Students won’t let marijuana legislation burn out

Yesterday, Arizona joined the ranks of 15 states to legalize medical marijuana — a measure some students hope this state will adopt in the upcoming legislative session.

Although a bill that would have legalized marijuana in this state for medicinal purposes passed the state's Senate earlier this year, the proposed legislation stalled in the House due to widespread concern over how the drug would be produced for sale and the costs of the program. But for about 30 students who attended last night's lecture "Is Marijuana Medicine?" in Stamp Student Union — hosted by this university's chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws — there is hope a similar bill will have greater success in the near future.

Caren Woodsen and Victor Pinho, two advocates for the legal use of medical marijuana, highlighted the number of people who would benefit from additional medical marijuana laws across the country.

While about 7,000 doctors are currently prescribing the drug to over half a million patients, only one-third of the population has access, leaving many sufferers without hope for treatment, according to Woodsen, who works for Americans for Safe Access — an organization that advocates for legal access to marijuana for medicinal purposes.

"These people deserve as many tools on the tool belt as possible to fight these severe diseases," she said.

Students at the event, many of whom are active members of student organizations that support legalizing marijuana, echoed this belief.

"If it helps a patient more than any other prescribed drug, then why the hell not?" said sophomore plant science major Crystal Varkalis, who serves as the vice president for this university's chapter of Students for Sensible Drug Policy.

The speakers also discussed medical marijuana policy in states such as California and New Jersey, where the drug is legal but is regulated with varying degrees of severity.

Woodson said other states should aim to instate statutes that resemble California's.

"From a medical perspective, California is head and shoulders above any other state," she said. "It's the only state where you can have access to the medicine within 24 hours of going to a doctor, and any physician can prescribe it for any condition."

New Jersey falls on the other end of the spectrum, said Pinho, a university alumnus who works for the Coalition for Medical Marijuana New Jersey.

He explained that those seeking medical marijuana prescriptions in his state must surmount a number of obstacles — insurance companies are not required to cover the costs, so bills can run high; there are no legal protections for those using medical marijuana preventing them from being fired by employers or otherwise discriminated against; and the maximum dose prescribed to patients is often too low to alleviate their symptoms, he said.

Pinho urged students to call their representatives and make appointments to meet with them.

"If you don't stand up and talk to your politicians, your state will end up like New Jersey," he said. "It is their duty to listen to what you have to say."

Lauren Mendelsohn, the president of NORML Terps, said this kind of lobbying is exactly what NORML encourages.

"It means a lot to lawmakers to see one person standing there, speaking out about something they believe in," she said. "We really encourage our members to call their representatives."

Neither NORML Terps nor SSDP has definitive plans to lobby legislators in Annapolis to back medical marijuana legislation in the coming year. Several students said the issue is more relevant to the university than students often realize.

"You don't really think about it, but there are a lot of students who use medical marijuana," said former SSDP president Irina Alexander, who now serves as a university senator. "When people picture these patients, they usually think of an older person, but it is a student issue as well."

kirkwood at umdbk dot com