MEDICAL MARIJUANA BILL GAINS GROUND

MONTPELIER - Rep. Joe Baker is about as unlikely an advocate for
marijuana-reform legislation as one could find.

The husky West Rutland lawmaker calls himself a law-and-order
Republican who has never smoked the drug in his life.

"I'm the original nerd," Baker says. "I wouldn't know what the
processed stuff looks like if it was sitting on a table in front of me."

In 2004, when legislators legalized the use of medical marijuana for
eligible patients, the military veteran cast his vote against the measure.

"It was against the law," he says.

But on Tuesday, Baker sat before his Senate colleagues to lobby in
support of proposed legislation that would set up so-called
"compassion centers" for the nearly 200 Vermonters now enrolled in
the state's medical-marijuana registry. After watching his wife
succumb to cancer five years ago, Baker says, he now understands the
pain and suffering that lack of access can cause.

"There's just no safe, legal way to get that medicine," Baker says.
"I want doctors and patients to have every tool available, and right
now they don't."

This week, the Senate Committee on Government Operations dedicated
two days of hearings to a bill that would establish nonprofit
dispensaries for medical marijuana. The logistics are still up for
debate - it's unclear whether pharmacies, nonprofits or even liquor
stores would make the best medical-marijuana outlets. And the issue
of supply also remains murky as legislators consider the merits of
licensed growers versus confiscated contraband seized by
law-enforcement officers.

But committee chairwoman Jeanette White, a Windham County Democrat,
says she's serious about passing the bill this year.

"I'm very serious about this," White says. "We're not wedded to all
the provisions as written, but I'm more than convinced that this is
serious enough issue for us to act on."

Dispensaries can't come soon enough for people like Ian Rhein, a St.
Johnsbury father of two with a bullet lodged in his back. "Countless"
surgeries and medical procedures have failed to quell the pain, and
the opiate painkillers prescribed by his doctor, he says, aren't
nearly as effective as the marijuana that his
Department-of-Safety-issued registration card allows him to possess legally.

"It really is a medicine to me," the Gulf War veteran told lawmakers.
"It truly is a medicine that works for both the treatment of pain in
my back as well as the post traumatic stress disorder which I was
diagnosed with nearly eight years ago."

Problem is, Rhein says, he can't find any marijuana. Registered
patients like himself are allowed to grow limited amounts of the
plant, but concerns over his family's security and social stigma make
that an unpalatable option for Rhein. Finding his medicine on the
black market has proven even more harrowing. Not only is he unsure
about the strain and quality of street cannabis, he says it's nearly
impossible for a straight-edged guy like himself to find a willing seller.

"I don't have the dreadlocks or the long hair," he says. "I don't fit
the stereotype I guess as to what a marijuana user is supposed to look like."

White says her bill aims to remedy Rhein's problem by establishing
three to five nonprofit dispensaries at which registered users could
secure a safe, legal, and more affordable supply of their medicine.

Baker says the Obama Administration's decision to dial back
enforcement on state-sanctioned medical-marijuana dispensaries makes
this the time to act.

"If the state says it's okay, and the federal government says it's
okay, then now it's time to do this," Baker says.

The bill has drawn opposition from Public Safety Commissioner Thomas
Tremblay, who has said that Vermont risks wider-spread illegal use
should dispensaries be created. In addition to readier access to
non-eligible residents, he said, the dispensaries would no doubt
breed robberies and other crime.

Supporters of the legislation though say that the lack of
dispensaries has bred its own set of problems for some of the state's
most vulnerable residents.

"We're looking for safe access. I'm looking for safe access," Rhein
says. "The reality of not having safe access is a stark reality for
myself and anyone else I've talked to that is on the registry."