MEDICAL MARIJUANA BILL HITS A SNAG

MONTPELIER -- Efforts to pass a measure providing some legal protections to
seriously ill patients who use marijuana for medicinal purposes failed
Tuesday, raising doubts among some lawmakers that any bill would make it
into law this year.

Sen. Richard Sears, D-Bennington, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, tried
several procedural ways to get his measure through the Senate. All were in
vain.

Despite the failures, Sears said he was not giving up hope of getting some
proposal out of the Senate by the end of the week.

"At this point, I've kind of made a commitment to move forward with my
position on the issue of medical marijuana. Admittedly, it's a baby step.
The challenge now is the people who originally advocated for it don't want
this baby step," he said.

Sears' proposal creates a so-called affirmative defense for patients who
possess up to an ounce of marijuana. The measure does not make it legal to
possess the drug as a House-passed bill did, but rather would provide
patients with a defense they could mount before a judge or jury.

Even if Sears is able to win the support of the Democratic-controlled Senate
on his version later this week, leaders in the Republican House doubt they
would have time to take up a new bill.

"This is the last week or so of the session. We're trying to wrap things
up," said Rep. Margaret Flory, R-Pittsford, chairwoman of the House
Judiciary Committee. "This may be how the Senate is choosing to kill it."

Flory, who has openly opposed the Senate version, questioned why Sears
didn't simply take the House-passed bill, which legalized the use of
medicinal marijuana, and make changes to that. By doing that, Sears would
skip the step of having to send a new bill back to the House for full
review, and move straight to a committee of conference.

"We sent them a good bill," she said. "If they want to deal with this issue,
wouldn't it seem logical for them to act on that bill, not a brand new
Senate bill?"

Sears said he put his proposal on a new bill because he did not want to open
the debate on the House's measure because he had already decided there was
not enough time in the last weeks of the session to discuss all the issues.

"An unexpected event occurred in the House when it passed its bill. We
certainly didn't have time to do a thorough job on it," he said.

House members and advocates of medicinal marijuana have openly criticized
Sears' version as a weak attempt that provides no tangible benefits for
seriously ill people who use the drug for relief of symptoms such as nausea,
vomiting and pain.

The bill the House passed last month decriminalizes possession and
cultivation of marijuana for patients who obtain a certificate from their
physician. That measure also provided the same protections for primary
caregivers, and created a database with the state of those approved patients
and caregivers so police could verify that they had obtained the marijuana
legally.

Despite inaction on medicinal marijuana Tuesday, the Senate moved at a quick
pace in anticipation of adjournment in the coming weeks.

The Senate passed a capital construction budget, as well as a controversial
measure governing the arrest powers of police officers. The Senate bill
allowed police to arrest people on misdemeanor offenses without warrants
only in certain circumstances. It marked a change from the House-passed
bill, which granted police broader powers in those circumstances, including
the ability to arrest for misdemeanors without a warrant under most
circumstances.

That bill will likely make it into law in some form. The two sides are
expected to negotiate a compromise measure in a joint House and Senate
conference committee.