MEDICAL MARIJUANA BILL OPPONENTS WARN AGAINST LEGALIZATION

HARTFORD -- Legalizing medical use of marijuana is a "smokescreen" for
backdoor efforts to legalize pot for everyday use, claim opponents of
a state House bill to allow marijuana for medical purposes.

"It is the wrong direction and the wrong message, and I will work
very, very vigorously to oppose this on the floor of the House, said
Republican state Rep. Antonietta "Toni" Boucher, who represents Wilton
and eastern Norwalk.

Lower Fairfield County opponents of legalization spearheaded a state
Capitol news conference yesterday decrying Monday's passage by the
Judiciary Committee of a bill that would allow doctors to certify
certain patients to use marijuana.

Speakers included a Norwalk High School student, a Norwalk couple who
lost their son to a drug overdose, state representatives from Norwalk,
Greenwich and Durham, and representatives of organizations opposed to
the bill.

The bill, approved 24-25 in committee, would allow doctors to give a
patient a certificate saying he or she needs marijuana for medical
reasons. Patients or their caregivers would be permitted to grow up to
five plants to use for medical purposes only, to be used in a private
setting.

Proponents have said the drug can relieve pain, relieve nausea from
chemotherapy, treat glaucoma, slow some of the wasting associated with
AIDS and help patients with multiple sclerosis.

The bill's sponsor, state Rep. James Abrams, D-Meriden, said the
measure is not meant to legalize marijuana for recreational use. Its
purpose is to keep sick people and their doctors out of jail, he said.

Connecticut passed a bill allowing medical marijuana use in 1981. But
because marijuana possession and distribution is against federal law,
no prescriptions have been issued in Connecticut. Doctors fear they
will be brought up on charges, Abrams said.

When a similar measure was defeated in the House after 21 hours of
floor debate last year, the House fell silent as state Rep. Penny
Bacchiochi, R-Somers, related the story of her late husband's battle
with terminal bone cancer. An operation to remove a tumor left him a
paraplegic. Chemotherapy made him nauseated. A doctor recommended
marijuana for relief.

"It worked wonders. And it gave him back a quality of life,"
Bacchiochi said.

But yesterday, opponents said passing the bill would be the first step
on a slippery slope leading to the legalization of marijuana and a
mixed message to young people about drug use.

"While the majority of abuse consists of alcohol and tobacco,
marijuana still plays a dangerous role," said Maxwell Barrand, 15, a
sophomore at Norwalk High School. "On a daily basis, I see fellow
students with drugs or paraphernalia, even boasting to one another,
even in the middle of class, about their new pipe. All this goes on in
the classroom despite the fact that marijuana is illegal."

Maxwell said if the bill is passed, "marijuana will become justified
in their minds, and all hesitation to use it will end."

Ginger and Larry Katz of Norwalk, co-founders of the anti-drug
organization The Courage to Speak, said their son, Ian, who died of a
heroin overdose in 1996, began his drug use "with a little pot -- a
sip of beer and a little weed." Passing the bill would suggest to
young people that marijuana use is OK, leading to use of stronger
drugs, they said.

State Rep. Claudia "Dolly" Powers, R-Greenwich, said proponents of
legalization have not seriously looked at alternatives such as
Marinol, a drug that contains the active ingredients of marijuana in a
medically approved pill form.

"We don't need to do this," Powers said. "There are other ways to
handle this, and I will continue to vote in the negative."

State Rep. Robert Duff, D-Norwalk, and Westport Republican state Sen.
Judith Freedman, who represents eastern New Canaan, Wilton and other
Fairfield County towns, could not attend the news conference but
voiced their opposition to the bill.

"I think there are some very bad things in the bill," Freedman said in
a telephone interview. "It lets them grow their own marijuana. I think
that's a very bad message to send to students right now."

Duff said in an interview, "Nobody ever starts by being a heroin
addict, everyone always starts at marijuana. What message do we send
to young people about (illegal) drugs? If you do it for medical
purposes it's OK?"

Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, Oregon and
Washington have laws protecting patients who use medical marijuana on
the recommendation of their doctor, according to A Better Way
Foundation, a New Haven-based group that is lobbying in favor of the
bill.

State Rep. Lawrence Cafero Jr., R-Norwalk, said the proposal has
practical problems, regardless of one's belief about whether marijuana
is effective in relieving symptoms other drugs cannot.

"It is against state and federal law to get that first seed," Cafero
said, referring to the bill's language that says the source of the
marijuana would be home cultivation. "So we are saying, in order to
avail yourself of this law, you have to break the law."

The bill is on the House calendar and is likely to be referred to the
Public Health Committee.