MEDICAL MARIJUANA BILL KILLED BY SENATE COMMITTEE

ANNAPOLIS (AP) - A bill to establish a $100 fine as the maximum penalty for
possessing marijuana for medical use was killed by a one-vote margin Friday
by the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee.

The bill, which had already passed the House of Delegates, would have
essentially decriminalized possession of small amounts of marijuana for
people who could prove to a judge they needed to smoke it to relieve
symptoms of illnesses such as cancer and AIDS.

"This is a sad day for future cancer patients in the state of Maryland,"
Delegate Donald Murphy, R-Baltimore County, sponsor of the bill, said.

Murphy said he lost the bill on a 6-5 vote because Sen. Timothy Ferguson,
R-Carroll-Frederick, voted against the bill after promising he would vote
for it and "shepherd it through the committee."

Ferguson said he told Murphy he would shepherd the bill through the
committee but did not promise to vote for it.

Billy Rogers of the Marijuana Policy Project in Washington said if the bill
had gotten out of committee and onto the Senate floor, it would have passed.

"We made tremendous progress this year in getting the bill out of the House
Judiciary Committee and winning a vote on the House floor," he said.

He predicted a bill will pass the General Assembly next year.