EFFORTS RENEWED TO OK POT FOR ILL

State Rep. Penny Bacchiochi, R-Stafford, says smoking marijuana eased her
late husband's pain as he fought a rare bone cancer to the end.

The side effects of chemotherapy left Bacchiochi's terminally ill husband
incapacitated for days. The pills the doctors had prescribed did not work.
A grim time turned even bleaker. Then, one doctor privately suggested
giving marijuana a try. The illegal pot worked wonders, according to
Bacchiochi.

The first-term Republican told the story of her husband's marijuana use on
the House floor last session. The disclosure came during a debate on
legislation that sought to make it easier for seriously ill patients to
take advantage of a 1980 law that permits the medicinal use of marijuana in
the state. The bill fell a dozen votes of short of approval despite the
impassioned pleas and personal stories of Bacchiochi and other House members.

Bacchiochi is again asking colleagues in the General Assembly to change
Connecticut law on the medical use of marijuana.

She and Rep. James W. Abrams, D-Meriden, the chief sponsor of last year's
failed legislation, sent a letter out to all legislators earlier this month
asking for their support.

The letter signaled the renewal of the legislative effort that Abrams and
some advocates first mounted three years ago.

"We are going to push for the medical marijuana bill as hard, if not
harder, than last year," said Robert Rook, executive director of A Better
Way Foundation, a New Haven-based nonprofit group that supports a shift in
state policy on illegal drug use.

The bill last session proposed to allow seriously ill people to present a
defense of medical necessity to state charges of growing, using or
possessing marijuana. It was not a sure-fire guarantee against arrest or
conviction, however.

The advocates of medicinal marijuana use are not sure what legislative tack
they will take in the upcoming 2004 session. The one certainty is that
whatever they propose, there will be opposition.

"There is absolutely no reason for anybody to smoke marijuana," said Rep.
Robert Farr, R-West Hartford, the ranking House Republican on the Judiciary
Committee.

Once a bill is drafted, advocates will need a strategy for selling the
legislation to lawmakers, Gov. John G. Rowland and the public. They say
they have learned lessons from last session's failings.

"This year, we are going to be smart," Rook said.

Opponents last session harped about the lack of expert medical testimony.
"When we had the hearing last year, we did not have doctors lining up and
saying, you ought to smoke a joint when you have a drug treatment," Farr
said. The only doctor that testified before the Judiciary Committee was a
professor of ecology and evolutionary biology from Yale University. Abrams
said practicing physicians must testify next session. Rook said that is
going to happen.

A Better Way Foundation plans to recruit witnesses from the 400 or so
doctors it said signed a letter of support for last session's legislation.
Advocates of medicinal use also plan to have patients and family members
meet with legislators and the news media as part of a lobbying and public
education campaign. They will ask lawmakers to consult their personal
physicians. Additionally, supporters are counting on the personal stories
of legislative colleagues such as Bacchiochi to sway opinion. "Her story is
so compelling," Abrams said. Opponents will counter such stories with their
personal experiences. Farr said none of the doctors who treated family
members and friends for cancer, glaucoma or multiple sclerosis ever
recommended they smoke marijuana.

Bacchiochi insists that she is no crusader out to reform marijuana laws. "I
am not trying to change people's minds." Bacchiochi said she came to her
own conclusion after seeing how marijuana helped ease her husband's
suffering. She said fellow legislators must make up their own minds.
However, she said she is asking colleagues to be open-minded.

Advocates of the medicinal use of marijuana say research shows marijuana is
effective in treating such ailments such as AIDS, glaucoma, cancer,
multiple sclerosis, epilepsy and chronic pain. They claim that it is
sometimes more effective than prescribed drugs and has fewer side effects.

"The fact of the matter is there no medical use of marijuana," Farr said.

The American Medical Society opposes legalization of the sale and
possession of marijuana, and it recommends that it be prohibited for public
use. The AMA says more study is required to determine if the potential
benefits of smoking marijuana outweigh the known risks associated with the
drug. The American Cancer Society also does not advocate the legalization
of marijuana. Because many cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy today
will survive their disease, the society's experts say patients would be
unwise to increase risk of another cancer by smoking marijuana. The
National Multiple Sclerosis Society also does not recommend the medical use
of marijuana at this time.

The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, however, lists
more than two dozen national and state medical and health groups that
support the use of marijuana as a medicine, including the AIDS Action
Council, the American Academy of Family Physicians and the American Public
Health Association.

The 'First Seed' Question

The legal questions are as prickly as the medical arguments for supporters
of the medicinal use of marijuana.

The first and foremost issue is procurement, which has dogged the
legislative effort to allow the medicinal use of marijuana.

One reason no doctors have written prescriptions for marijuana since 1981
is that there is no legally available supply of it. There is also what has
become known as the "first seed" question. If you allow seriously ill
people to grow marijuana, they must obtain the seeds or plants illegally.
Additionally, if you decriminalize possession of marijuana for them, many
will buy it illegally, and that means putting money into the pockets of
criminal groups. Marijuana is the most readily available illicit drug in
Connecticut, and most of the state's supply comes from Mexico, according to
the Justice Department's National Drug Intelligence Center.

No representatives of law enforcement in Connecticut testified for or
against the medicinal use of marijuana last session. The U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration says marijuana has no medical value that cannot
be met more effectively by legal drugs. The DEA also says advocates of
broader legal drug use are using the medical argument as a "red herring" in
order to advance their cause. Farr said he believes advocates of
legalization are at work in Connecticut.

Abrams said the legislative effort to carve out an exception to allow the
medical use of marijuana is not about legalizing or decriminalizing
marijuana for the public at large; it is about helping sick people.

Federal law presents another obstacle. Physicians risk federal prosecution
for prescribing marijuana and the loss of their medical license. However,
Abrams said there have been encouraging developments in federal courts
lately. In a California case, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled
Dec. 10 that a federal law outlawing marijuana does not apply to sick
people who are allowed to smoke pot with a doctor's recommendation. The
Justice Department had argued that federal drug laws trumped state medical
marijuana laws. In October, the U.S. Supreme Court let stand a 9th Circuit
Court decision that barred the federal government from punishing physicians
who recommend patients try marijuana.

Abrams and Bacchiochi said it is too early for handicapping the chances of
passing a medical marijuana bill in the 2004 session.

"I think people each year are getting more and more comfortable with the
concept of marijuana being used legally within certain parameters,"
Bacchiochi said.

"I think if we can get it out of the Judiciary Committee, we have a decent
chance of getting it through the House," Abrams said.

The committee barely approved last session's bill 21-18. It only passed
because several opponents missed the vote, and because two members promised
Abrams to support it in committee. The Public Health Committee later
approved the legislation in a 12-7 vote along party lines.

The legislation last session had bipartisan support. "We have found this is
not an issue that is Democrats versus Republicans, which is great," said
Rook, of A Better Way Foundation. House Democrats were almost evenly
divided last session, with supporters of medical marijuana slightly edging
opponents. More than a third of the Republicans voted for the bill. The
measure, however, failed 64-79. It needed 72 votes to pass.

Advocates of the medicinal use of marijuana do not intend to give up the
fight if they fail a fourth time in 2004.

"If it doesn't pass this year, it just really is a matter of time,"
Bacchiochi said.