MEDICAL MARIJUANA CLEARS SENATE HURDLE, BUT TIME IS RUNNING OUT

The Senate Health and Welfare Committee Thursday unanimously endorsed a
bill that would decriminalize marijuana possession and use for patients
suffering from a variety of illnesses, but prospects for further action on
the bill appeared dim.

By a 5-0 vote the committee sent the bill back to the full Senate after
making a few changes. But committee Chairwoman Sen. Nancy Chard, D-Windham,
made it clear to members that theirs wasn't the final word.

"This bill must go to the Judiciary Committee because there's a lot of law
enforcement provisions in it," she said. "(Judiciary Committee Chairman)
Sen. (Richard) Sears (D-Bennington) has made it clear that it's unlikely
he' ll have time to take testimony ... and act on it."

Sen. John Campbell, D-Windsor, a member of the Judiciary Committee, said he
himself had questions he still wanted answered.

"I'm going to vote yes on the bill because I think compassion and common
sense say you have to," he said. "My concern is the dispensing of
marijuana. The procurement is fraught with problems."

Campbell said he wished a nonprofit group or state agency could be
designated to handle distributing marijuana to qualified patients.

The bill allows seriously ill people to use marijuana to alleviate pain,
nausea and other symptoms associated with diseases such as cancer, multiple
sclerosis and AIDS.

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

It would require a doctor's certification that the patient suffered from
one of these conditions and that certification would be sent to the
Department of Public Safety. The bill would not permit use in most public
places or at work unless an employer consented, and would not protect users
from prosecution under federal law.

On Thursday the committee tightened some of the language, dropping Crohn's
disease and glaucoma from the list of conditions that would qualify for
using medical marijuana.

But the bill, which passed the Vermont House with bipartisan support, faces
two huge obstacles. The first is time; the second is Gov. Howard Dean.

Dean is a staunch opponent of medical marijuana, which he's has
characterized as a backdoor effort to legalize pot, and as the Democratic
governor explores a possible presidential run that stance is unlikely to
change.

But because the gay community - which supports medical marijuana for its
use by AIDS patients - is a group that Dean has won points with for signing
the landmark civil unions bill granting same-sex couples marriage rights,
he would prefer not to be forced to veto such a bill.

Sears said he had spoken with Dean briefly on the issue but that Dean had
not pressured him to avoid action on the bill.

He said the biggest problem was the late hour that the bill had arrived at.

"We're going to do the best we can to take a look at the bill, but we are
extremely limited on time to look at any bills," Sears said, noting that
his committee was being swamped with other bills.

He said that he and others also had legitimate concerns they wanted to
address, meaning the measure couldn't get a cursory review.

"I'm empathetic to the needs of people who are suffering," Sears said. "And
I would hope that ... prosecutors would be sympathetic as well."

But he noted that many of the troubled young people he worked with as
director of a youth program suffered from substance abuse problems.

"I don't want to send the message to them that we're making one more drug
legal," Sears said.

Even if the bill didn't pass this year, he said, its progress would help it
when the issue was raised again.

Advocates for the bill did their best to be optimistic.

"For the HIV community, for those who use medicinal marijuana, this is
great," said Virginia Renfrew, a lobbyist representing the HIV Positive
Public Policy Project. "The fact that the Senate Health and Welfare
Committee recognized the needs of these people is wonderful."

"Hopefully the Senate Judiciary Committee will take this up," she added.
"So people who are chronically ill will no longer have to break the law to
get their medicine."