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. . . a weekly service for the media on news items related to marijuana
prohibition.
October 2, 1997
NORML Board Member, Others Testify Before Congress In Favor Of Medical
Marijuana
Republicans Balk, Voice Strong Opposition Toward Allowing Medical
Marijuana Research
October 2, 1997, Washington, D.C.: Witnesses on both sides of the
medical marijuana issue testified before Congress yesterday at a hearing
before the House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Crime. Proponents
likened marijuana's medical utility and safety to drugs such as
penicillin and urged the federal government to support legislative
efforts to allow physicians to prescribe the drug, while opponents urged
federal officials to take a more vocal stance opposing pending state
marijuana initiatives.
The medical marijuana debate symbolizes "who we are [as a country and]
where are we going," said Dennis Peron, Director of the San Francisco
Cultivators' Club and a co-author of Proposition 215. Peron was one of
three witnesses who spoke in favor of allowing patients legal access to
marijuana under a physicians supervision.
"During the past few years, the medical uses of marijuana have become
increasingly clear to many physicians and patients, and the number of
people with direct experience of these uses has been growing," testified
NORML board member Dr. Lester Grinspoon of Harvard Medical School. "It
is essential to relax legal restrictions that prevent physicians and
patients from achieving a workable accommodation that takes into account
the needs of suffering people." Grinspoon said he supported H.R. 1782,
legislation introduced by Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) in June which would
remove federal restrictions that currently prevent physicians from
legally prescribing marijuana.
Frank -- who attended the hearing, but does not sit on the Subcommittee
-- used the opportunity to ask for Congressional support for his measure
and chided House Republicans for objecting to federal efforts to study
marijuana's medical potential. "People must feel that by studying
marijuana, it will undermine their position [against the drug,]" he said.
Subcommittee members Bob Barr (R-Ga.) and Asa Hutchinson (R-Ark.)
repeatedly told witnesses, including National Institute on Drug Abuse
(NIDA) Director Dr. Alan Leshner, that they opposed any efforts by the
National Institutes of Health (NIH) to conduct scientific trials on
marijuana's medical potential. Their charges came in response to a
recent NIH report urging the federal government to play an active role in
facilitating clinical evaluations of medical marijuana as well as
testimony from Drug Czar Barry McCaffrey endorsing additional research.
Barr and Hutchinson called such proposals "inconsistent" with the
administration's position that marijuana lacks medical value. The
representatives further warned that federal efforts to study marijuana's
medical value would send a harmful message to children.
Subcommittee chair Rep. Bill McCollum (R-Fla.), a former two-time
co-sponsor of medical marijuana legislation in 1981 and 1983, voiced
little support for the use of marijuana as a medicine and urged federal
officials to campaign against a potential state initiative in Florida.
Witness Roger Pilon of the CATO Institute attacked such federal efforts
to persuade voters as well as override existing state medical marijuana
laws. "Clearly, this is a blatant effort by the federal government to
impose a national policy on the people in the states in question, people
who have already elected a contrary policy," he said. "[This] effort
cannot be justified under the 14th Amendment, for the states have not
enacted a policy that runs roughshod over the privileges or immunities
of their citizens or denies them due process or equal protection under
the laws."
Initiative efforts similar to those that took place in Arizona and
California are pending in Alaska, Arkansa, the Ditsrict of Columbia,
Oregon, and Washington state, officials said.
NORML Director R. Keith Stroup said that he believed Grinspoon, Peron,
and Pilon presented a "strong, clear, and credile" argument in favor of
the medical use of marijuana, and called the hearing a positive step
toward reform.
"The good news for the medical marijuana movement is that McCaffrey and
other federal officials no longer claim that there is no currently
available medical marijuana research or refer to our position as 'Cheech
and Chong medicine,'" Stroup said. "Now they have fallen back to the
position that physicians and scientists should decide this issue, a
position NORML also favors. This change represents a step in the right
direction, and we are accustomed to making progress in small increments
when the final goal is changing decades-old ideologies on Capitol Hill."
For more information, please contact either Keith Stroup or Paul
Armentano of NORML @ (202) 483-5500.
Reformers Expect To Turn In Twice The Signatures Necessary To Freeze
Marijuana Recriminalization In Oregon
October 2, 1997, Portland, OR: Citizens for Sensible Law Enforcement
expect to file approximately 95,000 signatures with the Secretary of
State tomorrow to freeze legislation recriminalizing the possession of
small amounts of marijuana. Activists need only 49,000 signatures from
registered voters to qualify the referendum for the 1998 ballot. Oregon
voters will then have the opportunity to accept or reject the
Legislature's decision.
Referendum supporters said that the high number of signatures is
significant. "To collect over 90,000 signatures in a matter of six weeks
is astounding," said co-chief petitioner Todd Olson. "The tremendous
response to this effort shows that Oregonian voters have real questions
and concerns about what the Legislature has done, and want a chance to
make this decision for themselves."
House Bill 3643, approved by the Legislature on July 2, increased the
penalty for possession of less than one ounce of marijuana from a
non-criminal "violation" to a class C misdemeanor crime. Under the new
law -- scheduled to take effect on October 4 -- individuals would be
arrested and, if convicted, could face 30 days in jail, loss of their
driving privileges for six months, and have their property seized by law
enforcement.
Upon signing the law, Gov. John Kitzhaber (D) said that H.B. 3643 "had
less to do with the possession of marijuana as it does with expanding
powers of search a seizure," a position which he strongly favors, but a
majority of state voters oppose. According to a state-wide poll
conducted last summer, 58 percent of respondents said they were concerned
that the new law would give police "too much authority to search the cars
and homes of Oregon citizens."
Michael Rose, also a chief petitioner for CSLE, said that the most
important outcome of the referendum effort is that voters will have the
opportunity to decide the issue directly. House Bill 3643 marked a
departure from a policy that had been working since 1973, he said.
"Before we start putting young people through the criminal justice
system, Oregonians deserve the chance to take a long, hard look and make
a sensible choice."
State Representative Floyd Prozansky (D-Eugene) said that he supports
reform efforts to prevent the enactment of H.B. 3643. "There is no
evidence whatsoever that making the possession of small amounts of
marijuana a crime will do anything to reduce its use," he said.
For more information, please contact either Todd Olson of Citizens for
Sensible Law Enforcement or Keith Stroup of NORML @ (202) 483-5500.
-END-
MORE THAN 10 MILLION MARIJUANA ARRESTS SINCE 1965 . . . ANOTHER EVERY
54 SECONDS!