GIVE PROTECTION TO PATIENTS WHO NEED MEDICAL MARIJUANA

The Issue

A bill that would have given added protection to patients treated by
medical marijuana died in the House in this year's session.

STATE laws allowing medical use of marijuana have been on the books
for nearly a decade but have been hampered by federal attempts to
undermine them. The number of patients has dwindled as they have
become subject to arrest and physicians have grown reluctant to
prescribe pot. Legislation that should have been enacted this year is
needed to protect patients using marijuana and physicians prescribing it.

The Hawaii Senate unanimously approved a bill in this year's
legislative session that would have expanded the use of medical
marijuana and restricted physicians' role in prescribing it to
conform with court rulings, but the bill died in a House committee.
As many as 1,000 Hawaii residents have been registered with the state
to use marijuana to treat their illnesses.

The number has fallen because of doctors' fear of prosecution, even
though the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, whose jurisdiction
includes Hawaii, has made it clear that they may not be prosecuted
for recommending marijuana treatment and that its benefits would
outweigh the risks. The bill would have limited the physician's role
to those two functions.

The Hawaii law enacted in 2000 allows marijuana to be used for
treatment of a "debilitating medical condition," and the bill would
have created a committee of two physicians and a state Department of
Health representative to meet twice a year to consider physicians'
requests to widen its use. Research has shown that marijuana is
"moderately well suited" for treating nausea, vomiting and AIDS.

Amounts of marijuana to be used for medical purposes also would have
been expanded by the bill. Patients now can possess an "adequate
supply" of as much as three mature marijuana plants, four immature
plants and one ounce of usable marijuana. The bill would have
expanded such a supply to seven mature plants and three ounces of
usable marijuana.

Oregon patients are allowed as many as two dozen plants and 24 ounces
of pot. New Mexico, the most recent state to legalize medical
marijuana, plans to allow plants coinciding with Hawaii's current law
plus six ounces of marijuana. Washington is the only one of the dozen
medical-marijuana states with no specific limit set and is embroiled
in a debate about what it should be.

Washington's absence of a limit has allowed patients and their
doctors to argue in court over how much they need. A marijuana dosing
study at the University of Washington found that patients should be
allowed from a half-pound to 234 pounds during a two-month period.