and to cultivate up to six marijuana plants (but only three mature
plants at a given time).

But patients must first obtain written permission from their doctors,
something that could jeopardize a doctor's federal license to prescribe
narcotics.

Another issue is whether Maine's ballot results and state law can insulate
its citizens from prosecution on federal drug charges.