ROSSVILLE WOMAN'S PUSH FOR MEDICAL MARIJUANA LEGISLATION GAINS MOMENTUM

Is Georgia ready for medical marijuana? Heather Boles of Rossville
thinks so.

Boles is gathering signatures to petition legislators to legalize
medicinal marijuana, like neighboring states that have pushed for
legalization, including Tennessee, Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas and Nebraska.

Boles, who has collected more than 2,000 signatures for the cause,
wants the state to consider the medical bene-fits of cannabis sativa
and join the other 14 states that already have medicinal marijuana
facilities.

"I would like to see blanket legalization, but I realize that there is
a responsible way about going about things and I think the best way is
to test the waters and see if our citizens have the ability for
freedom to choose," Boles said. "Georgia is in a unique position to
look at other state policies and construct a policy that is on the
forefront of compassionate care. It is really about our right to
choose what is right for our own bodies."

Boles, who is allergic to morphine, believes that marijuana should be
reclassified from a Schedule 1 substance, where heroine and cocaine
are grouped.

"Not one single death or injury has been reported from putting
marijuana into the human body," Boles said.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, there have been no
deaths attributed to the direct use of marijuana. (For more on this,
go to http://www.nida.nih.gov/infofacts/marijuana.html.)

According to Mike Meno, director of communications for the Marijuana
Policy Project (MPP) in Washington, D.C., "In all of recorded history,
no one has ever fatally overdosed on marijuana, which is virtually
nontoxic. Even the National Institute on Drug Abuse has acknowledged
there is no link between marijuana and cancer. In fact, a lot of
research has shown that cannabinoids (marijuana's unique, active
components) can actually inhibit tumor growth in cancer patients."

Boles, a student at Georgia Northwestern Technical College's campus in
Walker County, believes that prohibi-tion does not work and if
medicinal marijuana helps individuals with sickness and diseases, then
those individuals who abide by the law should have a right to use of
marijuana for medicinal purposes.

"It is an uphill battle, but I feel like it is worth it," Boles
said.

Boles has had personal experiences with pharmaceutical drugs that have
caused too many side-effects, as she said, and marijuana is known to
aid in pain, nausea and other illnesses.

According to MPP, which is the nation's largest marijuana policy
reform group, the organization lobbies at the state and federal level
to remove criminal penalties for marijuana use, with a particular
emphasize on making marijuana medically available to patients who
could benefit from it.

"Overall, we believe marijuana should be taxed and regulated in a
manner similar to alcohol," Meno said.

MPP has more than 124,000 members and supporters in 50 states and was
founded in 1995.

According to MPP, medicinal marijuana standards vary by state, but
generally medical marijuana providers should be properly regulated,
similar to pharmacies, to ensure that they are providing qualified
patients with safe access to medical marijuana, while at the same time
safeguarding against abuse.

"Fourteen states and Washington, D.C., have medical marijuana laws,"
Meno said "Every state, except New Jer-sey, allows patients to grow
certain amounts of their medicine, or allow designated caregivers to
grow it for them. State-regulated dispensaries exist in Colorado and
New Mexico and will soon be in place in Rhode Island, Maine,
Washington, D.C., and New Jersey. Other states (California, Montana,
Michigan) have dispensaries but have not passed statewide regulations
on them, but many cities and counties have passed their own. Typical
dispensary regu-lations allow nonprofit, state-licensed facilities to
provide designated amounts of medical marijuana to qualified patients
who receive a recommendation from their doctor. Many operate under
zoning restrictions that require them to operate a certain distance
from schools and government buildings. Some require 24-hour security.
Usually a state-level authority, such as the department of health,
will oversee operations and licenses. Most states also have some type
of patient ID system."

Meno said that petitions, like Boles', do have an impact on
legislation.

"They can be a valuable tool for demonstrating that public will exists
to change marijuana laws," Meno said. "In states that have the ballot
initiative process, signature drives have placed marijuana-related
issues on the ballot, and in virtually every circumstance they have
passed. Nine of the 14 state medical marijuana laws (and D.C.) passed
by voter ballot initiatives, and this November, Californians will vote
on a marijuana legalization measure that made the ballot after a
signature drive. Voters in Arizona and South Dakota will also vote on
medical marijuana ballot initiatives that required signature drives.
In states, such as Georgia, that don't have ballot initiatives,
however, voters must rely on state lawmakers to introduce and pass
legislation."

