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MONTGOMERY -- Supporters of medical marijuana, including a Butler man
suffering from two forms of cancer, asked a House Judiciary subcommittee
Wednesday to approve a bill allowing doctors to prescribe the drug to
patients.
Donald Prockup, a carpenter by trade battling leukemia and non-Hodgkin's
lymphoma, brought a box full of what he said were 1,000 prescriptions he had
to help him deal with pain from his illnesses -- none of which, Prockup
said, worked as well as marijuana.
"This medical marijuana alleviates a lot of this," Prockup told members
of
the House Judiciary Committee's Civil Justice Subcommittee. "I won't need
(these drugs) any more."
The bill, sponsored by state Rep. Laura Hall, D-Huntsville, would allow
Alabama doctors to prescribe marijuana to alleviate the symptoms caused by
13 different medical conditions, including cancer, HIV/AIDS, multiple
sclerosis, seizures and glaucoma.
It would also allow doctors to prescribe marijuana for any medical condition
that severely limits a person's ability to perform "major life activities"
or would cause serious injury to a person's safety or medical health if not
prescribed.
Hall, whose son died of AIDS 15 years ago, said marijuana could have
alleviated some of the symptoms that he faced in his final months, including
nausea and loss of appetite. She called the bill "very personal."
"This is a difficult week for me," she said. "This week, in
1992, our son
was dying of AIDS. He was very ill, and if I'd had any opportunity to make
that time easier, I would have done that."
Michael Phillips, a former Montgomery Advertiser writer who suffers from a
benign brain tumor that gives him seizures, said four surgeries to remove
the tumor have failed. He told the committee that marinol -- an
FDA-approved drug whose active ingredient is THC, which is also found in
marijuana -- has not controlled seizures he suffers due to his condition.
Marijuana, he said, reduced seizures from three to five a day to two
seizures every six to eight weeks. He said he has been arrested twice for
possession.
"Because of my disability, I'm considered a criminal, because of my four
unsuccessful brain surgeries," he said.
Twelve states have decriminalized the use of medical marijuana, according to
the Drug Policy Alliance, a New York-based group that seeks changes to
national drug policies. In 2004, 76 percent of respondents in a
Press-Register/University of South Alabama poll said they approved of
doctors prescribing marijuana to patients.
Committee members did not vote on the bill at Wednesday's public hearing.
No one spoke in opposition to the bill, a fact noted by subcommittee Vice
Chairman Charles Newton, D-Greenville.
Newton said the witnesses made an "outstanding case, an eloquent case"
for
the bill, but that he wants to hear from any opponents.
"We may ask why other states have not legalized it," he said. "We
need to
be more informed."
The Legislature has only four business days left on its calendar, and Newton
noted that it would be very difficult -- but not necessarily impossible --
to pass the bill into law.
Hall said she would be content with getting the Judiciary Committee to
approve the it.
"I'm not known for having bills with easy roads," she said.
Newshawk: Educators For Sensible Drug Policy: http://www.efsdp.org
Pubdate: Thu, 24 May 2007
Source: Press-Register (Mobile, AL)
Copyright: 2007 Mobile Register
Contact: http://www.al.com/mobileregister/?lettereditor.html
Website: http://www.al.com/mobileregister/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/269
Author: Brian Lyman, Capital Bureau |
