MEDICAL MARIJUANA SCORES HOUSE WIN

HARTFORD - The fight to legalize marijuana use for medicinal purposes
scored a big win Wednesday when it cleared the House of
Representatives by 31 votes.

The measure, which now heads to the Senate, was approved 89-58 after
more than six hours of debate.

"We have the opportunity to give relief to Connecticut residents who
are sick, who are dying, who are wasting away, who are losing their
quality of life," Rep. Penny Bacchiochi, R-Somers, said. "And we can
tell those Connecticut residents that the state of Connecticut no
longer will prosecute you."

Over the past five years, Bacchiochi has become the legislature's
leading advocate for legalizing marijuana use for those suffering
from certain illnesses and injuries that cause prolonged,
debilitating pain, such as cancer and multiple sclerosis.

In 2003, the Somers lawmaker first disclosed that she had risked
arrest in the late 1980s to buy marijuana for her former husband, who
had developed terminal bone cancer. Facing chemotherapy, radiation
treatments, and surgery to remove a spinal tumor, he suffered intense
pain and debilitating nausea until he died, she said, adding
marijuana use lessened his suffering.

Wednesday's win in the House might give legalization advocates their
best chance yet of changing the law. In 2003, the House rejected a
bill to legalize medicinal use by 15 votes. One year later advocates
gained a small win when a legalization amendment narrowly was
approved in the House, but the bill it was attached to subsequently
was scrapped and never escaped that chamber.

The marijuana legalization debate took a different route in 2005,
starting in the Senate, which approved a bill by two votes. The House
never took it up.

If Senate approval can be obtained for the measure before the 2007
legislative session ends June 6, the bill would go to Gov. M. Jodi Rell's desk.

"I'm very optimistic," Bacchiochi said, adding, "I think this year
the message has become very clear. We are only talking about removing
the possibility of criminal prosecution for a very small group of
people. This is not about legalizing marijuana."

Rell said she hasn't decided whether to sign the measure, and made it
clear she has some concerns with the bill as it currently stands.

If the bill limited marijuana use to terminally ill patients,
"everyone would feel better about the language," Rell said.

But the governor quickly added she has mixed emotions, noting that
many people have watched a family member or other loved one suffer
from a painful illness. "You would do anything in your power to
alleviate that pain," Rell said.

Opponents in the House said the proposal sends the wrong message
about drugs to children and could exacerbate a patient's health
problems. Some also claimed the bill still has many problems that
haven't been addressed.

"How do you get it?" asked House Minority Leader Lawrence J. Cafero
Jr., R-Norwalk, referring to the marijuana seeds needed to grow the
maximum four plants allowed under the bill. "You've got to buy it.
How do you buy it? ... You've got to hit the streets folks - nickel
bag, dime bag. You've got to make a drug deal, baby."

Still, Rep. Michael P. Lawlor, D-East Haven, co-chairman of the
legislature's Judiciary Committee, said Connecticut's law enforcement
officials already use their discretion in most instances not to
arrest or prosecute those who use marijuana for medicinal purposes.

"If police and prosecutors look the other way in this situation,"
Lawlor said, "maybe it's incumbent on us as a legislature to say that
common sense ... ought to be reflected in the laws of this state."

Rep. Toni Boucher, R-Wilton, tried in vain to change the bill. She
had filed about 50 amendments, but called only eight. They ranged
from requiring the Department of Agriculture to set up a pilot
program for medical marijuana patients to providing local police
departments with the names of people using the drug for palliative purposes.

She voted against the bill.

The legislation allows a doctor to certify an adult patient's use of
marijuana after determining the patient has a debilitating condition
and potentially could benefit from marijuana. Patients and their
primary caregivers would then register with the Department of
Consumer Protection.

The patient and the primary caregiver would be limited to growing no
more than four plants, each having a maximum height of 4 feet, in an
indoor, security facility.

According to the national Marijuana Policy Project, 12 states allow
patients to use marijuana despite federal laws against it. A 12th
state, Maryland, protects patients from jail but not arrest.

Connecticut already has a medical marijuana law, one of the first in
the nation. Under the 1981 law, a doctor can prescribe the illegal
drug to relieve nausea associated with chemotherapy and eye pressure
from glaucoma.

But the law is unworkable because, under federal law, physicians who
prescribe marijuana can be sent to prison and risk having their
medical licenses revoked.