MEDICAL POT DENIED AT NURSING HOME

BURLINGTON, Vt. --A man who qualified for the state's medical marijuana
registry cannot use marijuana to ease the pain of multiple sclerosis
because he lives in a nursing home, pointing to a potential flaw in the
state's 2004 law.

Shayne Higgins, is one of about 15 people on the state's medical marijuana
registry, which theoretically allows him to legally possess and consume
marijuana.

But in March, when the staff at Starr Farm Nursing Center in Burlington
found a marijuana cigarette in Higgins' room, they called police, who
seized the cigarette.

Burlington Police Deputy Chief Stephen Wark said the officer confiscated
the cigarette because Starr Farm doesn't allow smoking on the premises.
Higgins wasn't charged after he showed the officer his medical marijuana
registry card, he said.

"If this were his house, we wouldn't have taken it," Wark said.

Starr Farm Nursing Center administrators said in a statement Wednesday that
they cannot allow marijuana on the premises because the federal government
doesn't recognize Vermont's medical marijuana law and the nursing home
receives federal funding. That advice came from state registry officials at
the Department of Public Safety, the statement said.

"A registry representative informed us that because our facility receives
federal funds, and federal law prohibits the possession and use of
marijuana, its possession and use in our facility is against the law, and
therefore is strictly prohibited," the statement said.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that state laws don't protect users
from federal prosecution. At the time, medical marijuana advocates thought
that decision would have little impact in Vermont, where the state law is
intended to help MS, AIDS and cancer patients with pain and appetite problems.

"I'd like to be able to use it," Higgins, 44, said of the drug. "It helps
with the pain and it gives me the munchies."

Nancy Lynch of the Vermont Marijuana Policy Project, which helped fight for
the medical marijuana law, said there should be an allowance for someone in
his situation to use marijuana.

"Nursing homes need to be educated. Hospitals need to be educated. Doctors
need to be educated," she said.

Information from: The Burlington Free Press