WITNESSES OPPOSE BILL THAT WOULD BAN DRUGS DERIVED FROM MARIJUANA

Associated Press

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - Doctors should not be barred from prescribing drugs
derived from marijuana to help cancer and AIDS sufferers cope with nausea,
witnesses told a House committee.

Dr. James Pilliod, New Hampshire Medical Society president and a Republican
lawmaker from Belmont, told a House committee many beneficial medicines are
derived from illegal substances like cocaine and marijuana.

Pilliod urged lawmakers not to take away doctors' power to help patients
who might not get relief from other drugs.

The bill would repeal a law that allows doctors to use the drugs to help
people undergoing chemotherapy or radiation treatment. Pilliod said the law
doesn't allow doctors to prescribe marijuana for people to smoke.

``This happens to be an apparent vendetta against marijuana,'' he said Monday.

Rep. Robert Boyce, R-Alton, the sponsor, did not attend the hearing and no
one testified for the bill.

Rep. Alice Calvert, R-Alton, read a letter from her husband about the
suffering his former wife endured before she died. A drug derived from
marijuana provided her the greatest relief, until her body grew used to it.

``If it can help someone, the physicians should have it available,'' Mrs.
Calvert said.

Rep. Carol Moore, D-Concord, said her doctor prescribed one of the
marijuana derivatives eight years ago when she was undergoing chemotherapy
for cancer.

``It allowed me to continue working,'' she said.

Claire Ebel, executive director of the New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union,
suggested amending the bill to cover AIDS sufferers who lose weight, in
part because their appetites are affected by the disease.

``They are getting the drugs now, but technically it's in violation of the
law,'' she said. The law restricts use to cancer patients receiving
chemotherapy or radiation. Ebel said people with AIDS who have the
``wasting syndrome'' also benefit.

) Copyright 1998 Globe Newspaper Company