What illnesses does it help? According to the MPP website, studies
show that many patients suffering with HIV/AIDS, glaucoma, cancer and
chemotherapy, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, and other debilitating
illnesses find that marijuana provides relief from their symptoms.

"Nausea, appetite loss, pain and anxiety are all afflictions of wasting
and can be mitigated by marijuana," said the Institute of Medicine,
Marijuana and Medicine: Assessing the Science Base, 1999.

"A growing body of research, including that done by the government's
own Institute of Medicine, and literally thousands of testimonials by
patients and doctors show that it can. Marijuana's medical efficacy
has been endorsed by the American Nurses Association, American Public
Health Association, the American College of Physicians, the American
Academy of HIV Medicine, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, and
countless other medical organiza-tions," Meno said.

According to a 2003 WebMD Medscape poll, 76% of physicians and 86% of
nurses favor the decriminalization of marijuana for medicinal purposes.

Health risk

According to Boles, a citizen has to be 18 years old to purchase
cigarettes and 21 years old to purchase alcohol, while Big Tobacco's
Phillip Morris and Anheuser-Busch are both contributors for
Partnership For a Drug Free America.

According to MSNBC, at www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6089353, alcohol kills
about 75,000 people each year and ciga-rettes/tobacco kills about
440,000, whereas marijuana has had no deaths attributed to it in more
than 5,000 years of recorded history.

"In all of recorded history, no one has ever fatally overdosed on
marijuana, which is virtually nontoxic. Even the National Institute on
Drug Abuse has acknowledged there is no link between marijuana and
cancer, as many anti-marijuana zealots claim. (See
http://www.nida.nih.gov/infofacts/marijuana.html.) In fact, a lot of
research has shown that cannabinoids (marijuana's unique, active
components) can actually inhibit tumor growth in cancer patients,"
Meno said.

Both Boles and Meno said marijuana is safe and does not have to be
smoked, but can be used in food, vaporized and made into tea.

"The most common argument is it is stronger now than in the past,"
Meno said. "Regardless of its potency, mari-juana is virtually
nontoxic and can't cause a fatal overdose. More potent strains are not
more "harmful." Further-more, the pill Marinol, which is 100 percent
THC (as potent as it gets) is an FDA-approved medicine that's legal in
all 50 states."

Marinol is a pill form of marijuana that is a pharmaceutical product
that is FDA-approved.

Meno said, Marinol, is 100 percent THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) and does
not have all the natural components that the actual plant obtains, so
doctors can prescribe Marinol with 100 percent THC, thus making the
"stronger now" argument irrelevant.

"There is this widespread denial of reality," Meno
said.

According to Meno, marijuana has been used and tried by more than 100
million people, including the past three U.S. presidents.

The gateway theory

The question of marijuana being a gateway drug has been debated for
years.

"Every objective study ever done on the gateway theory has determined
that it's bunk. Millions of Americans will try marijuana in their
lifetime, but the vast majority of them will never go on to try harder
drugs. A 2008 study by the RAND Corporation found that 'the gateway
theory has little evidence to support it, despite copious research'
and, according to the Institute of Medicine (in a report commissioned
by the drug czar's office), 'there is no evidence that marijuana
serves as a stepping stone (to other drugs) on the basis of its
particular physiological effect.'" Meno said. "If 100 million
Americans have used marijuana, where are the 100 million heroine
addicts? It is a scare tactic."

Economics

According to Harvard economist Jeffrey Miron, estimates show that the
U.S. could save between $8 billion and $14 billion by ending marijuana
prohibition (prohibitioncosts.org).

Replacing marijuana prohibition with a system of taxation and
regulation similar to that used for alcoholic bev-erages would produce
combined savings and tax revenues of between $10 billion and $14
billion per year.

"Shenandoah University researcher Jon Gettman has estimated that
marijuana is America's largest cash crop, a $36 billion industry,
larger than corn and wheat combined. But by keeping marijuana illegal,
our policies ensure that the only people making money from this
lucrative trade are criminals. In fact, the U.S. government estimates
that Mexican drug cartels make 60-70 percent of their profits from
selling marijuana in the United States," Meno said.

Law enforcement

How does law enforcement play into medical marijuana?

According to Meno, each year, about 800,000 arrests are made for
marijuana possession, more than for all violent crimes combined.

