MEDICAL MARIJUANA OPTION GETS N.Y. SENATE PUSH

But Assembly Leader Doubts Budget Will Include Measure

ALBANY ? The Senate is making a renewed push to legalize medical
marijuana in New York, hoping to make it the 16th state to legalize
the drug for patients with serious, debilitating or life-threatening
illnesses.

The Assembly passed a medical-marijuana bill twice in recent years,
but the Senate did not. Legislation that would legalize its use
passed a key Senate committee Tuesday, and the same bill is making
its way through the Assembly committee process.

"This bill is about compassion for people who have horrible cancer,
HIV/AIDS, Crohn's disease.... This really is for desperate people,"
Assembly Health Committee Chairman Tom Duane, D-Manhattan, said
before the bill was reported out of the Senate Codes Committee
Tuesday by a vote of 11-5.

At the same time, the Senate included the legalization of marijuana
for medical purposes in its budget resolution Monday. The Senate
estimates that basic processing and administrative fees would bring
in about $15 million in the 2010-11 budget year, which begins April
1.

If a tax were placed on medical marijuana, that could raise up to
$500 million a year, according to Senate estimates.

But Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, said Tuesday he
didn't expect medical-marijuana legislation to be part of the 2010-11
budget.

"I don't believe we're going to have it in," he said. "We passed a
bill as a standalone in the past, so I didn't look at it as a revenue
raiser, per se."

Gov. David Paterson is waiting for more details on the budget
proposal before commenting on the issue, spokesman Morgan Hook said.

Under the legislative bill, a licensed practitioner would certify
that a patient has a serious condition that should be treated with
marijuana. Patients would register with the state Health Department
and obtain the drug through licensed dispensaries. Patients could
not possess more than 2.5 ounces of it at any time.

Restrictive bill cited

Assembly Health Committee Chairman Richard Gottfried, D-Manhattan,
said New York's law would be the most restrictive in the nation, both
in terms of the conditions for which a physician could certify its
use and who could produce and sell it.

Gottfried, who first introduced legislation to legalize medical use
of marijuana in 1997, said at news conference held by pro-medical
marijuana group New York Patients First that it has taken a long time
for public support to build and even longer for lawmakers to "catch
up with the public."

A Quinnipiac University poll in February found that 71 percent of New
York voters support legalizing medical marijuana. Fifty percent of
voters polled by the Siena Research Institute last week supported
marijuana for medical use.

There was doubt that the state could license dispensaries until about
a year ago, when the Obama administration said it would not interfere
with state laws on medical marijuana, Gottfried said.

"There are thousands of New Yorkers who have a serious condition
whose life could be made better, more comfortable, healthier, longer
by the medical use of marijuana," he said.

California was the first state to legalize the medical use of
marijuana 14 years ago. Since then, 14 other states have passed
similar laws, according to the National Conference of State
Legislatures.

Sen. Dale Volker, R-DePew, Erie County, said during Tuesday's Codes
Committee meeting that he opposed the bill because it would cause the
illegal use of marijuana to spread. He said pot is more dangerous
than people realize and is an "access" drug for heroin and other
illegal drugs.

Sen. Martin Golden, R-Brooklyn, said he doesn't want people to
suffer, but there should be more safeguards in the bill.

Leba London, a nurse from Swan Lake, Sullivan County, said at the New
York Patients First event that she doesn't think lawmakers would have
the same opinion if they had a friend or family member whose pain
could be relieved by marijuana.

"It's really time for the close-minded senators to take themselves
out of the dark ages here and release us from the gallows," she said.

Opiates prescribed for pain are good as a short-term solution only,
and they can be addictive and cause side effects, London said. The
only side effect for marijuana "is living with the fear of going to
prison," said London, whose conditions include fibromyalgia, severe
osteoarthritis and degeneration of the lower spine.

Other states that have legalized the medical use of marijuana:

*Alaska

*California

*Colorado

*Hawaii

*Maine

*Maryland

*Michigan

*Montana

*Nevada

*New Jersey

*New Mexico

*Oregon

*Rhode Island

*Vermont

*Washington

Source: National Conference of State Legislatures.