SENATE PANEL OKS MARIJUANA MEASURE

The Senate Is Likely To Take The Issue Up Next Week

A proposal to provide some legal protections to seriously ill patients who
use marijuana won the support of a Senate committee Thursday, but advocates
of legalizing the drug for medicinal purposes argued the measure doesn't go
far enough.

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 4-1 to include a marijuana provision
in another bill dealing with police arrest powers.

The language provides patients who possess up to an ounce of the drug a
so-called affirmative defense in court if they were to be prosecuted. An
affirmative defense does not make it legal to possess the drug. Instead, it
would provide patients with a defense they could mount before a judge or jury.

"There's a lot of good ideas here, but we don't have time to deal with all
the good ideas. I look at this as an interim step," said Sen. Richard
Sears, D-Bennington, chairman of the committee. "We've come up with a
modest proposal ... that has some form of protection."

Sears and other Senate leaders announced the measure at a news conference
Thursday and appeared optimistic about its chances of passage, despite the
public opposition from advocates and House members and a mixed message from
Gov. Howard Dean.

"We're determined to pass a bill to help vulnerable Vermonters," said
President Pro Tem Peter Shumlin, D-Windham. "We intend to pass a bill
before we go home."

Shumlin said Dean agreed to the compromise this week, a marked change for
the governor, who has stated repeatedly he would not sign a bill allowing
the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes without the drug first going
through the Federal Drug Administration process.

But at his news conference Thursday, Dean was not clear on how he would
handle the bill if it made its way to his desk.

"We want to be cooperative; we want to be helpful," he said. "We don't want
to deny people relief."

He insisted he would not support a bill legalizing marijuana, but at the
same time noted that the Senate proposal does not do that.

"I'm not unwilling to change my mind, but I'd like to see the science," he
said. "This has to be science-based; it can't be emotional-based. I say
that with all due respect to the suffering people who believe pot will help
them. We've really got to do this in a careful, thoughtful, scientific way."

Even if the governor does decide to support the Senate version, the
proposal still faces some obstacles, namely patients who use the drug and
House members who had supported a broader bill legalizing marijuana for
medicinal purposes.

House lawmakers and advocates announced their opposition to the Senate
proposal Thursday, calling it a weak attempt that would force patients to
risk arrest for buying the drug illegally.

"I'm upset that I would have to be arrested and a breach in my privacy to
defend myself," said Katherine Perera, who uses marijuana to stem the
nausea and vomiting caused by myriad medicines she takes to stay alive with
AIDS.

Rep. David Zuckerman, P-Burlington, the chief sponsor of a medicinal
marijuana bill that passed earlier this year, said he would not be able to
support the Senate proposal as it was written.

"We feel we passed a bill out of the House that was comprehensive. ... This
proposal is confusing for patients, doctors and law enforcement," he said.

The House bill allows patients to grow the drug as long as they obtained a
certificate from their physician. It also created a database with the state
of those approved patients so police could verify that they had obtained
the marijuana legally.