News for $MJNA - (Committee hears pros of medica

News for $MJNA - (Committee hears pros of medical marijuana) 

	 

CHARLESTON, Mar 29, 2013 (The Dominion Post - McClatchy-Tribune Information 

Services via COMTEX) -- Eighteen people spoke in favor of the Compassionate 

Medical Marijuana Use Act of 2013 during a House Health and Human Resources 

Committee public hearing Thursday afternoon. 

 

No one spoke against it. 

 

Ken Robidoux, of Morgantown, is editor of an online literary magazine, a teacher 

and documentary filmmaker. He suffers from a seizure disorder and frontal lobe 

epilepsy. 

 

"It is about as horrible as you would expect," he said. "I'm a medical marijuana 

patient. This is what we look like." 

 

Prescription medications nearly killed him, he said, and put 200 pounds of 

weight on him. While several doctors recommended he try medical marijuana to 

alleviate his symptoms, he hesitated for a year. "I thought it was scary. I 

didn't want to be a pothead." 

 

But after collapsing and needing CPR two times, he decided to follow their 

advice. Robidoux has a medical cannabis card (the scientific term for marijuana) 

from California, where he lived for a time. 

 

"When you say yea to medical marijuana," he said, "you're saying yes to 

productive, normal members of society that just need a break." 

 

HB 2961, by Delegate Mike Manypenny, D-Taylor, with nine co-sponsors, sets up 

criteria to protect patients with debilitating medical conditions, their 

practitioners and providers from arrest and prosecution if patients engage in 

the medical use of marijuana. The bill creates the "Drug and Abuse Prevention 

Fund" to receive sales tax imposed on all sales of marijuana. The Department of 

Health and Human Resources would administer the provisions of the act. 

 

Terry Lively, 57, has suffered from multiple sclerosis for more than 20 years. 

Since 2000, she has self-injected interferon to relieve the MS symptoms, but the 

side effects, including suicidal thoughts, required her to also take a host of 

pain medications, anti-nausea medications and muscle relaxers that left her 

stupefied -- though legally able to drive. 

 

An artist, teacher and long-distance horse rider, the medications essentially 

left her little more than alive until a nurse recommended medical cannabis. The 

cannabis relieves the interferon side effects and some of the MS symptoms, and 

her life is back. She's written books produced videos, teaches and produces her 

art. 

 

Along with others, she told members that smoking joints isn't the only or best 

way to take medical cannabis. Tinctures and vaporizers can deliver the herbal 

drug without smoking. 

 

WVU graduate Matt Simon, now legislative analyst for the Marijuana Policy 

Project, gave a short history. Cannabis was an accepted medical treatment in the 

U.S. from the mid-1800s until 1937 when the marijuana Tax Act led to its going 

off the medical books and eventually off the register of legal drugs. 

 

Emergency room physician Dr. Paul Clancy, from Spencer, said he's seen many 

cases of prescription drug abuse, but only four cases of marijuana problems, and 

none of those severe. "It is not a dangerous drug. It is much safer than 

opiates." 

 

It's even safer and far less toxic than milder medications such as the muscle 

relaxant flexeril or anti-inflammatory pain relievers. 

 

Don Smith, who runs a bamboo nursery called Grandview Gardens, highlighted some 

of the business advantages of legalizing medical marijuana. It will allow new 

businesses to start, enhance the tax base and reduce enforcement and 

incarceration costs. "This is pretty good news all around." 

 

Manypenny said he was pleased with the turnout and surprised no one spoke 

against it. "The output of support is beyond what I expected." 

 

Three years ago, when people approached him about sponsoring the bill, he 

thought, "That's c r a z y, " and would be political suicide. But as he studied 

the mounting evidence, he decided, "It doesn't matter. This is the right thing 

to do." 

 

Health committee chairman Don Perdue, D-Wayne, addressed the speakers from the 

podium, saying not long ago the seatbelt bill -- which passed Thursday -- was a 

nowhere bill. He encouraged them, "Don't lose your passion." 

 

After the hearing, he said that the testimony of one Iraq war veteran, who 

suffers from PTSD and other problems, helped sway him. The prescription 

medications did more harm than good, while medical cannabis eliminates his rage 

and anxiety and helps him sleep at night without terrifying dreams. But he risks 

his freedom by using it. 

 

The bill may not come out to the health committee, but Perdue said he could see 

an interim study on the topic. "Who can say?" The more information, the better.