SENATE PANEL HEARS MEDICAL POT BILL

CONCORD - Wheelchair-bound Clayton Holden, 23, said that at least 10
times, police in this state have approached but never arrested him
for smoking marijuana.

"They took one look at me, one look at my condition, and they tell me
to be careful and have a good day," Holden told the Senate Health and
Human Services Committee on Tuesday.

Since he was 10, Holden has suffered from Duchene Muscular Dystrophy
and found using marijuana dulls the chronic pain and allows him to
have to use less other medication to function.

Holden spoke near the close of a three-hour hearing on a
controversial bill to legalize the use of marijuana for those with a
"debilitating medical condition."

Strong opposition from a state prosecutor and State Police lieutenant
interrupted a steady stream of patients, supportive legislators and
advocates, all of whom want to make New Hampshire the 14th state to
legalize medical use of marijuana.

The House of Representatives passed the bill (HB 648) by a healthy
margin last month.

Gov. John Lynch said he's concerned that marijuana possession would
remain against the law but has declined to say whether he would veto
this bill if the state Senate passed it.

Assistant Attorney General Karin Eckel testified Tuesday that this
effort is a stalking horse for those who want to more broadly
legalize marijuana use.

"Clearly if this bill is passed into law, it will only fuel the
growing, largely unregulated criminal enterprise that is sweeping our
country under the guise of medical marijuana," Eckel said.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder confirmed last month his office
would not prosecute under federal law patients who use marijuana for
medical use in states where it is legal.

Matthew Simon, executive director of the New Hampshire Coalition for
Common Sense Marijuana Policy, said there's no recent example of
federal enforcement against patients living in states with medical
marijuana laws that include Maine, Vermont and Rhode Island.

"To simply allow patients to grow a few plants in their closets is
not going to draw the wrath of the federal government," Simon said.

"All I am saying legalization doesn't end there," Conte said. "The
regulation doesn't end. The enforcement doesn't end. The tragedies don't end."

The bill would allow qualified patients or their caregivers to grow
and possess six marijuana plants, six seeds and two ounces of the drug.

Only those in constant pain, having seizures or severe persistent
muscle spasms or having severe nausea or vomiting and who aren't
helped by legal medications for at least three months would qualify
to use marijuana.

The prime author, Rep. Evalyn Merrick, D-Lancaster, admits many would
buy it illegally on the black market. The bill permits an eligible
patient here to try to get some for free from a patient in another
state where medical marijuana use is legal.

"These patients are not drug addicts. They do not support the
recreational use. They don't want to decriminalize it. They are law
abiding citizens who want to try and relieve their suffering," said
Merrick, who has myeloma and took marijuana during chemotherapy
treatments in 2002.

Rep. Cindy Rosenwald, D-Nashua, said the bill is narrowly drawn and
not open to abuse.

"I know that there are people in New Hampshire who use marijuana
because they are sick and they are suffering," Rosenwald said.

Ellen McClung of Gilford suffers from multiple sclerosis and used
marijuana for pain while getting Interferon treatments.

"Stress? I think everybody accepts that makes illness worse,"
McClung, 52, said. "To me there is nothing more stressful than this
scene being described as being arrested, being prosecuted.

"I am not a criminal."

[SIDEBAR]

BILL AT A GLANCE Bill No. HB 648

SPONSOR: State Rep. Evelyn Merrick, D-Lancaster.

DESCRIPTION: The bill permits possession of six plants, six seeds and
up to 2 ounces of useable marijuana for those with a "debilitating
medical condition" under the supervision of a physician. Under the
amended bill, a person would cultivate his or her own marijuana or
get it as a gift and not a for-profit sale from another, qualified patient.

STATUS: The House of Representatives voted, 234-138, last month to
approve the bill. The Senate Health and Human Services Committee
conducted a three-hour public hearing on the bill Tuesday. But State
Police Lt. Russell Conte said marijuana is not a benign substance.
Users have caused carnage on the highways and enforcement of its use
for medical purposes would be fraught with problems, he said.