MORMON DOCTOR LEADS FIGHT FOR POT PRESCRIPTIONS

AIDS victim's search for marijuana inspired physician to file initiative

Tacoma
Dr. Rob Killian hardly seemed the sort of person who would file an
initiative to let doctors prescribe marijuana for relief of nausea and
other pain.
Reared in a conservative Mormon family in Issaquah, he didn't smoke or
drink alcohol as a youngster. Only after a Mormon friend with AIDS told
him of his desperate search for pot did Killian make his political move.
In March, he filed Initiative 685, the Drug Medicalization and
Prevention Act, which would allow a doctor to prescribe marijuana and
other illegal drugs to a seriously ill patient if a second doctor agreed
that the prescription was appropriate.
The measure is similar to one passed by voters in Arizona last November.
"My experience has taught me that we need to see with bigger eyes and
get away from the moral good and bad," Killian said. "It's time to act."
He and other supporters have until July 3 to gather the valid signatures
of at least 179,248 registered voters to put the measure on the ballot
in November. So far, Killian said, about 50,000 people have signed.
A leading opponent, Lt. Gov. Brad Owen, said the initiative goes far
beyond pot.
"You could just as well say it's the medicinaluseofheroin
initiative," Owen said. "It's pretty obvious that the purpose of this
is to legalize the use of drugs."
Killian, 36, said most drugs covered by the initiative never would be
prescribed because they don't have any medical benefit, but they are
included because political pressure would make it difficult for a doctor
to get an illegal drug approved for every experimental or compassionate use.
"If a doctor's giving out drugs unscrupulously, he's a drug dealer and
he'll lose his license and go to jail," he added.
The Washington State Medical Association is expected to consider the
issue at it's annual meeting in September.
Killian, a graduate of the University of Utah medical school, said he
has tried marijuana twice out of curiosity.
He said he began realizing the complexity of drug issues soon after
graduation when he went home to work with the homeless, many of them
drug addicts, in Washington, D.C.
He later worked at two hospices for terminal patients in Rochester,
N.Y., where a colleague told him how marijuana relieves nausea and
enhances appetite in AIDS patients and people undergoing chemotherapy
for cancer.
Last summer Killian went to work as a family doctor for Community Health
Care, which operates clinics for lowincome people in Pierce County.
In opinion pieces for the News Tribune of Tacoma and several other
newspapers, Killian criticized federal officials for threatening to
withdraw the prescription issuing authority of doctors who recommend
marijuana. He said he would continue to recommend pot when he felt it
was medically advisable.
One of the calls of support he received was from a Mormon friend in Utah
who wanted marijuana to help stop weight loss from treatment for AIDS.
The friend had tried and AIDS foundation, then cruised rough
neighborhoods in Salt Lake City without finding a source of supply.
Finally, his brother provided a pipe, a bag of pot and a telephone
number for refills.
Killian said that experience prompted him to file Initiative 685 so
lawabiding sick people no longer would be forced to risk arrest to buy
marijuana that might be tainted.