MEDICAL POT BILL IS KILLED

MONTPELIER -- The controversial question of whether Vermont should legalize
marijuana use for people with serious illnesses like cancer or AIDS appears
to be dead for this session.

On Friday, a joint House-Senate conference committee reached a tentative
agreement to kill the measure and instead appoint a task force to study the
issue and report its findings to the next Legislature.

Committee members couldn't reconcile the differences in the bills passed by
the two chambers.

The House passed an ambitious plan to legalize possession, use, and
cultivation of marijuana for people suffering from a specific list of
disorders. The Senate approved a more modest "affirmative defense" bill
that would have allowed sick people arrested for marijuana possession to
claim their illness as a defense against prosecution.

"The Senate and the House are too far apart to come to an agreement this
year that everyone will be comfortable signing on to," said Senate
Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Richard Sears, D-Bennington.

Instead, the plan is for Sears and House Judiciary Committee Chairwoman
Margaret Flory, R-Pittsford, to send a letter to the state's prosecutors
asking them not to press charges for marijuana possession against anyone
who suffers from serious diseases. Prosecutors say they generally don't do
so anyway. And the bill will set up a task force of police, prosecutors,
doctors, advocates and medical marijuana users to examine the question and
report its findings.

Sears said lawmakers were purposely left off the panel. "I think (having
them on) politicizes the issue too much," he said. "I'm hoping these
interest groups will be able to decide whether it's wise or not."

The House bill permitted use and possession of marijuana to alleviate pain,
nausea and other symptoms associated with diseases such as cancer, multiple
sclerosis and AIDS.

It required a doctor's certification that the patient suffered from one of
these conditions. That certification would be kept on file with the
Department of Public Safety, which oversees the Vermont State Police.

A patient or designated caregiver could possess up to three mature plants,
four immature plants and 3 ounces of marijuana, and could grow the plant if
they do it in a secure, indoor location.

But Sears and others raised questions about the quantity that those plants
would produce. And doctors were concerned that the federal government --
whose marijuana laws would trump state law -- would punish them if they
appeared to be endorsing or prescribing an illegal drug.

A compromise proposal by Rep. Michael Kainen, R-Hartford, that addressed
the doctors' concerns and tightened the possession amounts wasn't enough to
sway Sears and Senate negotiators.

Gov. Howard Dean, a staunch opponent of medical marijuana who had hinted at
a veto, said he would likely sign off on a study task force.

"As far as I'm concerned they can urge the (federal Food and Drug
Administration) to study it," he said. Dean has said marijuana should go
through the same FDA approval process as any new drug.

Advocates for AIDS patients, who supported the House bill, tried to be
optimistic.

"We're disappointed the Senate did not accept the (Kainen) compromise
proposal," said Gail Zatz, a lobbyist for the HIV Public Policy Project.
"... But we will participate in the task force and work with other
interested parties to find a way to join eight other states in making this
a reality."