cannabisnews.com: Need Exists to Reform Pot Law, Group Says





Need Exists to Reform Pot Law, Group Says
Posted by FoM on February 21, 2000 at 07:14:01 PT
By Mark Minton, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Source: Arkansas Democrat
Advocates for reforming Arkansas drug laws called in two homebound medical patients Sunday to champion a proposal to allow the chronically ill to smoke marijuana.  Delbert Lewis and James Markes rolled to the podium in wheelchairs to give testimonials on their medicinal use of marijuana -- Markes to combat drastic weight loss and Lewis to deal with a debilitating condition he called "post-polio syndrome." 
While both acknowledged smoking marijuana in the past, neither said he is currently using the drug, which is illegal in Arkansas even for medicinal use.  The Alliance for Reform of Drug Policy in Arkansas hopes to change the law, which supporters say bars the seriously ill from a medical alternative that can relieve their pain. Opponents, though, say no scientific evidence supports that claim and that the medicinal marijuana movement undercuts the government's anti-drug efforts.  The grass-roots advocacy group, based in Fayetteville, started collecting signatures last month on an initiative petition to allow chronic sufferers to use marijuana on a doctor's recommendation.  The plan would require the state Department of Health to administer the marijuana program, handing out special identification cards to patients whose doctors recommended the drug. Patients with the cards could legally use marijuana in recommended amounts.  Denele Campbell, a Fayetteville piano tuner who is president of the alliance, said organizers modeled the proposal after a medicinal-marijuana law in Oregon. Similar laws are in place in Alaska, Arizona, California, Maine, Nevada, Oregon and Washington, D.C.  Though Campbell said Arkansas supporters are circulating petitions in support of the measure in 13 counties, she had "no clue" how many people have signed. To place the proposal on the November general-election ballot, the group needs the signatures of nearly 57,000 registered voters by early July.  Though Campbell said the initiative is finding supporters in its Northwest Arkansas base, organizers knew from the start that their chances were slim to make the July deadline. They decided to press ahead anyway to at least put the idea of medical marijuana in the public arena, Campbell said.  Sunday's meeting at Laman Library in North Little Rock was the group's first venture into Pulaski County.  Mara Leveritt, an Arkansas Times contributor who has written in support of the proposal, welcomed the 40 or so who showed up for the session.  Though some voters automatically recoil at any proposal having to do with legalizing marijuana, Leveritt said, residents in seven states found good reasons to support medicinal marijuana.  "They have decided this is an issue of compassion," she said. "It's a civil-rights issue. This is something that physicians should be able to prescribe."  Markes, a 37-year-old Navy veteran suffering a disabling condition he described as "collagenous colitis and other pathologies," said the marijuana he tried as a last resort helped him gain back some of the 70 pounds he lost because of his illness.  Markes, who declined to give his address, said a doctor suggested he try marijuana after nothing else worked. After regaining 28 pounds in the first month, he credited the drug with saving his life.  "I know it has," Markes said.  But he has been arrested and fined and had his driver's license taken away as a result of taking the drug, he said.  Lewis, the polio survivor, said it's wrong for a patient who benefits from the drug to live in fear of arrest.  "I currently don't use cannabis as much as I'd like to because of the fear," said Lewis, a former state Department of Human Services employee who said he had to leave the job because of the debilitating fatigue caused by his post-polio syndrome.  A self-described "retired recluse" who said he has been out of his house only three times in as many years, Lewis said he thought he could still be working if he could legally use marijuana.  "It's ridiculous how the establishment penalizes the most defenseless members of society" for trying to make their lives more livable, he said.  The message appeared to be going over well with Sunday's crowd, which included representatives of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.  Also present was Tom Brown, the Our Church founder who went to federal prison after he made headlines for openly planting marijuana seeds on church grounds, claiming it was for religious practices.  Another man said he was in favor of broad use of marijuana, not just for medicine. But the medicinal-use initiative is an important first step, said the man, who declined to give his name. "I'm still on probation," he explained.  Supporters of proposed constitutional amendments must have 70,701 signatures of registered Arkansas voters on their petitions by July 7 to get proposed amendments on the November ballot.  Supporters of initiative acts have until July 7 to collect at least 56,481 signatures of registered Arkansas voters to get their proposals on the ballot.  A significant difference between proposed constitutional amendments and initiated acts is that the Legislature cannot amend a constitutional amendment that the voters adopt unless the amendment grants such authority to the Legislature.  An initiated act approved by the voters could be amended by lawmakers by a two-thirds majority of the House and Senate.Published on Monday, February 21, 2000Copyright © 2000, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc. Related Articles:Backers of 3 MMJ Related Proposals Seek Votershttp://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread4704.shtmlPryor OKs Ballot Title For Proposal On Marijuanahttp://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread3112.shtmlPryor Mulls 2 Proposals Making MMJ Legal http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread2985.shtml
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Comment #1 posted by james doe on August 22, 2001 at 11:01:06 PT
vamc authorization of marinol & marijuana agents 
marijuana is the only drug which helps my medical disability with degenerinated disk disease and irritible bowel syndrom.
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