SENATE CONSIDERS MARIJUANA PROPOSAL

Minnesota citizens and legislators who want to give doctors the authority
to recommend marijuana for their patients are counting on the growing
support among cancer patients and the popularity of Gov. Jesse Ventura to
push their bill through the Legislature.

The measure will receive its first hearing Tuesday morning in a Senate
committee, and a move to tighten the bill's language appears likely.

``The governor supports helping people deal with pain,'' said Public Safety
Commissioner Charlie Weaver, who said he has discussed his concerns over
wording with Rep. Karen Clark, DFL-Minneapolis, who is sponsoring the bill
in the House of Representatives.

``I lost both my mother and my father to cancer, so I sympathize,'' Weaver
said. However, he noted, ``The definition on symptoms is too broad. We
don't want to make it so drug dealers can say they are using it because
they have a bad back or that they are growing it for Mom, who is ill.''

Ventura's spokesman, John Wodele, said the governor supports the concept
but would not commit to signing it until he sees what the final bill says.

The debate is not new. In the past five years, seven states have passed
laws allowing doctors to prescribe marijuana to people who are suffering
from terminal illnesses or chronic conditions that seem to respond to
cannabis and its active ingredient, tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC.

Opponents, such as Tom Prichard, president of the Minnesota Family Council,
and Jeanette McDougal, co-chairwoman of Minnesota Drugwatch, argue that
smoking marijuana is harmful and legalizing it, even under a doctor's
supervision, sends the wrong message to children.

But McDougal conceded she will have a tougher battle this time than in
1995, when a similar bill was defeated. Ventura's support is the reason.

McDougal also is aware that she will be fighting sentimentality. She
slipped into a weepy impression of an interview in which a woman tells
about the pain suffered by her husband and how just before he died she gave
him a marijuana joint.

``People resonate to that,'' McDougal said. ``Nobody wants to see people
die in pain.''

Sen. Pat Piper, an Austin DFLer and the chief sponsor of the proposal in
the Senate, acknowledged that is one of the supporters' tactics. She
suffered from breast cancer about 12 years ago and was so ill from
chemotherapy that she had to be hospitalized.

Vivian Klauber, who has been pushing the bill and lining up people to
testify after watching her aunt die a painful death from breast cancer in
June, said those who support the bill know the anecdotal evidence for
marijuana.

``If I was testifying, I would say, `How many of you suffer from -- or
someone close to you suffers from -- cancer?' '' Klauber said.

The bill, as it is currently drafted, would allow a doctor to recommend
marijuana for patients suffering from glaucoma, appetite loss, severe
nausea, spastic conditions, severe pain, seizures and migraines. Those
symptoms could occur from cancer, HIV/AIDS, Crohn's disease, cerebral palsy
or multiple sclerosis.

A patient could not have more than 8 ounces of the drug at any one time or
four mature and three immature growing marijuana plants. The bill would
protect the patient, the doctor and the patient's primary caregiver from
criminal prosecution for recommending or helping the patient obtain the
drug for medical reasons.

Lori, a 27-year-old southern Minnesota woman who asked that her last name
not be used for fear of prosecution, wants the law passed. She suffers from
Type II spinal muscular atrophy, a condition that has forced her to use a
wheelchair since she was 3. Although she can feed herself and operate her
electric wheelchair, she cannot reposition herself in the chair, and
sitting in the same position for a very long time causes intense pain. Lori
also has battled depression since she was a teen.

About four years ago, she was at a party where some friends gave her a
joint. She found smoking it relieved some of the pain, so she could focus
on other people and what they were saying. It also seemed to lighten her
mood, she said. Lori said she carefully monitored her reaction because she
was fearful that it might harm her. Instead, after a couple of months, she
noticed her skin didn't hurt as much, she slept better, and her mood was so
much better that she wants to start looking for a job.

Prichard and McDougal, however, said that smoking marijuana is as harmful
as smoking cigarettes. They say there are other medicines, including some
that are made from the active ingredient in marijuana, that can be
prescribed instead.

Marijuana contains tar, ammonia, carbon monoxide and other substances that
have gotten the tobacco industry in trouble, McDougal said.