MEDICAL MARIJUANA BILL GAINS SUPPORT

HARTFORD -- Ridgefield native Kathleen M. Anderson never thought
she'd be promoting the legalization of medical marijuana. "If someone
told me 10 years ago I would be an advocate, I would have said no way."

Then, nine years ago, her now 23-year-old daughter was diagnosed with
reflex sympathetic dystrophy syndrome, a chronic disease that results
in intense pain, especially when touched, that increases over time.

"I'm a conservative mom," she said, "but any parent who has had to
watch their child suffer for years as I have would support this effort."

Anderson, who now lives in Berlin, Conn., brought her daughter to the
State Capitol Friday along with two large bags filled with hundreds
of empty bottles from the prescription medications she has tried
since she was diagnosed at age 14.

Anderson said she's tried everything to help relieve her daughter's
intense pain, which can flare up at the slightest touch of her skin,
including surgery that cut in half her daughter's ganglion nerve,
located near the base of the spine.

"Our doctor said it had a 90 percent success rate," she said. "It's
the worst thing we could have done. Now the sweat glands don't work
on the right side of her body and she has problems with her heart
rate and blood flow."

Anderson said one of the few substances that has helped her daughter
is marijuana.

"If someone touches her arm, it swells up and she's in agony," she
said. "Just a few puffs help to lessen the pain and the swelling goes
down in minutes.

"Unfortunately, she could be arrested for it. Going to jail would
kill my daughter. Just putting handcuffs on her wrists would result
in excruciating pain."

She added that her daughter doesn't experience any of the substance's
euphoric effects.

Popular talk show host Montel Williams, who spoke Friday in Hartford
about his use of marijuana to reduce the pain and spasms he suffers
as a result of multiple sclerosis, also said he doesn't experience
the euphoric effects.

Williams said most viewers of his show never get to see his spasms --
or the three injections and 90 pills a day he takes to try to relieve his pain.

He added that he takes more than $2,500 worth of prescription drugs a
month, including Oxycodone, Percocet and Vicodin, but nothing helps
his pain more than marijuana.

"I spent 22 years in the military in the Marines and the Navy," he
said. "I put my life on the line for this country over and over
again. I'm begging the people for what I almost died for -- life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

Williams received a standing ovation when he announced what he
planned to do after leaving the press conference.

"I have to pray that the local law enforcement gives me a right of
passage to my state," the New York resident said. "When I walk out of
here I will smoke pot."

Opponents of legislation that would allow doctors to prescribe
marijuana and allow patients with a prescription to grow it for their
own use held their own press conference Friday.

State Rep. Toni Boucher, R-Wilton, a staunch opponent of the
proposal, said that while there are hundreds of chemicals in
marijuana that have yet to be scientifically tested, testing that has
been completed shows there are serious adverse health effects.

They include lung cancer, respiratory and breathing problems, loss of
motor skills, and an increased heart rate associated with sudden
death syndrome.

"Marijuana is a harmful drug that doesn't save or improve lives,"
Boucher said. "With the greater use and abuse of this drug, we are
now seeing the damage to health that smoking marijuana produces.

"Smoked marijuana is associated with higher concentrations of tar,
carbon monoxide, and carcinogens than even cigarette smoke," she said.

Dr. David Kloth, founder of Connecticut Pain Care in Danbury, and the
immediate past president of the American Society of Interventional
Pain Physicians, said there are limited studies on the effectiveness
of marijuana as a pain medication, although it has been used for
nausea and as an appetite stimulant for chemotherapy patients.

"The few studies that have been done have not found conclusively that
it's good for pain management," he said. "It may work in combination
with other medications, and some people may benefit from it.

"In general, however, the majority of pain physicians in this country
would not support the use of marijuana for pain management."

Kloth said that while the substance could act on some receptors in
the body with pain-relieving effects, those who could benefit are few
and far between.

"The one thing in favor of it is that it's safe," he said. "Nobody is
going to overdose and die from marijuana. It's probably safer than alcohol."

The proposed legislation passed the Judiciary Committee last week
with a vote of 32 to 8, with several area legislators, including
state Sen. David Cappiello, R-Danbury, and state Rep. Bob Godfrey,
D-Danbury, voting in favor of the measure.

The proposal would still need to be approved by the House and Senate
before it goes to Gov. M. Jodi Rell for her signature. A similar
proposal passed the Senate last year with a vote of 19 to 15, but
died in the House from inaction.

Cappiello said he supports the measure because medical decisions are
better left with doctors than lawmakers.

"Medical doctors should be able to make decisions based on their
patients' needs," he said. "Under our laws now doctors can prescribe
a slew of painkillers, including morphine and derivatives of cocaine,
but as a legislature we're saying under no circumstances can they
prescribe marijuana, even if it could provide some medical benefit.

"Shouldn't we let doctors make that decision?"

Laws Elsewhere

States that allow some form of medical marijuana use:

- -- Alaska

- -- California

- -- Colorado

- -- Hawaii

- -- Maine

- -- Montana

- -- Nevada

- -- Oregon

- -- Rhode Island

- -- Vermont

- -- Washington