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Medical Marijuana  
Victories  

ith new medical marijuana
laws enacted in Vennont
and Montana. 2004 was a

year of significant progress toward
legal access to medical marijuana for
people living with HIV and all US.
patients who need it. It became
increasingly clear that the battle
would ultimately be won, with strong
suppon emerging in some of the most
conservative comers of the country. It
became equally clear that we still
face fierce resistance. a sort of politi-
cal trench warfare against well dug-
in. wealthy. powerful opponents.

First. the good news:
Vermont and Montana now have laws
that protect people with AIDS and
other serious illnesses who use med-
ical marijuana to relieve pain. nausea.
appetite loss and other symptoms.
Newly-published research. in the
January issue of the Journal of
Acquired Immune Deficienzjv
Syndmmes. shows that patients suf-
fering nausea from their anti-HIV
drugs stay on their medication regi-
mens more consistently if they use
marijuana. This is important. as pre-
vious research has shown that adher-
once to one's treatment regimen is
critical to keeping the vinrs in check
and resistance at bay.

Information about
Vennontk medical marijuana law is
available at http://www.vmpp.org -
the web site of the Vermont
Marijuana Policy Pmject (the local
affiliate of the national Marijuana
Policy Project. based in Washington.
D.C.). As this is being written. MPP
and VMPP are finalizing details of a
progmm to assist low-income
Vermont patients who cannot afford
the Sim fee required to register with
the program and receive a state-
issucd medical marijuana identifica-
tion card.

The VMPP program
should be up and running by the time
you read this. and complete details
are available at http://www.vmpp.org.
The MPP Foundation has chipped in
$2.000 to get the fund started. and
hopes to generate enough private
donations to ensure that no Vermont
patient has to risk arrest and jail
because they cannot afford the regis-
tration fee.

()I'I'M readers without Web
access can contact VMPP statewide
organizer Nancy Lynch at 802-223-
0800 for more information.

Now the bad news: fierce
rcsistuncc. Last spring. Vermonters
witnessed a parade of of ficinls frotn
the White House Office of National
Drug Control Policy trooping through

    

irken

Montpelier in a failed effort to stop
the medical marijuana bill. Sadly.
opponents did succeed in narrowing
the law's provisions so that it applies
only to patients with HIV/AIDS. can-
cer or multiple sclerosis.

But even this cloud has a
silver lining: It is now plain that
these opponents are true dead-enders.
They cannot win. even as they cling
to discredited arguments and obvi-
ously phony “facts."

These dead-enders — most-
ly in the Bush adnfinistration. the
federal Department of Justice. some
other law enforcement agencies and a
few private think tanks that do their
bidding — are still fighting. in the
U.S. Congress. state legislatures. and
most recently in the U.S. Supreme
Court.'I1iere the Bush administration
is seeking the right to arrest patients
even when their activities are legal
under state law. and even when the
patient's doctor detennines that med-
ical marijuana is essential to their
survival (note: this case cannot over-
turn state laws. but it could mean that
patients still face the smalI-but-not-
impossible risk of federal prosecu-
tion). But in the long run they won't
prevail.

Why am I so certain? For
one thing. public opinion is over-
whelmingly against them. Measures
to permit medical use of marijuana
continued an unbroken winning
streak at the polls during‘ 2004. most
prominently with a decisive
November win in the state of
Montana. George W. Bush carried
this highly Republican. conservative
state with 59 percent of the vote. but
the medical marijuana initiative got
62 percent. outpolling the president
by three points. A bit of number-
cmnching shows that even a lot of
Montanuns who voted to ban same-
scx marriage also voted to legalize
medical marijuana. Clearly. even so-
cnlled “family values“ voters don‘t
see anything pro-family in locking up
sick people for using a medicinal

herb their doctor has recommended.
2004 also saw a string of
local victories. In August, voters in
the city of Detroit passed a local
medical marijuana law by 59 percent
to 41 percent, despite the opposition
of the mayor and the city’s two daily
newspapers. In November, similar
measures passed in the cities of
Columbia, Missouri, and Ann Arbor,
Michigan, with 69 percent and 74
percent of the vote. respectively.
That's no surprise.
National and state polls on medical
marijuana consistently show over-
whelming margins in favor — includ-
ing 75 percent support in independ-
ent. statewide polls in Alabama and
Texas conducted during 2004. These
are among the reddest of the conser-
vative “red states" that pundits speak
of so often. the very heart of Pres.
Bush's political base. What is striking
in these polls is how support for
medical marijuana cuts across every
age group. race. ideology or political
affiliation.
Sixty-seven percent of
Texas Republicans ~ not a bunch of
latte-sipping liberals — suppon legal
access to medical marijuana for the
seriously ill. There is simply no con-
stituency for arresting and jailing
seriously ill patients for using med-
ical marijuana. and sooner or later
America‘s spineless politicians will
be dragged kicking and screaming
toward a policy based on science.
compassion and common sense.
Vermont Gov. James
Douglas discovered this last year. He
opposed the medical marijuana bill
and would have made his fellow
Republicans in the White House very
happy had he vetoed it. But suppon
for the measure was so overwhelm-
ing that he didn't dare. And last
November. medical marijuana sup-
porters succeeded in defeating three
hostile incumbents. helping to shift
control of the Vermont House of
Representatives to the Democrats.
So the tide is with us. in

Vermont and elsewhere. The public
wants marijuana policies based on
reason and science. not myth and
superstition: and when the public
leads. politicians will eventually fol-
low. V

Bruce Mirken is a longtime health
journalist whose work has appeared
in The Advocate. Men‘s Health and
AIDS Treatment News. He now
.\‘(’I'l‘(’.\‘ as cotntnunications director

for the Marijuana Policy Project.

wu-w.tnpp.org .

\

out in the rnount'air*ns

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