Marketplace Today Blog

By Patrick Marley
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

In 1989, Jacki Rickert of Mondovi weighed just 68 pounds.

Marijuana helped her put on weight and relieve the symptoms of her connective tissue disorder, Rickert said Tuesday as she urged lawmakers to make the drug legal for medicinal purposes.

“When your doctor looks at your and says, ‘If we cannot get weight on you … you will die’ — that’s what it comes down to, ‘You will die’ — you do whatever you have to do,” Rickert told the Assembly and Senate health committees. “We’ve never wanted to break the law, but sometimes you have to.”

Marijuana can cut her use of morphine in half to manage symptoms from Ehler–Danlos syndrome, she said.

Some Republicans on the committee were sharply critical of the bill, with Rep. Leah Vukmir (R–Wauwatosa) saying advocates were using critically ill patients who filled the hearing room as a “facade.”

“It’s nothing more than a ruse for you to move forward for full legalization of marijuana,” Vukmir said.

That comment drew boos from the crowd, and Sen. Jon Erpenbach (D–Waunakee), a bill author, insisted his goal was not to legalize marijuana for recreational use.

“People shouldn’t have to break the law to get pot for their mom or dad or son. … Republicans and Democrats are doing that right now — in your district, right in your backyard,” Erpenbach told Vukmir.

Medical marijuana advocates are hopeful the bill will pass the Legislature, which is controlled by Democrats.

Rep. Mark Pocan (D–Madison), an author of the bill, has said he is confident the Assembly Public Health Committee will approve the bill and forward it to the full Assembly, and Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker (D–Weston) has signaled he is open to allowing a floor vote on the bill. Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle supports allowing medical marijuana.

Supporters pointed to other signs helping their side, including a new, hands-off approach by the U.S. Department of Justice for marijuana dispensaries in states that allow them and a call last month by the American Medical Association for more research of medical marijuana.

Thirteen states allow medical marijuana, including Michigan, where voters approved the measure last year.

The Wisconsin bill would allow people with debilitating medical conditions to grow up to 12 marijuana plants or buy up to three ounces of marijuana from non-profit dispensaries. Patients would have to get a written recommendation from a doctor and register with the state Department of Health Services.

If patients bought marijuana on the street, they could use their medical condition as a defense at trial.

Patients would not be allowed to drive or operate heavy machinery while under the influence of marijuana. They could not smoke it in schools, parks and many other public places.

The bill would cover people with cancer, AIDS, Crohn’s disease, hepatitis C, Alzheimer’s disease, post-traumatic stress disorder and other serious ailments.

Rep. Pat Strachota (R–West Bend) said the bill was written so broadly that potentially millions of state residents could qualify for medical marijuana.

Pocan said what’s happened in other states shows that’s not the case. He said the bill had strict controls to avoid the loopholes found in California’s medical marijuana law.

The bill is the “most comprehensive and responsible legislation in the country,” said Daniel Abrahmson, director of legal affairs for the Drug Policy Alliance, a group that pushes for medical marijuana.

But Michael Miller, a physician, told lawmakers the Wisconsin Medical Society opposed the bill because drug approvals should be based on science and left to the federal Food and Drug Administration.

“This is not the way to approve a new medicine,” Miller said.

Marijuana is not a very strong painkiller, he said. Patients who need THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, to spur their appetite or combat nausea can get a prescription to Marinol, a synthetic version of the drug, he said.

Miller stressed the dangers of smoking the drug and said that is the primary way patients would use it, despite claims by advocates that many would eat it, or vaporize and then inhale it.