"This is a huge waste of limited law enforcement resources, which
could be better spent solving or preventing violent crimes like murder
and rape. In fact, since 1991, marijuana arrests have doubled, while
use rates remain the same, so these efforts aren't even effective at
reducing use or demand. But too often, law enforcement will oppose
efforts to reform marijuana laws. This is because marijuana arrests
are low-hanging fruit for law enforcement - they are easy to make,
there are a lot to be made, and officers can collect overtime, boost
their arrest rates, and receive federal grant money if they target
marijuana. Luckily, growing numbers of law enforcement officers are
speaking out against these policies. See Law Enforcement Against
Prohibition, or LEAP, a growing number of for-mer and current officers
who advocate alternatives to our current drug policies," Meno said.

"If anyone objects to marijuana reform because of the effect it might
have on young people, they should consider the fact that for the past
30 years, more than 80 percent of American high school students have
told government surveys that marijuana is 'easy to get.' That's
because, unlike the licensed merchants who sell alcohol and
ciga-rettes, drug dealers do not check ID's. Prohibition has failed to
keep marijuana out of the hands of young people, who now use marijuana
more often than cigarettes," Meno said.

According to Walker County sheriff Steve Wilson, marijuana is a drug
like any other drug.

"I do not have enough facts to form an opinion for or against the
legalization of marijuana for medicinal pur-poses," Wilson said.
"First and foremost, I am 100 percent against the legalization for
recreational purposes."

"All drugs are subject to being misused, but they are great benefits
to many drugs if they are used with the ap-propriate medical
evaluation and instruction," Wilson said.

Wilson said if legislators approved it, then law enforcement would
have to go along with it.

"Our job is to follow the law as it is written. If it is shown beyond
a reasonable doubt with medical evidence and our state legislators
passed the law, we (law enforcement) would respect the law and enforce
it appropriately," Wilson said.

According to Wilson, medical marijuana would have to be regulated and
strictly monitored and governed by doc-tors and pharmacists as drugs
are dispensed today. "The same way as other drugs, if it is shown as a
medical bene-fit," Wilson said.

Wilson disagrees that medical marijuana legalization would free up law
enforcement to handle other crimes.

"I disagree with it. People will still misuse it or grow it and
abusing the law and manufacturing the cannabis il-legally," Wilson
said.

As for taking power away from drug cartels, Wilson said, "I don't
think simply legalizing marijuana for medicinal purposes would take
power away from drug cartels."

On the other hand, Wilson doesn't believe there would be an increase
in crime if medical marijuana were legal-ized in the state of Georgia.

"I don't think you can overdose on marijuana, but I am of the opinion
that chronic marijuana use is just as un-healthy as smoking
cigarettes," Wilson said.

Wilson said medical marijuana would be better served regulated in a
pharmacy-type setting and in pill form, such as Marinol.

"Not smoking a joint," Wilson said. "If it was dispensed in a pill
form through a pharmacy and tightly controlled, I feel medical
marijuana would be more acceptable versus marijuana being dispensed in
cigarette form."

State Reps. Martin Scott of Rossville and Jay Neal of LaFayette were
contacted for this story, but declined to comment.

According to abcnews.com, eight in 10 American's support legalization
of marijuana and nearly half favor de-criminalizing the drug more
generally, both far higher than a decade ago. Fifty-six percent say
that if it's allowed, doctors should be able to prescribe medical
marijuana to anyone they think it can help. Thirty percent of
conserva-tives and 32 percent of Republicans favor legalization,
compared with 49 percent of independents, 53 percent of Democrats and
more than half of moderates and liberals alike (53 and 63 percent,
respectively).

(http://mapinc.org/url/jd1R1WIA).

"We have spent all this money to fight the war on drugs. Putting more
and more in prison for non-violent crimes and this is a burden on
taxpayers," Boles said. "We are not advocating anarchy, we are not
advocating abuse, and we are not advocating legalization of all drugs.
There is a responsible, compassionate way to do this if it eases pain."

"If you get one person here and one person there and they get another
and another, you can have a collective large voice that says, 'you
will at least hear me'," Boles said.

To sign Boles petition for the push to legalize medicinal marijuana
for the state of Georgia, contact her by email at hippiehaven33@yahoo.com.

T-Shirts are available.

To learn more about MPP, visit the website at www.mpp.org.