ACTION LAGS ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA POLL RESULTS

When there is a big gap between the views of ordinary Americans on a
public issue and the voting record of their elected representatives
in Congress, something is wrong.

In the national debate over the use of marijuana for medical
purposes, the people and their representatives in Congress seem to be
living on different planets. In New Jersey, however, the gap has been
closed, or nearly so.

Poll after poll shows Americans, by a huge majority, want doctors,
not lawmakers, to decide whether marijuana should be used as
medicine. Today, however, federal laws prohibit physicians from
prescribing marijuana for pain relief even where state and local laws
say it is OK to do so. This has not always been the case.

"For most of American history, growing and using marijuana was legal
under both federal law and the laws of individual states," according
to a recent report by the Congressional Research Service, an arm of Congress.

In 1999, a Gallup poll asked, "Suppose that on election day this year
you could vote on key issues as well as candidates. Please tell me,
would you vote for or against making marijuana legally available for
doctors to prescribe in order to reduce pain and suffering?"
Response: 73 percent of the American people said they would vote for
making marijuana legally available under those conditions.

In 2003 and 2005, Gallup polls asked, "Would you favor or oppose
making marijuana legally available for doctors to prescribe in order
to reduce pain and suffering?" In 2003, 75 percent and in 2005, 78
percent of the people said they would favor giving doctors the legal
right to decide when marijuana should be prescribed to ease suffering.

Apparently, members of Congress don't read the polls these days, nor
do they care much about state laws. In 12 states - Alaska, Arizona,
California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode
Island, Vermont and Washington - laws already give doctors the power
to decide whether to use marijuana to treat patients in pain.

In the House of Representatives on May 4, 2005, Rep. Barney Frank,
D-Mass., introduced HR-2087, a bill "to provide for the medical use
of marijuana in accordance with the laws of the various states," and
to prohibit the federal government from stopping "an individual from
obtaining and using marijuana from a prescription or recommendation
by a physician for medical use." Nine days later, the bill was
referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce - where it is stuck.

Since this bill can't make it to the House floor for an up-or-down
vote, an alternative strategy is to attach a medical marijuana
amendment to a spending bill that will reach the House floor. On June
15, Rep. Maurice D. Hinchey, D-N.Y., offered Amendment 272 to
HR-2862. The amendment would have prohibited federal agencies from
preventing the implementation of state laws that authorize the use of
medical marijuana. The amendment was rejected on a 264-161 vote.

In other words, while 78 percent of the American people favor letting
doctors (and states) decide this issue, only 38 percent of the House
members favored a law supporting that policy. Nationally, that's a
whopping 40 percent medical marijuana gap separating what the
American people want and what their hard-of-hearing elected
representatives deliver.

With seven of 12 House members from New Jersey (58 percent) voting in
favor of Amendment 272, the state's lawmakers have shown a readiness
to close the gap separating public opinion and public policy.

Nationally, the wide gap remains, with all congressmen from South
Carolina, Kansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi, Nebraska and
Oklahoma voting against the amendment.

American democracy calls on lawmakers to be responsive to the
common-sense wisdom of ordinary citizens. Instead, members of
Congress from New Jersey and elsewhere are standing in the way of
existing state laws and the majority of Americans who want their
physicians, not politicians, to decide if marijuana should be used to
ease suffering in sick patients.