Medical Marijuana: From the Fringe to the Forefront

It's a rainy mid-March afternoon in Annapolis, MD, dimming the grandeur of a Lowe House Office Building hearing room as state Delegate Donald Murphy makes a case for a bill before an incomplete but sufficient-for-a-quorum portion of the House Judiciary Committee.

These sorts of hearings are almost purely for show, an opportunity for the public to get a word in on bills whose fates will be decided in other, less public circumstances. Still, fellow legislators make a point on commending Murphy (R-Baltimore and Howard counties) for his courage and vision in sponsoring House Bill 1222, the Darrell Putman Compassionate Use Act, which would protect from state imprisonment Marylanders who can prove they smoke marijuana to alleviate the pain and nausea associated with numerous medical conditions and their treatments, primarily AIDS and cancer. The bill is named for a Frederick resident who found marijuana eased the side effects of chemotherapy for non-Hodgkins lymphoma, a form of cancer. Shortly after Putman passed away, Murphy filed the measure. This is the third year he has done so; the first two times, it died in committee.

"As someone who supports the bill, I applaud Murphy's efforts," says Del. Robert Zirkin, a young, dapper-looking Baltimore County Democrat, before launching into a question about the bill's possible conflicts with federal law.

On the other side of the U-shaped formation of wooden tables, Del. Carmen Amedori (R-Carroll County) joins the praise for Murphy, then asks whether insurance companies would be liable to cover the costs for the use of marijuana under the bill. (They would not.)

The medical community itself remains circumspect about the medical value of Cannabis sativa. The American Medical Association remains neutral on the matter. And even if Murphy's bill becomes law, medical users in Maryland would still be looking over their shoulders. The bill passed by the Judiciary Committee on March 23 and the full House of Delegates March 25 (and now awaiting action by the state Senate) would remove criminal penalties for medical use of marijuana, making such possession a civil offense punishable by a nominal fine, with no jail time. But it would not negate federal laws, which do not differentiate between medical and recreational use of the drug. Get busted with a baggie by federal authorities in Maryland -- say, national-park police -- and you will still face the full brunt of the law. Such is the case with medical-marijuana laws already on the books in several states.

That seeming contradiction has not slowed medical marijuana's march from a fringe sideshow of the pro-pot movement to a standalone political issue that has generated support even among staunch law-and-order Republicans. This year's version of the Compassionate Use Act is co-sponsored by 53 of the 141 members of the Maryland House, compared to nine in 2000 and 29 last year. Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington state have passed laws allowing individuals to smoke marijuana for medicinal purposes, and the Vermont and Wisconsin legislatures are considering such measures this year.

In a nation still purportedly fighting a "war on drugs," legislators attach themselves to medical marijuana with no apparent political cost. In discussing his reasons for resurrecting the bill after two defeats, Murphy goes so far as to note, "It's an election year." He cites a study by the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), a Washington-based advocacy group, which found that 73 percent of Marylanders favor medicinal use of pot. In a poll commissioned by his office in January, 37 percent of respondents said they are more likely to vote for a candidate who supports a patient's right to use marijuana medically, while 18 percent said they are less likely to do so.