AFTER RHODE ISLAND'S APPROVAL

Hedlund Favors Allowing Medical Use Of Marijuana; Bill's Passage
Would Make Mass. Latest State To Legalize

BOSTON - A state senator from the South Shore is among those hoping
Massachusetts follows the lead of Rhode Island and Maine by
legalizing marijuana for medical use.

On Tuesday, Rhode Island became the 11th state to legalize medical
marijuana and the first to do so since the June U.S. Supreme Court
ruling that patients who use the drug still may be prosecuted under
federal law.

State Sen. Robert Hedlund, R-Weymouth, is co-sponsoring a bill that
calls for allowing people to grow and use small amounts of marijuana
for medical reasons. Hedlund said he has heard many stories from ill
people, including a close friend with glaucoma, who say marijuana
eased their pain.

"I know it's anecdotal, but I believe him," Hedlund said. "I'm not in
favor of the full-blown legalization or decriminalization of
marijuana, but I think there should be a dialogue about whether
there's a medical benefit to this."

Jim Cook of Quincy said marijuana was the only thing that gave relief
to his brother Alan when he was dying of AIDS in the mid-1980s. Alan
Cook lived in Montreal, where people are allowed to smoke marijuana
to ease the symptoms of disease or the effects of disease treatments
such as chemotherapy.

"It is an absolute no-brainer that it should be available to people
with terminal illness," Jim Cook said. "The prohibitions against it
are an unnecessary intrusion of the government into the private lives
of citizens." Cook is a member of the Massachusetts Cannabis Reform Coalition.

"In this state, the politicians are just totally out of step with the
population," said coalition spokesman and Georgetown attorney Steven
Epstein, adding that nonbinding ballot questions endorsing the use of
medicinal marijuana have passed in communities across the state.
"Everywhere it's been on the ballot, it's won."

Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey, the Romney administration's point person on
drug policy, had no comment yesterday.

In the past, she has opposed decriminalization of marijuana.

The Rhode Island House voted 59-13 to override a veto by Gov. Don
Carcieri, allowing people with illnesses such as cancer and AIDS to
grow up to 12 marijuana plants indoors or possess up to 2.5 ounces
without being arrested.. The law requires them to register with the
state and get a photo identification card. Federal law prohibits any
use of marijuana, but Maine, Vermont, Alaska, California, Colorado,
Hawaii, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Washington and now Rhode Island
allow people to grow it for use as medicine.

On June 6, U.S. Supreme Court ruled that people who smoke marijuana
because their doctors recommend it can still be prosecuted under
federal drug laws. Federal authorities acknowledged that they were
unlikely to prosecute many medicinal users, and Rhode Island
lawmakers pressed on, passing their medical marijuana bill on June 7.

In November 2004, voters in five South Shore towns - Abington,
Whitman, East Bridgewater, Canton and Stoughton - approved by large
margins a nonbinding ballot question that proposed allowing seriously
ill people to grow and use marijuana, with a doctor's permission.

In the same election, voters in Cohasset, Hingham, Hull and Scituate
passed a nonbinding question that proposed treating the possession of
one ounce or less of marijuana as a civil, rather than crimimal, offense.