DEMOCRATS SET TO FIGHT FOR N.Y. MEDICAL MARIJUANA BILL

ALBANY - Legalization of marijuana for medical use may have a shot at
legislative approval this year because Democrats, who now control the
Senate and Assembly, are sponsoring identical bills on the issue.

State Senate Health Committee Chairman Thomas Duane and state
Assembly Health Committee Chairman Richard Gottfried, both Manhattan
Democrats, are backing the legislation, which would allow patients to
have up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana and 12 mature plants.

"There are thousands of New Yorkers with serious debilitating,
life-threatening, painful ailments who would benefit from the medical
use under physician supervision ... of marijuana," Gottfried said
Tuesday. "The medical science is very clear and very well established
that there are many patients for whom marijuana will ameliorate their
symptoms or help them to tolerate their treatment, where other
medications do not work."

Thirteen other states have legalized marijuana, and legislation is
under consideration in New Jersey, New Hampshire and other states,
Gottfried said. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has said the
government will respect state laws on medical marijuana with regard
to enforcement, Gottfried said. In the past, federal law enforcement
has shut down dispensaries for medical marijuana because pot is an
illegal drug.

"This is about compassion. This is about medicine. This isn't about
politics," Duane said.

Marijuana has been used to relieve nausea, increase appetite, reduce
muscle spasms and reduce chronic pain in patients with debilitating
illnesses like AIDS, cancer, multiple sclerosis and glaucoma.

Duane said he believes the legislation enjoys broad bipartisan
support in the Senate, where there are 32 Democrats and 30 Republicans.

Republicans, who outnumbered Democrats from 1965 until this year,
previously blocked any legalization bill from moving forward. There
has been Republican support in the past for limited use of pot by
allowing state-regulated growers to produce it and licensed
dispensaries to distribute it.

The Assembly, where Democrats hold the overwhelming majority of
seats, passed the legislation in 2007 and 2008.

Duane said allowing patients to grow their own pot is a simpler way
to provide access than dispensaries. Patients would need a doctor's
recommendation to possess and use marijuana.

If the bill passes both houses, Gov. David Paterson will seek input
from interested parties before acting, spokesman Errol Cockfield said.

People who oppose medical marijuana think it could increase drug
abuse and crime. The state Conservative Party believes legalizing it
would send the wrong message to society, chairman Mike Long said.

"We have enough trouble with the use of prescription drugs without
adding another one to it," he said, adding there are plenty of drugs
available currently to relieve pain.

If people are allowed to grow it in their homes, children and others
in the house may gain access to it, Long said.

Assemblyman Joel Miller, R-Poughkeepsie, said the time has come for
New York to legalize medical marijuana.

"To me it's absolutely amazing that we would deny people the benefit
of a drug simply because it also has some other impact on the
community," said Miller, a dentist. "The people who need it are not
going to be using it recreationally. They're going to use it so they
can some standard of life and everyone deserves that."

The legislation would require plants to be kept in a secure, locked
enclosure. It includes provisions for the state Department of Health
to give permits to dispensaries, pending certification by the federal
government that this could be done without federal prosecution.

Supporters of the legislation include the state Medical Society, the
New York State Nurses Association and a long list of other groups,
Gottfried said.

A 2007 Mason-Dixon poll commissioned by the Marijuana Policy Project
surveyed 500 New York voters in several upstate Senate districts and
found that between 61 percent and 76 percent of them were in favor of
allowing seriously ill patients to use marijuana if it was
recommended by their physician. The Marijuana Policy Project also
promotes legalization of marijuana for general use.