MEDICAL MARIJUANA BILL DIES IN HOUSE

Detractors Keep Lid On A `Cruel Hoax'

After a spirited debate focusing on compassion and prosecution, the House
of Representatives rejected a cutting-edge bill Wednesday that would have
legalized the use of marijuana for medical purposes.

By a vote of 79-64, the House decided against allowing Connecticut to join
eight other states that say marijuana can relieve pain for people suffering
from cancer, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy and severe muscle spasms.

Several legislators spoke passionately about family members who have
suffered in their final days, while others said the bill was actually a
back-door maneuver to open huge loopholes and lead to the legalization of a
banned drug.

The bill would have allowed doctors to certify that a patient needed
marijuana for medical purposes. The bill also would have allowed patients
to cultivate a limited number of marijuana plants, but would have forbidden
marijuana smoking in public, in the presence of minors or by anyone younger
than 18.

Sponsors admitted they could not find a way to provide for medical users to
legally obtain marijuana seeds for cultivation.

Rep. Robert Farr, a West Hartford Republican, said that passing the bill
would have sent a false message that marijuana is not harmful. Another
problem, he said, is that marijuana is not helpful for a series of
illnesses mentioned in the bill.

"Show me a doctor who prescribes smoking marijuana for glaucoma, and I
would like to see his medical malpractice bill," said Farr, an attorney. "I
consider this a cruel hoax."

Some legislators questioned how patients could obtain marijuana legally.
They charged that the patient would need to break the law in order to
obtain the seeds to grow the marijuana plants.

"I go out on the corner with Little Johnny Junkie, and I have to deal with
him to buy the drug," said Rep. John Wayne Fox, a Stamford Democrat. "This
bill is about legalizing marijuana."

A freshman legislator, Penny Bacchiochi of Somers, brought the 151-member
House chamber to silence when she said that no anti-nausea medications
would help her husband when he was suffering from terminal bone cancer.
After an operation, he became a paraplegic and suffered intense pain.

"A courageous doctor took us aside, and he told us that my husband needed
to try marijuana," said Bacchiochi, 41. "It was obtained at great legal
risk to my family, but it worked, and it worked wonders. And it gave him
back some quality of life. I will always remember how my husband suffered,
and I will always remember if this legislature had passed a bill like this,
he would have suffered less."

State lawmakers waded into the highly volatile debate despite a national
controversy and a unanimous ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court two years ago
that made medical marijuana illegal.

The debate has a long and memorable history in Connecticut, going back to
1981 when two young legislators named John Rowland and Moira Lyons were
serving in their first year as lawmakers in the House. They both voted for
a bill that allowed physicians to write prescriptions for medical
marijuana, but no Connecticut doctors have done that in the ensuing 22
years because federal law prevents it, lawmakers said.

During that 1981 debate, state Rep. Robert C. Sorensen of Meriden was
credited with helping save the bill from defeat when he announced that he
was undergoing "the horrors of chemotherapy" as the result of colon cancer.
Several years later, his claim was discounted when he admitted that he had
lied in another speech about having served in the Vietnam War.

Wednesday, after a 2½-hour debate, the two top House Democrats - Lyons,
speaker of the house, and Majority Leader James Amann - both missed the
vote on the bill because they were in a back room talking about the state
budget and the ongoing fiscal crisis. Their absence prompted a complaint by
deputy House Republican leader Claudia "Dolly" Powers of Greenwich, who
said she was "embarrassed as a legislator" because the leaders were absent
on a key issue.