WILSON URGED TO APPROVE POT FOR PAIN

Cherie Haymes says smoking pot provided the best relief for her
chronic pain until Santa Fe police confiscated her marijuana plants
last fall.

A California doctor prescribed medical marijuana for Haymes, and she
used it in that state for four years to soothe her colitis symptoms
and arthritis pain, she said Friday at a press conference in front of
the office of U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M., in Albuquerque.
Haymes, who now lives in Santa Fe, spoke in favor of patients being
allowed to use medical marijuana.

The Marijuana Policy Project and Drug Policy Alliance New Mexico is
urging Wilson to vote in favor of an amendment that would prevent the
federal Drug Enforcement Administration from prosecuting seriously ill
patients in states that approve medical-marijuana use.

Enrique Carlos Knell, Wilson's spokesman, said the Republican
congresswoman opposes legislation to legalize marijuana for medicinal
purposes. She is concerned it would result in increased abuse of all
drugs, he said.

That reasoning didn't make sense to Crawford MacCallum, a 75-year-old
Tijeras resident, who attended the news conference. "That's only
because it's illegal, and people have to buy it on the street where
hard drugs are also sold," he said.

He said the issue of medical marijuana didn't personally affect him,
but he considers it a matter of personal liberty.

"It makes me angry that the government thinks they know better than I
do," he said.

Knell said Wilson believes people should use safer and less-addictive
treatments. Wilson, along with 272 other federal lawmakers, voted
against a medical marijuana amendment introduced in the U.S. House of
Representatives last year. The measure has not been introduced yet
this year.

Haymes, a 52-year-old business owner, and her musician husband, Paul
Bjorgan, will appear in state District Court in July to face charges
of possession of pot, conspiracy and suspicion of intent to sell.

Since police seized her plants, Haymes said, she suffers from
unnecessary pain, and the colitis causes spasms in her colon that pot
used to keep under control. She has used natural-healing methods for
the past 30 years and said marijuana is the best way to prevent spasms
caused by pain.

She can't use prescription drugs because they inflame her auto-immune
disease, which destroys her thyroid hormone, she added.

"People should not be hypercritical and realize everyone uses some
kind of medication when they are in pain," she said. "How cruel to
withhold what works for somebody."

Bryan Krumm, a registered nurse who lives in Santa Fe, has a library
of marijuana research with at least 1,000 articles, he said. As
director of New Mexicans for Compassionate Use, he is involved in
filing a lawsuit against the New Mexico Board of Pharmacy to allow New
Mexicans to use marijuana as medicine. The lawsuit will soon be filed
under an equal-protection claim that says if one person can get
medical marijuana legally, everyone should be allowed access, he said.

The group is suing the board rather than attempting state legislation
again this year. The House defeated a medical-marijuana bill sponsored
by Rep. Ken Martinez, D-Grants, earlier this year. Gov. Bill
Richardson said at the beginning of the legislative session that
reforming drug laws would not be a priority of his administration, but
he remained open to a medical-marijuana bill.

Seventy-two percent of people participating in a September 2003 poll
sponsored by The New Mexican and KOB-TV said they would favor
"legalizing marijuana use by those who have serious medical
conditions, to alleviate pain and other symptoms."

If Haymes and her husband hadn't recently bought a house and
established her skin-care business on Baca Street, she probably would
not stay in New Mexico, she said.

"Why stay somewhere where you can't get your medicine," she said.