GALBRAITH ASKS JUDGES OK POT AS 'NATURAL REMEDY'

Prosecutors in five counties want to put Gatewood Galbraith's
marijuana-smoking clients on trial.

So, in his inimitably colorful and passionate way, Galbraith plans to seize
the initiative and put Kentucky's marijuana laws on trial instead.

Galbraith -- a Lexington lawyer, occasional gubernatorial candidate and
self-proclaimed lover of the weed -- has filed a flurry of motions in the
criminal cases in Allen, Butler, Clark, Rowan and Trimble counties. He's
asking the judges to recognize marijuana as a medicine and "the safest
therapeutic substance known to man."

Each of Galbraith's clients claims to have cultivated and used marijuana
for personal medical use, not for sale to the public. It's illogical to
deny people access to a plant that grows naturally in the ground if it can
improve their conditions, Galbraith said this week.

"If Jack Kevorkian can walk around and dispense his particular brand of
medical cure, I don't see why my clients can't use this God-given,
all-natural remedy," said Galbraith.

The challenge to the state's marijuana laws comes one year after California
and Arizona voters opted to permit the medical use of marijuana in those
states.

Marijuana is widely recognized to assist people suffering from chronic
pain; ease the suffering of AIDS victims and cancer patients who are
undergoing chemotherapy; and sometimes nullify the symptoms of ailments
such as glaucoma, arthritis and migraine headaches.

But area lawmakers on the state Senate Judiciary Committee said the
Bluegrass State is a far cry from California, and citizens here are not
prepared for legalized marijuana.

Cultivation of four or fewer marijuana plants is a misdemeanor in Kentucky
and can bring up to a year in jail; cultivation of five or more plants is a
felony.

"I do not want to legalize controlled substances. I would not be inclined
to do so," said state Sen. Ernesto Scorsone, D-Lexington.

Added state Sen. Tim Philpot, R-Lexington: "I don't think the people of
Kentucky are ready to follow Gatewood anywhere."

However, Galbraith's crusade to change the law may not be all that
far-fetched. Just last summer, in a case prompted by actor Woody Harrelson,
Lee Circuit Judge William Trude ruled that part of a state law lumping
industrial hemp with marijuana is unconstitutional.

That decision is pending before the Kentucky Court of Appeals.

The next logical step, Galbraith's clients argue, is to realize that
marijuana itself isn't the evil substance its critics claim.

Randell Carter, 39, is a self-employed handyman in Allen County. He
suffered for years from stress and extreme nervousness, to the point that
his hands shook uncontrollably when he tried to work.

Since he started smoking marijuana in 1994, Carter said he's found relief
that drugs like Valium couldn't deliver.

"I'm not so stressed out anymore," Carter said. "The nervousness wears off
for about three or four hours after I smoke -- longer than the actual high
lasts."

The prosecutors said they're skeptical about some claims to medical use of
marijuana. If the need truly was legitimate, though, authorities might show
some tolerance, said Rowan Commonwealth's Attorney George Moore.

"I'm not interested in cookie-cutter justice," Moore said.

"If I had some guy who was 45 years old and into the last stages of cancer
with three months to live, and he was using it to offset the chemotherapy,
would I prosecute? I don't know," he said.

But allowing broad marijuana use is likely to lead to an increase in
addiction to more serious drugs, said Butler Commonwealth's Attorney Greg
Seelig.

"It's a gradual progression," Seelig said. "That's why legalization is a
bad idea. I've seen what drugs do to our society. Probably one-third of my
cases are drug-related, and another third of the cases are burglaries and
thefts related to people who need money for drugs."

) Copyright 1998 Lexington Herald-Leader.