Hinchey Seeks Medical Marijuana Vote

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Advocates for medical marijuana hope a recent setback in the Supreme Court will boost their strength in Congress, and a New York and California lawmaker plan to force a House vote on the issue Tuesday.

Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-Hurley, has long supported allowing patients to use marijuana in states where it can be legally prescribed by a doctor. He will offer an amendment to a spending bill Tuesday that would bar federal authorities from making arrests in such cases.

"This is a responsibility Congress should face up to," said Hinchey, who is offering the amendment with Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif.

Joseph Califano, chairman of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, derided Hinchey's effort as political interference with medicine.

"This is the drug version of the Terri Schiavo case. This is Congress legislating medical practice and it makes no sense," said Califano, referring to the intense legal and legislative battle that erupted earlier this year over a court decision to remove the Florida woman's feeding tube.

Hinchey, known for his blistering broadsides against the Bush administration on issues ranging from the Food and Drug Administration to the war in Iraq, said the Supreme Court's decision is a call for legislators to act.

The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 on June 6 that federal drug laws trump medical marijuana statutes in 10 states, allowing federal authorities to prosecute people who smoke marijuana for pain relief on the recommendation of their doctors. New York does not permit doctors to prescribe medical marijuana.

After the decision, federal officials said their focus has been on criminals engaged in drug trafficking, not the sick and dying.

Hinchey's supporters say the decision only puts more pressure on Congress to craft a caring policy for those who want to treat their health problems with marijuana.

And California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has in the past supported pot use by the sick, said the ruling means "it is now up to Congress to provide clarity."

In the past two years, the Hinchey and Rohrabacher amendment has mustered only about 150 of 435 votes in the House, and even its boosters concede there is little chance of passage Tuesday.

Opposition to Hinchey's amendment is being organized by Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind., who heads the House drug policy subcommittee.

Souder dismisses the effort as a political, not scientific, effort to to gradually legalize marijuana. The lawmaker argues that if scientific data supports marijuana as a pain medication, it should be studied and vetted through the regular FDA process.

Hinchey dismisses such arguments. He said even if Congress isn't ready to accept it, public opinion in the nation has rejected past concerns about marijuana usage leading to other forms of drug abuse.

Bill Piper of the Drug Policy Alliance, a group that supports laws allowing medical marijuana, said they hope to pick up about 10 votes.

"That would send a message to the Justice Department that there are political consequences to their actions," said Piper. "If the Justice Department realizes momentum is building on this amendment, they're going to be less likely to go into states like California and arrest people for medical marijuana."

The ten states with statutes that permit doctors to prescribe medical marijuana are California, Alaska, Colorado, Hawaiii, Maine, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington state.

Pubdate: Mon, 13 Jun 2005
Source: Times Herald-Record (NY)
Copyright: 2005 Times Herald-Record
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