DEMONSTRATORS SHOW SUPPORT FOR MEDICINAL MARIJUANA

Norwich -- Nearly a dozen demonstrators picketed Friday morning
outside Norwich Superior Court in support of legislation that would
prevent the federal government from interfering with state laws
allowing medicinal marijuana use.

Several states have passed laws that allow seriously ill patients to
use marijuana as a pain-reliever, protest organizer Micah Daigle said,
but in many cases, the U.S. Department of Justice has prosecuted and
imprisoned patients and their caregivers because the federal
government does not recognize such use of the drug.

"The main problem is the federal government isn't respecting the
states' decisions," Daigle said.

The Hinchey-Rohrabacher amendment failed by 66 votes in the House of
Representatives in July of 2003, Daigle said, even though a 2002 CNN
poll found that 80 percent of Americans "think adults should be able
to use marijuana legally for medical purposes."

U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons, R-2nd District, voted against the amendment.

Daigle said Simmons spoke with the protesters Friday, and that "he
seemed pretty supportive of at least looking into the issue."

Daigle said demonstrations were taking place in about 120 locations
around the nation Friday, which had been designated a "national day of
action." It was the one-year anniversary of a court decision favorable
to a California man who faced federal charges that he grew marijuana
to use for prescriptions. Marijuana can be legally prescribed in
California, Daigle said, and although the man was convicted, he was
only sentenced to one day in prison.

Among the demonstrators in Norwich was Mark Braunstein, a Waterford
resident and medicinal marijuana user who has been fighting for
legalization of the drug for eight years.

"I have been a paraplegic for 14 years and a medicinal marijuana user
for 13 1/2 years," Braunstein said. "I don't use the typically
prescribed drugs like narcotics, codeine or morphine, which are highly
addictive. With marijuana, the only side effects are increased risk of
respiratory illness, because it is smoking, and paranoia -- paranoia
of being arrested, of court costs, of prison sentences."

Braunstein said that originally he needed to smoke marijuana daily to
ease his spasms and pain, but that over the years he has been able to
reduce his use to once every two or three days.