cannabisnews.com: Maine Panel To Sort Out Medical-Marijuana Law 





Maine Panel To Sort Out Medical-Marijuana Law 
Posted by FoM on May 09, 2000 at 07:54:56 PT
Will of the people is at odds with federal laws
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer
Portland, Maine - Bryan Clark grows his medicine in his bedroom. In a makeshift cardboard structure under harsh white lights are four marijuana plants. Clark, an AIDS patient whose weight had fallen from 250 pounds to 118, smokes pot to relieve pain, quell nausea, and spur his appetite. 
He picked up a plant and plumped the soil. The leaves were pale green and delicate - an unlikely source for the furor that has enveloped Maine.Patients such as Clark, 26, a hemophiliac who contracted AIDS after being injected with HIV-infected blood-clotting agent, are the focus of a citizens' initiative legalizing the use of medical marijuana that passed in November. Maine is the first Eastern state to pass such a measure. It is in direct conflict with federal law. Starting today, a panel appointed by the state attorney general will determine a way to implement the new law. Through the initiative and a series of actions that followed, Maine residents have redefined the meaning of medicine and challenged the script of the national war on drugs.Alaska, Washington state, Oregon and California have passed similar ballot initiatives. Nevada and Colorado may soon follow. In April, Hawaii's legislature enacted a medical-marijuana law. (Neither New Jersey nor Pennsylvania is considering one.) What complicates the issue in Maine is that after the ballot initiative passed, legislators proposed that the state itself distribute marijuana to those too ill to grow their own.That pleased activists, who believed the initiative - which allows patients with such diseases as AIDS, cancer, glaucoma and epilepsy to grow as many as six plants for personal use - did not sufficiently address the question of access. The law-enforcement establishment, however, was aghast."What they are doing adds insult to injury," said Michael Chitwood, chief of police in Portland, and a former Philadelphia officer. "The Maine drug-enforcement agencies would be responsible for distributing the marijuana for medical use, which to me is nuts," Chitwood said. "They are out there fighting the war on drugs and making arrests and confiscating drugs, and now they are expected to give it out?"Attorney General Andrew Ketterer was told to find a way to obey the will of the people, devise a distribution system - and not break federal law. It was like being told to clap without using hands.Ketterer sympathizes with patients such as Clark and wants them to get the medicine they need. But from his Augusta office overlooking the Kennebec River, he must speak as the state's top law officer: "From the point of view of the lawyer and the state, I don't want to get into armed conflict with the federal government."The U.S. Attorney's Office will be sending a representative to today's meeting. Ketterer's task force is to try to reach consensus by this fall.That will be difficult. Legislators want to implement a popular mandate without risking a cutoff in federal funds. Law-enforcement officials do not want to be seen distributing marijuana. Libertarians see a states'-rights issue and want to push the law to thumb their noses at the federal government."If you are an ill patient, it is nothing other than a medical issue," said Elizabeth Beane, who heads Mainers for Medical Rights, which spearheaded the citizens' initiative. "People should have access to medication that works. It's an individual-rights issue."Not so fast, say doctors, who do not want to be caught in the crossfire of the state, the feds, patients and police. "It puts us in a very awkward position," said Owen Pickus, a Portland oncologist and one of many doctors who believe marijuana is medically useful. "I don't want to be in the courtroom debating whether this patient vomited enough to get the drug, and whether they tried everything else first." One option the task force will consider is for the state to launch a research program and ask the federal government to allow patients to get marijuana in the interest of science, said Deputy Attorney General James Cameron, the state's drug-prosecution coordinator."Everyone knows it's not going to be research," scoffed Pickus. "Everyone is going to be winking and looking the other way and saying, 'Yeah, we're doing research.' "On its face, the issue affects few people. Maine may have fewer than 250 patients who could use marijuana to alleviate the nausea, weight loss and other symptoms associated with cancer, AIDS and glaucoma. Critics fear that for each real patient, many others will abuse the law and smoke marijuana recreationally. Bob Weiner, a spokesman for Gen. Barry McCaffrey, President Clinton's drug czar, said the federal government would be inflexible in dealing with the Maine initiative. Medical marijuana, he said, is "a backdoor wedge for legalizers to get their way on [recreational] marijuana." Already, shops in Portland are selling buttons that say, "I swear officer, it's for my glaucoma."But if medical marijuana is a tactic for "legalizers," it is undeniably also a cry for help from patients. Voters are clearly sympathetic, and the federal government has been forced to look the other way. No funds have been withdrawn, and, as Robert Kampia of the Washington, D.C.-based Marijuana Policy Project said of California: "The federal government does not have the resources to send Drug Enforcement Administration officials sweeping up and down the West Coast arresting cancer patients."But marijuana remains a major target in the war on drugs. Justice Department spokeswoman Gretchen Michael said that of 47,277 federal criminal cases filed in 1998, drugs accounted for 15,046, or almost a third. About 10 percent of all cases filed by U.S. attorneys - and a third of all drug cases - involve marijuana. The intensity of the war on drugs is an issue that unites many Maine groups, who feel it unfairly targets minorities and the poor."Kids from an urban setting caught with dope go to jail; kids from wealthy families go to therapy," said Mark Dion, sheriff of Maine's biggest county, Cumberland, which includes Portland. "The drug war is code for class war."Dion, who broke with his police peers in supporting the citizen's initiative last year, said he made the decision after consulting with his priest and his conscience. He agreed that "there will be people abusing marijuana" as a result of the new law. In one of many references to Thomas Jefferson, the sheriff said: "We should not hinder the opportunity to do right for fear that wrong may come from it." In his Portland apartment, Bryan Clark folded his arms. He knows all the arguments. Around him hung the sharp, sweet smell of marijuana. All of Clark's current supply comes from the street; as his bedroom plants mature, he thinks they will supply about a third of his needs. Clark, who bitterly blames the government for lapses in oversight that led to his infection, said, "This is the same government that tells me marijuana is a bad, addictive drug." He was diagnosed at age 14 with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. He lost his appetite, and his weight plummeted. He tried the prescription medicine Marinol, which contains the active ingredient in marijuana, but it did not help. He turned to smoking joints. "I tried it first when I was 17," Clark said. "I didn't adopt it as a daily routine until I realized that after I smoked, I would go and eat." On most days, Clark is a fervent advocate for medical marijuana and changing the law. During an interview on Saturday, however, his joints were racked by pain from arthritis that is related to his hemophilia - and he wondered aloud if he could simply make a private deal with the government: "You gave me AIDS; let me smoke pot." By Shankar Vedantam, Inquirer Staff WriterShankar Vedantam's e-mail address is: svedantam phillynews.com  Published: May 9, 2000 ©2000 Philadelphia Newspapers Inc. Marijuana Policy Projecthttp://www.mpp.org/CannabisNews Articles, Archives On Medical Marijuana & Maine: http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtmlhttp://alltheweb.com/cgi-bin/search?type=all&query=cannabisnews+mainehttp://alltheweb.com/cgi-bin/search?type=all&query=cannabisnews+medical
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