SENATE LOOKS TO AMEND MEDICAL MARIJUANA BILL

ANNAPOLIS -- The Maryland Senate is making major changes to a medical
marijuana bill proposed by Frederick County Sen. David Brinkley.

The Senate is expected to take up final approval of the measure this
week, after giving a preliminary OK on Tuesday to the bill and
amendments proposed by the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee.

The bill will now allow people charged with use or possession of
marijuana to argue before a judge that they did so out of medical
necessity. If a judge agrees, the person would be found not guilty of
the charge.

Additionally, the bill proposes a work group to come up with a model
program to allow patient access to marijuana by 2013. The program
would be through an academic medical research institution and would
require further legislation before it could be implemented.

Brinkley said he felt the amended bill makes progress, and it is
helpful to people who want to use an affirmative defense for
marijuana charges. Under current law, they may use the medical
defense and have punishment limited to a fine of less than $100, but
would still be found guilty.

He doesn't think the new bill is perfect -- the original version he
proposed with Delegate Dan Morhaim, a Baltimore County Democrat,
would have established medical marijuana as a controlled dangerous
substance and allowed doctors to prescribe it and pharmacies to dispense it.

Under the amended bill, patients "are still going to the black
market, so we still don't have any type of legal mechanism for the
acquisition of the substance, and that's what the study is supposed
to get at," Brinkley said.

He envisions the state would solicit the help of the University of
Maryland or Johns Hopkins University to help administer the program.

Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, secretary of the state Department of Health
and Mental Hygiene, said he supports the provisions of the bill that
call for a work group.

Sharfstein testified against the original version of the bill,
raising concerns about implementing the law and its scope. Brinkley
said that change of heart basically nixed the bill -- the
administration, under a previous health secretary, had supported it
the year before.

Sharfstein said he believes the new academic-centered proposal is the
best model for medical marijuana and would provide better oversight.

"Marijuana has very clear risks, and it really should be a
yellow-light approach to protect the public," Sharfstein said.

The yellow-light approach was championed by the Institute of Medicine
of the National Academy of Sciences committee in 1999. The institute
recommended that marijuana be available for medical purposes through
research programs. The treatment programs would be less than six
months, used when other medication has failed, and require patients
to be notified of potential risks of smoking as a delivery system,
Sharfstein said.

He believes the work group will follow the Institute's model.

If approved by the Senate, the measure will next be sent for approval
from the House of Delegates.