LAWMAKERS HEAR TESTIMONY ON MEDICAL POT

HARTFORD - The doctor and widow of a cancer victim, the head of Hartford
Hospital's cancer center and a patient suffering from paralysis and spasms
all called on Connecticut lawmakers Tuesday to legalize medical marijuana.

"At a time when we were most vulnerable, I had to choose between my
livelihood and the welfare of my husband," Dr. Nancy Sheehan of the
University of Connecticut said about her efforts to buy marijuana for her
late husband.

Sheehan said that, until he died in 2002, marijuana helped her husband,
Jim, deal more easily with the pain, loss of appetite and energy brought on
by colon cancer. "His quality of life was dramatically improved," she said.

Dr. Andrew Salner, director of Hartford Hospital's Helen and Harry Gray
Cancer Center, also spoke in support of allowing doctors to prescribe
medical marijuana. He said that "a select group of patients clearly are
helped by marijuana during their cancer experience."

Mark Braunstein, who was paralyzed below the waist by an accident in 1990,
described how marijuana has helped ease the spasms and pain that have
accompanied his injury.

Although a medical marijuana bill won state House approval last year, its
opponents managed to kill it through the General Assembly committee process
before it ever reached the Senate for a final vote.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers supporting the measure say they believe
this will be the year that Connecticut joins the 11 other states that have
approved medical marijuana laws to help victims of cancer, glaucoma and
other diseases.

The new bill would allow a doctor to prescribe marijuana and allow a
patient to grow up to five marijuana plants for medical use without fear of
arrest or prosecution.

But critics such as Sen. George L. 'Doc' Gunther, R-Stratford, said he
doesn't think the bill will survive a Senate vote. "I doubt it," said
Gunther, the longest-serving member of the General Assembly.

"I don't think there is any justification for it," Gunther said.

"Oncologists, if they're honest, will tell you that we don't need it, that
we have much better, more effective medications available."

Gunther also said he and other critics fear that allowing patients to grow
marijuana for personal medical use will eventually result in abuses.

"It's going to find its way into the illegal market," Gunther warned.

The bill's co-sponsors, Reps. Penny Bacchiochi, R-Somers, and Melissa
Olson, D-Norwich, rejected Gunther's arguments.

"More than 300 Connecticut doctors have signed on in writing that they
support this bill," said Bacchiochi.

"Illegal use of marijuana is going to go on whether we pass this bill or
not," Olson said.

Sen. Toni N. Harp, D-New Haven, is another supporter of the bill who
believes that it may stand a better chance of passage in the General
Assembly this year.

"I think the fact that it passed the House last year will give it more
momentum," Harp said. "There's a lot more energy around the issue this year
than in the past."

Harp said that the Senate's reluctance to take up the medical marijuana
bill last year appeared to be related to the fact that 2004 was a
legislative election year. She said legislative leaders may have worried
that the issue could cause problems for some Democrats involved in close
re-election races.