POT USER DEFENDS ITS MEDICINAL ROLE

OREGON - Pain or prison.

Dan Asbury, a quadriplegic, had that choice nearly a
year ago. He didn't choose pain.

The choice was simple for the 41-year-old man who smokes marijuana to ease aches and pains. "My doctors have given me all these legal drugs over the years, but nothing worked," he said last week as he lay in his bed in his home in this Toledo suburb. A plastic bag filled with marijuana was on a bedside table.

"Marijuana is the only thing that works, the only thing that eases my pain," he said.

Asbury, who broke his neck in a fall from a fence in
1980, is paralyzed from the chest down but can move his
arms. He said he has muscle spasms in his legs, stomach and
arms, sometimes with sharp pain. He said he has taken
prescription drugs, such as Valium, but that they made him
nauseous and left him tired.

Asbury had smoked marijuana for 12 years when police
raided his home in September 1995. Asbury had started
growing marijuana in his back yard because it became too
expensive to buy, and police were alerted by a neighbor.
They found 12 plants growing in his garden.

Asbury was convicted last March of one count of
trafficking in marijuana.

Then came the choice. Lucas County Common Pleas Judge
Ruth Ann Franks suspended a twoyear prison term and put
Asbury on probation for that length of time on the
condition he stop smoking marijuana.

Asbury said he has lied to his probation officer about
quitting. He said he quit only for one week.

His probation officer, Laura Stamos, declined to
comment. The judge, through her secretary, also said she
had no comment.

At the time, the judge said it was clear that Asbury was
using marijuana as medicine. But she also warned him that
the court did not condone the use of marijuana and that he
could go to prison if he violated probation.

So why is Asbury speaking out?

He said he is angry that state lawmakers are trying to
repeal a law that allows people to defend their possession
of marijuana for medical use if they have a doctor's
recommendation. The provision was part of a 1,000page
overhaul of Ohio's criminal sentencing system last year.
More than 20 states have similar laws, and voters in
California and Arizona passed broader medical marijuana
initiatives in November.

But many Ohio officials, including Gov. George Voinovich
and Attorney General Betty Montgomery, were embarrassed by
the change, and lawmakers promised to strip it out. The
Senate has voted to repeal the law, and the measure is
before the House.

Asbury was one of several people who testified last
month before a Senate subcommittee on how marijuana helps
ease the suffering of cancer, AIDS and multiple sclerosis
patients.