NORML ADVOCATES CALL FOR ABOLITION OF STATE MEDICAL BOARD

SAN FRANCISCO -- The beginning of the second day of the 2005 National
Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws conference was dedicated
to medical marijuana and the doctors who believe they put themselves
on the line every time they recommend the drug.

Dr. David Bearman called the Medical Board of California, the agency
in charge of investigating claims against doctors, "a corrupt and
incompetent organization."

"it's a group of people in search of a mission and they sure as hell
haven't found it," he said.

Bearman said the board should be abolished.

During his presentation, Bearman referred to quotes from the nation's
Founding Fathers and documents. "We must stand up and defend the
Constitution of the United State and be true Americans," Bearman told
a cheering crowd.

Dr. Tim O'Connell, an Oakland doctor who conducted a study of medical
marijuana patients, discussed his findings Friday.

He said all of the medical marijuana patients he interviewed had tried
marijuana, alcohol and tobacco in high school. He said marijuana
assisted patients with dependency issues like alcoholism. "Once
confirmed in the regular use of marijuana, whatever drinking problems
they had went away," O'Connell said.

Marijuana wasn't the only drug his subjects tried. "This population
had tried an enormous amount of other drugs," O'Connell said. He also
discussed the benefit of marijuana as an anti-depressant, even with
teenagers. "Pot was Prozac before Prozac was even conceived,"
O'Connell said.

"It remains far more safer and effective," he said. "I have data that
teenagers were helped by marijuana. It saved them from drinking,
tobacco and other drugs."

O'Connell said his study wasn't concrete. "My study doesn't prove
anything," O'Connell said. "It just raises a lot of questions."

Dr. Tod Mikuriya, longtime advocate of the medical marijuana movement,
discussed sanctions against California doctors who recommend
marijuana, and agreed with Bearman's thought on the medical board.

"We need to look at reform of the medical board," he said. "As well as
a statewide audit."

He said the audit should also include law enforcement agencies on
state, county and local levels.

Mikuriya referred to signs from medical marijuana proponents to stay
hopeful: Proposition 215 has been active for eight years; more doctors
are coming out and the number of patients has grown.

Dr. Mollie Fry, a doctor from Sierra Foothills, said, "Dying is never
politically correct; suffering is never popular."

She stated that the Hippocratic Oath told her to help everyone she
could and she believed she is helping medical marijuana patients.

Fry became choked up when discussing a patient of hers who was taken
off a transplant list because he tested positive for THC. She said he
gave away all his marijuana and returned to taking the prescription
drugs his doctors once told him to stop taking. "Now he sits at home
taking poison every day," Fry said. "I've seen this federal government
single out and murder sick and dying people because of a political
argument. "

The lobby outside the conference was full of booths from a number of
groups. At the "Flex Your Rights" booth, volunteers sold a DVD that
teaches viewers how to survive "police encounters."

The Drug Police Alliance distributed literature on their goals, which
included redirecting government drug control policies making medical
marijuana legal and restoring constitutional protections against
unreasonable searches.

The editor of High Times magazine conducted a session on how the
magazine has survived since the 1970s and how they plan to continue
the magazine in the current climate.

Richard Cusick, one of the editors, mentioned a recent case in which
two journalists were ordered to reveal their sources. "When that
happens, reporters will no longer have the ability to be protected
from the First Amendment," Cusick said.

"You should want to be a reporter looking for the First Amendment, but
they'll be looking for the Fifth Amendment."

He said a pending ruling may make reporters who witness a crime to
report the crime to authorities instead of reporting on it. "Let me
assure you, the pictures will continue to run in the magazine," Cusick
said, even if reporters and photographers have to go to Amsterdam and
Vancouver.

"This is a war and this is an offensive," Cusick sad.

One of Friday's breakout sessions included, "Student activism: Stoking
the reefer revolution."

"The current level of student activism is unheard of compared to what
it was 10 years ago," said Kris Krane, associate director of NORML. He
added there are currently students influencing state
legislatures.

Saturday's conference will include seminars on drug driving tests.