MARIJUANA HEARING PITS TALK SHOW HOST, DRUG OFFICIALS

A tearful TV talk show host and a federal deputy drug czar squared off
Thursday over a proposal to legalize marijuana for medical uses. The
bill, the New Jersey Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act, would
allow patients suffering from cancer or some other chronic medical
condition to use marijuana to ease pain, nausea, seizures and severe,
persistent muscle spasms and other debilitating symptoms.

Friends and foes of a proposal packed the state Senate Health
Committee on Thursday. Here are both sides of the debate.

PRO: Easing the Pain

Choking back sobs several times, Montel Williams told the
standing-room-only crowd that he has not missed a day hosting his
daytime television program in the past seven years, despite smoking
and eating marijuana daily to ease pain in his feet caused by multiple
sclerosis.

"It doesn't get me high at all," Williams said. "All it does is allow
my feet to stop from hurting.

"What angers me so much now is people consider me a dope head, and all
I want to do is get up and go to work," Williams told the hearing.

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Nicholas P. Scutari, D-Union, is similar
to legislation passed in 11 other states. It would allow patients who
have a debilitating disease or chronic medical condition such as
cancer, multiple sclerosis, HIV/AIDS or glaucoma to use marijuana to
alleviate symptoms.

If passed, the law would also shield primary caregivers, and doctors
who prescribe the drug, from prosecution in New Jersey. Qualified
patients would be issued an identification card from the state Health
Department and be allowed to possess up to six marijuana plants and
one ounce of usable marijuana.

Assemblyman Reed Gusciora, D-Mercer, is sponsoring an identical bill.
Similar bills by the two legislators did not reach a vote in 2004.

Supporters stress that marijuana does not have to be smoked to be
effective, but can be taken in pills and liquid, or mixed in food.

Looking trim in a business suit, with his trademark shaved head and
left earring, Williams said he has spoken to more than 3 million
schoolchildren about staying drug-free.

Canada and Great Britain have approved medical marijuana in various
forms, such as sprays, for different conditions, Williams said.
Although the federal Food and Drug Administration has not approved the
drug for medical use, studies in the past 60 years have shown it to be
safe and effective, Williams said.

"For us to argue efficacy is ridiculous," he said.

Scutari said his measure will provide doctors with another option for
pain management. "This bill is not an attempt to back-door marijuana
for recreational use," he said.

A poll commissioned by the advocacy group Drug Policy Alliance New
Jersey found 86 percent of voters queried in New Jersey believe
seriously ill patients should have access to medical marijuana if a
doctor recommends it. Eleven percent disagree.

The same telephone poll, conducted last month, found that 59 percent
believe that marijuana has "medical benefits"; 17 percent dismissed
its therapeutic properties.

Fifty-nine percent of those polled said they would defy current law to
obtain marijuana for a loved one suffering from a condition that could
be eased by the drug.

Don McGrath, whose 26-year-old son Sean died of cancer two years ago,
told the panel that when all other drugs failed to ease his son's
nausea from chemotherapy, an oncologist recommended marijuana "off the
record."

"As a parent and a caregiver for Sean, I didn't need several years of
clinical studies or an FDA approval to determine that marijuana was
effective," his father said.

CON: Risky, Unproven

Marijuana has not been proved safe and effective for medicinal uses
and could lead to drug abuse, Scott Burns, deputy drug czar in the
Office of National Drug Control Policy, testified.

The FDA advises that "marijuana is not medicine, and has demonstrated
health risks," Burns said. The federal Food and Drug Administration
does not endorse its use as a pain reliever, though it has approved
use of a prescription drug made with an active ingredient found in
marijuana.

"There is no compelling evidence that marijuana relieves symptoms" of
these diseases, for which other treatments are available, Burns said.

A White House drug enforcement official on Thursday also dismissed
efforts to pass a medical marijuana law in New Jersey, saying
"anecdotal evidence should not drive our nation's approval process for
prescription drugs."

Dr. Bertha Madras, deputy director for demand reduction in the White
House drug policy office, described marijuana as potentially addictive
and capable of causing harmful health effects.

Burns agreed.

"Marijuana is the most widely used illegal substance," he
said.

"In states where it is normalized and called medicine, the perception
of its danger is grossly reduced among young people."

The number of teenagers driving while on drugs is increasing, Burns
said.

The government worries that legalizing marijuana would lead to more
illegal drug use.

David G. Evans of the Drug-Free School Coalition of Flemington said
his opposition to the bill "is really a consumer protection issue.

"We don't allow any other home-grown drug to be used. Plus, the
science just doesn't back it up," he said.

The coalition cites a 2005 Rutgers University poll that said public
support for medical marijuana dropped from 82 percent in 2002 to 72
percent last year.

State Sen. Robert W. Singer, R-Ocean, a committee member, said he was
concerned that the bill allowed marijuana use for end-of-life
illnesses such as cancer and AIDS, but also for less threatening
diseases such glaucoma, which his 8-year-old daughter has.

"There has to be penalties to regulate it," Singer
said.

Earlier this week, Singer, the ranking Republican on the health
committee, said there were many questions to be answered.

"The bill says you can't operate heavy machinery, but it doesn't say
it's not allowed at work," Singer said.

The person you designate to pick it up has to be 18 years old, but you
can't be 18 and buy a drink," he said.

"Is this something you can do strictly in the privacy of home, or at
the beach or an entertainment event, like a concert or ballgame?"