MONTEL WILLIAMS BACKS MEDICAL MARIJUANA

Message To Congress: 'This Is Really So Simple'

WASHINGTON (AP) - Talk-show host Montel Williams joined a group of medical
marijuana advocates yesterday in imploring Congress to allow him and other
sick people to use the drug without fear of prosecution.

"This is really so simple it's ignorant," said Williams, who was diagnosed
with multiple sclerosis in 1999. He said legal drugs do not help the pain.

"I'm hurting right now. I'm hurting. Why? Because I knew I had to come to
Washington, D.C., and I can't carry anything because I know I'd get
busted," he said.

Williams spoke at a Capitol Hill news conference where a bipartisan group
of lawmakers said decisions about medical marijuana should be left to the
states.

Ten states allow residents to use marijuana for medical purposes. The
Supreme Court has said that doesn't protect distributors from federal drug
charges.

The court is considering a case about whether federal drug agents can go
after patients in states where the drug is allowed for medical purposes --
Alaska, California, Colorado, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Maine, Montana,
Hawaii and Vermont.

Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., said he was reintroducing a bill that would
allow states to set their own laws on medical marijuana.

"The notion that a state-sanctioned practice of medicine ought to be
criminalized really makes no sense," Frank said.