CANNABIS MEASURE PASSES SENATE

Seriously Ill Would Be Allowed to Grow Pot

After five years of on-again, off-again debate, Connecticut lawmakers
Friday passed landmark legislation allowing seriously ill people to
grow marijuana at home to ease their pain or reduce unpleasant side
effects of treatment.

The bill passed by a 23-13 bipartisan vote in the state Senate, where
it appeared people's personal experience with pain and loss trumped
politics on this occasion. The House of Representatives passed the
bill last week, 89-58.

The bill now goes to Gov. M. Jodi Rell, who has already expressed
concerns about its broad reach but is waiting to review the bill's
final language before deciding whether to sign it into law. Rell has
said she would feel better if the bill were limited to people
diagnosed as terminally ill.

State Sen. Andrew J. McDonald, D-Stamford, introduced the bill on the
Senate floor Friday.

"This legislation is tightly constrained to help a clearly defined
group of people who are suffering," McDonald said. "These people who
are suffering shouldn't have to suffer the threat of criminal
prosecution in seeking treatment."

McDonald pointed out that a 2004 survey by the University of
Connecticut Center for Survey Research and Analysis showed 83 percent
of Connecticut residents support allowing adults to use marijuana for
medical purposes if a doctor prescribes it.

Although he wasn't sure how Rell would act, McDonald said he didn't
believe she was "in the 17 percent minority."

Republican opponents of the bill worried about the message the
legislature was sending to children and whether a political body was
the best place to decide appropriate medical remedies.

State Sen. Sam F.S. Caligiuri, D-Waterbury, said the bill may
ultimately "do more harm than good."

"We'll be sending a mixed message to young people about whether
marijuana is good or bad," Caligiuri said. "We're going to undercut
our ability to keep children away from this gateway drug."

"This is definitely an emotional tug," said Sen. John McKinney,
R-Southport, whose father, U.S. Rep. Stewart B. McKinney, died of
AIDS. "To those who support this bill, I say your cause is noble, I
just don't think this is the right way to get there."

Under the bill, patients with certain serious or chronic medical
conditions such as cancer, AIDS, epilepsy, glaucoma and multiple
sclerosis could grow as many as four 4-foot-tall marijuana plants in
their homes, provided they obtain a doctor's prescription to do so.
Those patients would have to register with the state Department of
Consumer Protection, which would enforce the policy should it become law.

The bill does not limit legal use of marijuana to the terminally ill,
nor does it address how sick individuals or their caregivers would
obtain the marijuana seeds to grow the plants. Local pharmacies do
not stock marijuana or its seeds because of current restrictions
under federal law.

Connecticut already has a law legalizing marijuana, but it is
virtually useless. Current law allows doctors to prescribe marijuana
to ease the pain and discomfort of chemotherapy or for those
suffering glaucoma. But no prescriptions have been written because
doctors don't want to risk prosecution under federal law.

Twelve states currently allow the palliative use of marijuana. Rhode
Island has one of the most liberal laws, allowing as many as 12 plants.

Sen. Mary Ann Handley, D-Manchester, said she has seen research that
shows marijuana use among young people declined in states that
allowed medical marijuana.

"When you start using it as medicine, it starts losing its tempting
attraction," Handley said.

The Connecticut Nurses Association, the National Academy of Science,
the Lymphoma Foundation, the New England Journal of Medicine and the
Yale School of Public Health have all come out in favor of medical
marijuana, according to Sen. Andrew J. McDonald, D-Stamford.

"People are suffering and medical professionals in the field tell us
this drug, under controlled circumstances, can provide some relief,"
McDonald said.

But the American Cancer Society, the Connecticut State Medical
Society and the national Multiple Sclerosis Society are silent on the
issue, McKinney said.

"The very doctors charged with taking care of all of us have said 'we
can't support it,'" McKinney said. "That in itself is extremely persuasive."

Sen. Judith G. Freedman, R-Westport, led the Republican Party's
opposition. Freedman said commercial drugs on the market can provide
equal relief for pain.

"It hasn't been proven to me that this is the only route available to
people who are suffering," Freedman said.

Freedman also expressed concern about the message the bill was
sending children who have been taught that illegal drugs are wrong and bad.

"What are we telling our children when we stand here in this circle
saying let's legalize in Connecticut what the federal government says
is illegal?" Freedman asked.