PROTESTORS OPPOSE CONGRESSWOMAN SUE KELLY'S MARIJUANA STAND

FISHKILL - Representatives of the National Drug Policy Alliance and the NYS
Cannabis Action Network have called on Congresswoman Sue Kelly to
reconsider her thinking and vote in favor of a marijuana amendment that
will bar the Justice Department from prosecuting patients who use medical
marijuana in compliance with state laws.

A dozen members of the organizations peacefully demonstrated outside the
congresswoman's Fishkill office last Friday in an attempt to pressure the
Putnam-Dutchess-Westchester-Rockland and Orange representative to vote in
favor of the Hinchey amendment expected to take place later this month.

Last year, Kelly voted against the legislation introduced by her
neighboring colleague Rep. Maurice Hinchey and by California Rep. Dana
Rohrabacher. The measure failed in the House of Representatives by a
273-152 tally.

If approved, the amendment would have prevented federal law enforcement
from "arresting, prosecuting, suing or otherwise discouraging doctors,
patients and distributors from following state laws with regard to medical
marijuana."

Robert Robinson of New Paltz, senior activist for the Cannabis Action
Network, who organized the rally in Fishkill, described the Hinchey
amendment as providing for state's rights. "We don't understand Sue Kelly's
vote since as a Republican and a Conservative, this is an issue that
members of the GOP usually champion. We are putting the pressure on her and
others who failed to vote in favor of the amendment hoping they will
reconsider."

According to literature distributed by the National Organization for the
Reform of Marijuana Laws, the vast majority of the public supports medical
marijuana. A Time/CNN poll taken last October indicated 80 percent of the
American people believe "adults should be able to use marijuana legally for
medical purposes."

The 2.6 million member American Nurses Association adopted a resolution
last year in support of medical marijuana, specifically calling for
"legislation to remove criminal penalties including arrest and imprisonment
for bona fide patients."

The National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine's report,
"Marijuana and Medicine: Assessing the Science Base," stated: "Nausea,
appetite loss, pain and anxiety are all afflictions of wasting and all can
be mitigated by marijuana."

Robinson said latest pollsters have indicated that one in five New Yorkers
knows someone who is using marijuana to treat a serious illness illegally.
"We can debate the issue all day long concerning marijuana recreation but
keeping medicine away from sick people is wrong and is an injustice," he said.

Burton Aldrich, a resident of a tiny community in the Catskill Mountains,
is a medical marijuana patient. The spinal cord victim who is confined to a
wheelchair suffers from severe spasms and neuropathic pain. "My doctors
prescribed Valium which was putting me to sleep. My college grades slumped
to a 2.8. However, when I was switched to mar-knoll, a legal drug, my
grades improved to a 3.8. The expense became too great and my only
salvation was marijuana," he said.

Aldrich asked: "Am I really a criminal? This is something I have to use. It
works better with less side effects. What would you do? This is all about
fear," he said.

Aldrich, who is a member of New Yorkers for Compassionate Care, asked Kelly
to reconsider. "Marijuana is one of the safest therapeutically active
substances known," he said.

A Putnam County grandmother who recently was diagnosed with cancer and
after surgery underwent rigorous treatments of both radiation and
chemotherapy, has used marijuana on occasion to alleviate nausea. "I'm not
a pot head by any sense of the imagination but the 'joint' was the only
relief I had. A couple of 'hits' and the nausea disappeared almost
instantly," she said.

Congresswoman Kelly was not at her office during the demonstration but 24
hours later while attending a community function in Putnam, the 19th
District Representative, said a number of the demonstrators met with her
staff following their protest. "They left a pile of literature which is
being forwarded to me for perusal. Once I have the opportunity to digest
the data, I will make an intelligent and informed decision concerning the
amendment," she said.