SPRINGFIELD LEGISLATORS WEIGHING DOPE PROPOSAL

Diagnosed with cancer at 16, Scott Poplawski turned to marijuana at
the urging of his siblings to fight effects of chemotherapy that were
ravaging his young body.

He weighed just 86 pounds after eight months of treatment, down from 220.

Marijuana fought off nausea, stomach pain and diarrhea, he said, and
it's worked ever since.

He has since lost his bladder and other effects of the chemo linger,
but Poplawski is able to maintain a 190-pound frame today.

That's the reason Poplawski, fellow cancer victims and chronic pain
sufferers have been lobbying lawmakers on a measure to allow them
their medical marijuana.

"Every nerve in my body is waking up, and I am in more pain than I
ever was," said fellow advocate Lucie Macfarlane, seated in her
Joliet home. "I wake up to pain; I go to bed with pain."

Nothing Else Works Anymore

It's been one week since Macfarlane quit taking methadone, just the
latest in a long line of prescribed narcotic drugs she has taken the
past 12 years for neurofibromatosis, a tumor-causing disease that
attacked her spine, leading to surgeries and fusing of vertebrae, and
two tumors in her brain.

Macfarlane, a 46-year-old mother of two, prefers to ingest marijuana
but currently smokes it to ease her pain.

She's had it with prescription drugs - the Oxycontin, Fentanyl
patches, Valium and others.

Her husband, James, often thought she was dead in her sleep because
the drugs made Macfarlane ice cold. She said she suffered more than a
decade of numbness, weight gain and depression.

"When you come off it, you realize, 'My God, what have I been doing
all these years?' " she said. "Those are 12 wasted years of my life."

The way she sees it, marijuana is her only hope.

The drug allows her to be herself again while battling a disease that
won't allow her to see old age.

"I'm not planning to live to be a very old lady," she said. "I would
at least like to live the rest of my life not in pain."

This isn't the first time medical marijuana has come across lawmakers' desks.--

Two years ago, it fell short of passage with 22 votes in the state Senate.--

That its sponsor then is now the state Senate president - John
Cullerton, a Chicago Democrat - gives advocates hope that the measure
will get farther than ever before.

A national advocacy group, the Marijuana Policy Project, has also
campaigned heavily here for its passage, mirroring efforts across the country.

Bills Too Loosely Written

But these proponents are facing down heavy opposition, among it the
weighted voice of Illinois law enforcement.

"If you start saying that marijuana is medicine, then pretty soon the
kids will start thinking, 'This is good stuff; there's nothing wrong
with it; we can take it like Aspirin," said Laimutis Nargelenas,
deputy director for the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police.

Legislation is "so poorly written that we believe they were written
by a drug dealer," he said. "It's written so loosely."

Bill sponsors are reacting by tightening provisions in the
legislation that regulate who is eligible, including people with
cancer, glaucoma, hepatitis C, Crohn's disease and others. Also the
bill's drafters are elaborating on how patients would be allowed to
obtain the plant, who may write prescriptions for marijuana, and what
process state Department of Public Health would use to register
users. And finally, they're clarifying that the new law would not
conflict with Illinois driving under the influence laws.

The state Senate bill, which has companion legislation in the state
House, would allow those with debilitating conditions to possess
seven dried cannabis plants and two ounces of dried usable cannabis.

Anyone caught with that amount of marijuana now would face two class
4 felony counts, each of which carries three to six years in prison
and a fine up to $25,000.

If passed, the bill would sunset in three years, effectively making
it a pilot program.

But law enforcement remains adamant holes in the process would
provide more supply for drug dealer demand.

Authorities also say the level of THC - or tetrahydrocannabinol, the
chemical produced by the plant - must be regulated. The only way to
do that, they say, is to put it behind a pharmacy counter. Patients
like Macfarlane would prefer to get their marijuana through a
distributing dispensary.

"Let's not have people going out there self-administering to
themselves," Nargelenas said. "If you're going to have medical
marijuana, then let's treat it like medicine."

'We're Dying to Get This Passed'

Macfarlane thinks police officers and politicians concerned about
marijuana as a street drug are missing the bigger picture.

She's had a cabinet full of addictive, possibly lethal, painkillers -
all legally prescribed by doctors - that are just as likely to be
abused by the drug users law enforcement agencies are worried about.

"They're worried about a plant that teenagers can get anyway," Macfarlane said.

Law enforcement officials and drug policy experts say there's a
rising tide of prescription drug abuse in America, including among teenagers.

In 2007, 2.1 million people abused or were dependent on
psychotherapeutics used non-medically, according to the federal
government's Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

And seven of the top 10 drugs abused by teens in 2008 were prescribed
or purchased over the counter, a study done by the National Institute
on Drug Abuse found.

Despite the alarming trend of prescription drug abuse, experts say
when it comes to marijuana legislation, it's hard to miss the line
drawn in the sand.

Authorities opposing legal medicinal marijuana use see a host of problems.

"(This) makes it so much easier for people to get their hands on this
marijuana and they're not even sure what they're smoking," Nargelenas said.

While those who are ill, like Macfarlane and Poplawski, see
responsible use as a way to get pain-free days to enjoy the only life
they have.

"We're dying to get this passed," Macfarlane said. "This has to be
the year because I don't know how much longer I can take this."

[sidebar]

THIRTEEN STATES HAVE ENACTED SIMILAR MEDICAL MARIJUANA LAWS:

Alaska

California

Colorado

Hawaii

New Mexico

Maine

Michigan

Montana

Nevada

Oregon

Rhode Island

Washington

Vermont

Source: Marijuana Policy Project