cannabisnews.com: Medical Marijuana Bills Await Legislative Approval





Medical Marijuana Bills Await Legislative Approval
Posted by FoM on April 20, 2000 at 08:11:07 PT
By Dan Nakaso, Advertiser Staff Writer
Source: Honolulu Advertiser
Jackie Cosgrove doesn’t mind rolling a joint in front of his grandchildren and lighting up. He looks at marijuana as medicine that works better than the Demerol, Dilaudid and morphine doctors have prescribed over the years for his damaged back.
But Cosgrove doesn’t like telling a 6-year-old and a 7-year-old that grandpa’s medical marijuana use is illegal and has to stay hidden.Cosgrove and others like him around Hawaii hope their secret life will change now that the Legislature may be days away from making Hawaii the seventh state to legalize marijuana for medical reasons.Cosgrove uses a cane since his back snapped in a freak accident on a construction site in 1995. He has had his discs fused and pins implanted. The pain is constant, he said, and prescription medicines make him hallucinate.Smoking a joint every four hours takes the edge off. It also makes Cosgrove an outlaw.“I go outside and smoke, and I have to look around to make sure no one’s looking,” he said. “I worry that people can smell it. I’m not a thief. I’ve never hurt anybody. I’m not a criminal. I just got hurt.”The House and Senate have passed different versions of bills allowing marijuana for medical reasons. State Sen. Avery Chumbley, (D-East Maui, North Kauai), said he is worried that the 13-12 vote in the Senate means some legislators might change their positions.Chumbley, co-chairman of the Judiciary Committee that looked at the medical marijuana bills, wants to avoid a House and Senate conference committee and is working to get the House version approved this week. It allows people who have written permission from a doctor to acquire, possess, cultivate, distribute, transport and use marijuana for medical reasons. The Senate version is vague on how patients would get their marijuana.“Just because you allow someone to use marijuana for pain relief doesn’t mean you’re allowing the general public to allow it for general, recreational use,” Chumbley said.He wants to focus on helping people who suffer from severe injuries and diseases like AIDS or glaucoma.“If we can provide some relief from pain to individuals who are currently smoking marijuana for medical reasons, then why should we continue to criminalize them?” he asked.Legislator Voices Concerns:But Rep. Dave Stegmaier, (D-Kalama Valley/Portlock), said he worries that legalizing marijuana for medical reasons will lead to other drugs being legalized in Hawaii.“This is very significant,” Stegmaier said. “There’s clearly an agenda at work. If the agenda is to go from one type of legalization to the next, I feel strongly about putting up a fight every step of the way. I don’t like having to be the bad guy. But if I see that ultimately society will be harmed, my responsibility as a legislator is to speak up now rather than to voice my concerns after the fact.”The medical marijuana issue also divides Hawaii doctors.Dr. David McEwan sees cancer and AIDS patients in his family practice with the Honolulu Medical Group who swear that marijuana works better than their prescription drugs.“The balance between medicine and law is a difficult one, and I can appreciate the two views,” McEwan said. “But as a physician, my first role always will be to advocate for the patient, even when it conflicts with the law. I just pray for the day when legislators have some compassion and some common sense. Even if they don’t pass the law, the people will keep on using marijuana anyway.”In both private practice and as medical director of Hospice Hawaii for seven years, Dr. Don Purcell said he treated patients with prescription drugs that worked as well as marijuana.“I worry about the long-term effects of marijuana on the lungs,” he said. “Is it a carcinogenic? I’m also concerned that medical marijuana may be misused.”And as the former staff psychiatrist for the Sand Island Addiction Treatment Center, Purcell said his biggest concern is that marijuana used for medical reasons “will fall into the wrong hands” and lead to addiction problems.The Hawaii Medical Association, which has a membership of 1,700, opposes the medical marijuana bills and said Hawaii should wait for the outcome of studies on the effectiveness of marijuana. The group also argued that smoking marijuana is no better than inhaling tobacco smoke.Members are worried that doctors might lose their Drug Enforcement Administration licenses because marijuana still would be illegal under federal law, said Dr. Phil Hellreich, legislative chairman and president elect of the Hawaii Medical Association.U.S. Attorney Steve Alm would not speculate on how federal officials would react to medical marijuana in Hawaii. The federal government’s interest in Hawaii marijuana arrests so far usually has been restricted to serious criminals.“Historically we’ve always done some cases,” Alm said. “They’ve typically been very large, commercial growing cases.”Jim Lucas said his experience with marijuana dispels the idea that people who use marijuana as medication are looking for an excuse to get stoned.He has AIDS, and doctors gave him testosterone injections and growth hormones when his weight dropped from 160 to 144 because of AIDS Wasting Syndrome. But Lucas didn’t have the appetite to consume more calories.“I would sit down to a meal, take three bites and feel like I was at the end of a Thanksgiving meal,” he said.Friends on the Mainland sent him a quarter-ounce of marijuana for $160, and suddenly he was hungry again. After four months, Lucas’ weight returned, but he found himself enjoying getting high.“That’s why I don’t smoke pot anymore,” said Lucas, 43. “It was like, ‘OK, you’re getting into those high school days of getting stoned. Cut it out.’ So I quit.”User’s Home Raided:John Detroy didn’t like sneaking around, buying marijuana to help him handle the pain that went along with his back problems, which date to childhood. His friends who bought pot from dealers had been ripped off, threatened with guns or encouraged to buy harder drugs.So Detroy built an elaborate growing operation in one of the bedrooms in his Kaneohe apartment. It suited him fine until police searched his apartment in December 1997 and seized more than 800 plants. He was convicted on three felony counts and is serving 10 years probation.Nothing that doctors have prescribed over the years — not the Demerol, morphine nor Dilaudid — eases his pain. Neither does marijuana, but it works better than anything else, Detroy said.Because he’s on probation, Detroy, 45, has turned to Marinol, the legal, prescription pill form of marijuana. Each month he swallows $2,400 worth of the pills that he gets at Longs Drugs. The pills take hours to kick in, don’t work as well as marijuana and cost almost five times as much, Detroy said.“I’m in constant pain,” he said. “I’m not interested in getting high as much as getting some relief.”Detroy has plans for the day that smoking marijuana for medical reasons becomes legal in Hawaii.“I’m going to go out and buy a bag of pot,” he said. “And then I’m going to start growing my own.” Published: April 20, 2000© Copyright 2000 The Honolulu Advertiser, a division of Gannett Co. Inc. Related Articles:Medical Marijuana Issue Comes of Agehttp://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread5458.shtmlHawaii Congresswoman Supports Medical Marijuana Researchhttp://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread1880.shtml Chasing Smoke - Letters To The Editor & Series:http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread5334.shtmlCannabisNews Medical Marijuana Articles & Archives:http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtmlhttp://google.com/search?num=10&q=cannabisnews+medical+site:cannabisnews.com
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Comment #1 posted by observer on April 20, 2000 at 11:22:59 PT
Convenient Reasoning
State Representative: "But if I see that ultimately society will be harmed, my responsibility as a legislator is to speak up now rather than to voice my concerns after the fact.”You have to admire his spohistry. Reifying "society" into an entiry that has "rights" that somehow trump individual rights, this is then used to justify more naked government oppression: killing marijuana smokers, stealing their property, jailing them. (Well, the Good Senator `just accicedenty happened' not to mention prison specifically of course. But you know what he means.)Here's something such socialists like Stegmaier need to keep in mind: rights belong to individuals, not groups. (That doesn't sit well with fascists and socialists, of course.)see: http://www.house.gov/paul/freedomprinciples.htm And Hospice Director Don Purcell is touchingly concerned for his terminal cancer patients: “I worry about the long-term effects of marijuana on the lungs,” he said. “Is it a carcinogenic? I’m also concerned that medical marijuana may be misused.”Oh isn't that loving! Hospice Doctor Don is "concerned" that his terminal patients may be "carcinogenic" for his dying patients. Better that they should suffer extra much now the good Doctor reasons, than expose themselves to something that Doctor Don has questions about. Better to imprison adults who disagree with Doc Don's ideas about the relative risks and benefits of natural, traditional plant remedies that adults can grow for pennies (compared to patent drugs that patients are beholden to large companies, and doctors like Doctor Don to obtain at exorbitant prices). Yes, let the punishment fit the (newly minted) crime, eh what doc?And as the former staff psychiatrist for the Sand Island Addiction Treatment Center, Purcell said his biggest concern is that marijuana used for medical reasons “will fall into the wrong hands” and lead to addiction problems.... therefore kill, steal from and imprison adult Americans who use cannabis anyway? Well, I guess if you're in "any excuse will do" mode when it comes time to exerting more power and government control over the lives of citizen/serfs, then, well, any excuse will do. Of course, the steady steam of government-mandated "treatment" for cannabis users headed Purcell's way does not at all represent a conflict of interest, you see, because the topic under discussion is drugs. Those on the recieving end (like Purcell) of the government drug-war gravy train can never be accused of conflict of interest simply because they advocate more spending of government (i.e. your) money. Drug warriors are always above reproach.... but he found himself enjoying getting high. “That’s why I don’t smoke pot anymore ... Oh brother... If he described this to himself as "enjoying the way he thinks, the way his minds works" when using cannabis, do you suppose he'd feel as if it were sinful to use cannabis? People seem to think that not changing one's consciousness is the 11the Commandment. But no such commandment exists. (Until it was "discovered" in 1937.) That's the power of a lifetime of anti-freedom, anti-cannabis propaganda. The victims think it proper that they should be victims. So sad. ... Marinol, the legal, prescription pill form of marijuana. Each month he swallows $2,400 worth of the pills ... That's the real issue: the bottom line. Why allow adult Americans to grow a plant for pennies a month, when a corrupt government can insure they pay $2400+ a month, which comes back to officials in the form of campaign contributions from drug companies (i.e. bribes)? Plus it gives police an excuse to trash the Constitution? Great deal for government all the way around. 
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