MEDICAL MARIJUANA: NEW YORK IS WAITING TO INHALE

It Could Become the 13th State to Legalize Medical Marijuana, a Move
Some Say Could Mean Relief

ALBANY -- Joel Peacock, a registered member of the Conservative
Party, has little use for liberal politicians.

"I'm as far from liberal as you're ever going to get," the 57-
year-old Buffalo construction inspector said.

Yet Peacock said he hopes state lawmakers in Albany this week will
pass a bill legalizing marijuana for certain medical uses.

Peacock, who said "never in a million years" did he think he would
ever promote such a plan, has been in severe pain since a 2001 car
accident on Elmwood Avenue in Buffalo. In the years since, it has
affected nearly every facet of his life.

Doctors have tried an assortment of painkillers, settling on three
drugs he now takes -- with a price tag for his wife's insurance
company of about $2,800 a month.

Peacock and many medical experts believe marijuana could be a
supplement to the powerful and sometimes addictive narcotics that
people with life-threatening and debilitatingly painful conditions
now turn to for relief.

He is adding his voice to those of physicians, nurses, home care and
hospice workers, and patient advocates who are pushing for New York
to become the 13th state in the nation to permit the medical use of marijuana.

Pending legislation has the support of leading Democrats and
Republicans in the State Legislature, and last week, Gov. Eliot L.
Spitzer said he has changed his mind from his days as a prosecutor
and now supports the drug's limited use for certain kinds of patients.

But there remains a disagreement among lawmakers over controlling
access to the drug, which has negotiators scrambling for a compromise
before the Legislature ends its 2007 session later this week.

Physicians see marijuana as an adjunct type of drug to help
everything from loss of appetite in patients with cancer and AIDS to
providing a bit more comfort to the terminally ill.

"I think you'd be hardpressed to find somebody in our line of work to
not support something of potential benefit to our patients," said Dr.
Christopher Kerr, medical director at Hospice Buffalo, which cares
for 500 patients in inpatient, nursing home and residential settings
in Western New York.

"I just don't think people with terminal diseases should be reduced
to what's viewed as illegal acts to obtain relief from their
suffering," Kerr said. "If there are options, I don't think the
politics should trump the science."

At the Capitol, the most vocal critic of the medical marijuana bill
has been Peacock's state Conservative Party. Some conservatives argue
that the state is sending the wrong message by legalizing marijuana
for a certain segment and worry about a slippery slope that could
lead to further relaxing of drug laws.

The Assembly approved its version last week during a debate that saw
several lawmakers speak of terminally ill spouses and parents who
either did use or who lawmakers said should have been able to use
marijuana before they died of cancer and other diseases. During a
floor debate last week, several lawmakers, including Assemblyman
James Hayes, R Amherst, criticized the plan because it would leave it
up to patients to find their own marijuana.

Backers said they want state licensed facilities to dispense the drug
to qualified patients, but the federal government has raided such
outlets in California, where medical marijuana is legal.

Senate Republicans said they won't pass a bill that could force some
patients -- who would have to be approved by physicians and the state
Health Department -- to find the drug through dealers. A measure was
introduced Monday in the State Senate that would permit possession of
medical marijuana but only if it was obtained through
state-sanctioned dispensers.

Many patients in New York already have turned to marijuana.

Bruce Dunn, an Otsego County resident, added marijuana to the
Oxycontin he has been taking for pain -- despite knowing he's
breaking the law. "I resent the hell out of being a criminal because
I use this herb," he told reporters at the Capitol on Monday.

Peacock already has seen the benefits of marijuana to help relieve
neck pain that came following surgery to remove three disks in his spine.

During a construction business trip to Louisiana and Florida after
Hurricane Katrina, he ran out of his medication and could not get the
prescriptions -- which have different dispensing standards than most
drugs -- refilled while out of town. Desperate and suffering from
violent withdrawal symptoms, he turned to marijuana for temporary
relief, he said.

Peacock said he has not had any of the drug since then because he
relies on three powerful prescription narcotics, including Actiq, a
potent drug used by cancer patients.

"It [marijuana] didn't make me act silly. It just took the pain
away," Peacock said.

Peacock is a former construction manager and now performs
construction inspections on commercial building projects.

Legislation pending in Albany would not cover Peacock or others
suffering from chronic pain; it is limited to serious,
lifethreatening conditions, though a provision would permit the state
health commissioner to add other conditions, such as pain.

Peacock said policymakers should consider marijuana not just from a
medical standpoint but as a way to help lower prescription drug
costs, like the nearly $36,000 his drugs will cost his wife's
insurance company this year. He said he strongly opposes laws that
would loosen marijuana laws for anyone except those who medically qualify.

"It may sound corny, but the cost of my pain medications are
absolutely insane," he said. "If they could provide something like
medical marijuana, wouldn't that help everybody to see the costs
going down instead of going up?"

Peacock talked of the various medications doctors have prescribed
over the years, each with its own troublesome side effects.

In marijuana, Peacock sees a hopeful supplement to legal medications
to deal with a chronic condition. "It just never goes away," he said
of his pain.