MEDICAL MARIJUANA SUPPORTERS EXPECT EASIER ROAD THIS YEAR

ANNAPOLIS - Medical marijuana proponents are optimistic about their chances
of passing legislation that would give chronically ill or terminal patients
the legal opportunity to use marijuana without fear of prosecution.

On Wednesday, the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee and members of the
Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Committee held a public hearing
on a bill sponsored by EHEA Chairwoman Paula C. Hollinger, Del. Dan K.
Morhaim, D-Baltimore, and Sen. David R. Brinkley, R-Carroll/Frederick.

The bill would create a research program through the Board of Physicians
Quality Assurance for the medical use of marijuana that would regularly
report to the legislature about the basic safety, efficacy and nature of
its medical use. The bill would also allow patients suffering from specific
serious illnesses, their doctors and, in some instances, the patient's
primary caregiver to apply to participate in the research program with
protection from arrest and prosecution for the medical use of marijuana.

"The least that we can do is to do what we can to alleviate the pain,"
Hollinger said. "This is a very pressing issue for people that are
suffering. It's no different thatn someone having morphine or codine or
other schedule I drugs."

But supporters, such as Sen. Nancy Jacobs, R-Harford/Cecil, are concerned
that the bill allows patients to grow their own marijuana plants. The bill
restricts the number of plants to seven - three which may be mature and the
patient can only possess one usable ounce of marijuana per mature plant.

"You've got to get it figured out where they're going to get the plants or
seeds in this bill," Jacobs told the bill sponsors. "We shouldn't legalize
[patients] taking these risks. ... I've never seen anyone out selling seeds."

Brinkley said that while the supply of marijuana and several other issues
are important to the bill sponsors, this is a first step to give people
suffering a chance at relief from their pain and from prosecution.

"We're trying to get the state off the backs of the patients first,"
Brinkley said. "People are already doing this now. ... These people don't
have the luxury of time."

Eric Sterling, of the Marijuana Policy Project, suggested that the
committee considering amending the bill and allowing the University of
Maryland College of Agriculture and Natural Resources be allowed to grow
the marijuana for distribution to qualifying patients.

But the bill's opponents, including George Butler, a drug investigator for
the Carroll County state's attorney, contend that the passage of a medical
marijuana bill would send children the wrong message about drug use.

"I think our youth are watching what you're doing here," Butler told the
committee. "I would like to think that there are other drugs out there
other than marijuana to help these people."

However, Butler and the one other opponent that spoke Wednesday were
overshadowed by personal testimony from people that testified that they
have used or currently use marijuana to help relieve their pain.

Erin Hildebrandt, of Smithsburg, suffers from Crohn's disease - an
incurable disease that may inflame the small and large intestines - and
serious migraines said that she uses marijuana to help maintain a normal life.

She said that before she tried marijuana, she was confined to bed and that
the only time she left was to go to the bathroom or to the hospital for
help. She said that her migraines sent her to the emergency room on average
three times a week, but since she started using marijuana she hasn't been
back to the emergency room in three years.

But either option - under current law - leaves her with few options when it
comes to taking care of her five children.

"I have to wonder every day, will I be disabled by illness or thrown into
jail?" she asked the committee. "This is just wrong and you have the power
to change this. I'm begging you, please, pass this bill as soon as possible."

Donald Murphy, a former delegate that spearheaded medical marijuana
legislation last year, said that the chances the bill will pass this year
are much greater. He said one of the biggest changes this year was the
election. He said that former Sen. Timothy R. Ferguson's loss to Brinkley
is indicative of people's opinions on medical marijuana.

"That was a big issue during the primary election," Murphy said. "Think of
the message that his defeat sends to Republicans."

Murphy said that he thinks that the bill has the votes in both Senate
committees to bring the bill to the floor for a final vote.

The two committees will vote on the issue in the coming weeks. If both
approve the bill, it will go before the Senate for a final vote and then be
sent to the House of Delegates for consideration.

A twin bill is also filed in the House and is scheduled for a hearing
before the House Judiciary Committee Tuesday.