MEDICAL-MARIJUANA ROUNDTABLE SPARKS DRUG DEBATE

Like many debates about making marijuana legal for medical use, the
one at the University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Public
Health on Thursday turned into a discussion of the dangers of drugs.

That didn't sit well with state Rep. John Myers, D-Philadelphia, who
had come to the Oakland campus at the invitation of state Rep. Jake
Wheatley, D-Hill District, to conduct a public hearing on the matter.

More than 80 people, many of them college students wearing T-shirts
calling for the legalization of marijuana, attended the session
before the two lawmakers, members of the House Health and Human
Services Committee considering House Bill 1393, which would allow
medical marijuana use in the state.

Most of the session was civil, with testimony from former Allegheny
County coroner Cyril Wecht, Neil Capretto of Gateway Rehabilitation
Center, Jack Cole of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition and others.

But decorum faltered after O'Hara businessman Ronald W. Owen spoke
against the measure, saying he had lost his 23-year-old daughter to drugs.

"Has any supporter of this House bill that is here today or that you
have heard from in other hearings, had a death in their immediate
family due to drug addiction?" Mr. Owen asked. "My belief is that if
they did, they would not be supporting this dangerous piece of legislation."

Mr. Owen's remarks drew boos from most of those in attendance, who
received a prompt rebuke from Mr. Wheatley, demanding that everyone
be treated with respect.

Then Mr. Myers spoke.

"My son was kidnapped three years ago. And I know they killed him,"
he said slowly, his voice rising as he spoke. "My son wouldn't be
missing for three years. But because of drugs.

"And I have a view about drugs, too. I have a view about how I feel
about them snatching up my son and doing what they did to him,
whatever they did to him. And not having the guts to tell me where
he's at. So do I want to see drugs stopped? Absolutely! By any means necessary!

"But my view might not be yours. You ask if anyone knows anybody that
died because of drugs. Yeah, my son. Twenty-seven years old. I
watched him be born, I rocked him in my arms. So I know the feeling
of a parent that lost a child to drugs. We just disagree on a
solution to all of this. And there ought to be a solution. That's why
I'm here. I want to hear a solution.

"People say I'm a state lawmaker. How did my son get caught up in the
drug business? Kidnapped. His mother shot in the head, his sister
shot three times. And the people who did it are still out there,
doing what they do.

"If there was a stronger war against drugs, my son might be alive
today. If drugs were legal, my son might be alive today," Mr. Myers said.

Mr. Cole, a former New Jersey police detective who worked as an
undercover narcotics officer, said his organization was founded by
five former law enforcement officers who believe that the war on
drugs "is not only a dismal failure, but worse; it is a
self-perpetuating, constantly expanding policy disaster."

The United States, he said, spends billions pursuing and punishing
people for nonviolent drug offenses when the resources would be
better committed to tracking violent criminals.

Mr. Capretto called for the legislators to look for more responsible
solutions to the drug problem, as well as how best to treat people
who might find medical relief in marijuana.

He said he understood the desire to provide compassionate care for
people who are suffering. But he did not believe that it was
appropriate for state legislators to be making decisions on medical
matters. Mr. Capretto called for going through the proper channels of
the federal Food and Drug Administration.

Dr. Wecht, however, told the committee members that in more than
36,000 autopsies, he had never seen a death attributed to marijuana use.

"Let's get down to what kills people," he said in support of the
bill. "Restricting a drug which can have therapeutic medicinal
purposes in specific instances, which does not lead to morbidity and
mortality, just makes no sense. Let's help ease physical and
emotional pain and suffering."