Ishmael
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- Oct 18, 2011
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Ryan Milligan tends to the plants at a marijuana dispensary in Denvery
A state senator who says he has never smoked pot wants Nebraska to join the growing list of states that have legalized marijuana for medical use.
State Sen. Tommy Garrett of Bellevue said he has no interest in making marijuana legal for recreational use, but personal experience with a relative and pleas from a couple of constituents led him Wednesday to introduce Legislative Bill 643, the Cannabis Compassion and Care Act.
"This is about making life better for people," Garrett said.
While 23 states and the District of Columbia now allow sales of marijuana for relief from pain and nausea and other medical uses, a bill to allow it in Nebraska had never been introduced.
The surprise proposal came on the last day for bill introduction in the Legislature, where lawmakers introduced 655 bills and four proposed constitutional amendments.
Garrett's bill is one of the bad ideas, according to a law enforcement officer from Nebraska's Panhandle.
"This is your gateway into the legalization of marijuana for recreation," said Scotts Bluff County Sheriff Mark Overman. "They did the same thing in Colorado, they did the same thing in Washington and other places. It's only the first step."
Garrett said full legalization is not his goal.
He said his father-in-law, who lived in Colorado and suffered from cancer, was told by a doctor there that marijuana could reduce his nausea during treatment.
"It did, in fact, do what the doctor said it would," the senator said.
Garrett, a 26-year Air Force veteran who wears his graying hair in a pony-tail, said he's one of the few people he knows who has never tried marijuana, but he is a "firm believer" that it can help some pain sufferers.
"There are children and adults in our communities with diagnosed debilitating medical conditions who will benefit from the inclusion of medical cannabis as a treatment option," he said. "Such treatment would be tightly controlled and could only be prescribed by a licensed physician."
California, in 1996, was the first state to legalize medical marijuana. Last year, two more states, Minnesota and New York, legalized it.
Prior to Wednesday, the only steps taken in Nebraska to legalize pot were a couple of ill-fated citizen petition drives and a failed effort in 2010 to get the State Board of Pharmacy to reclassify marijuana so it could be used as medicine.
Garrett said he was not optimistic about getting his bill passed, "but I want to get the dialogue going."
Attitudes at the Statehouse have been decidedly anti-pot in recent years.
Last month, then-Attorney General Jon Bruning enlisted Oklahoma and sued Colorado to halt recreational sales of marijuana in that state and to stem the flow of weed into neighboring states, including Nebraska.
Last year, an effort in the Legislature to legalize nonhallucinogenic hemp oil as a treatment for severe seizure disorders failed to advance because of a lack of support from the medical community.
Gov. Pete Ricketts, who took office earlier this month, has said he opposes the legalization of marijuana for medical or recreational reasons.
However, Bob Kerrey, a former governor and U.S. senator, has said he supports legalization of marijuana to treat veterans who suffer from post-traumatic stress syndrome.
On Wednesday, new Attorney General Doug Peterson said that if there is proof that marijuana is a beneficial medicine, then the appropriate path to legalization would be through the federal Food and Drug Administration. One problem with state-by-state legalization is that it's too easy in some states to obtain a doctor's order to buy pot for medicine, he said.
"The result has been that marijuana has become readily available to those who do not have a legitimate medical need," Peterson said. "This then becomes a very serious problem with abuse of cannabis particularly among young people."
Garrett, who decided late last week to introduce his bill, was able to get three first-year lawmakers to sign on as co-sponsors: Crete Sen. Laura Ebke, Omaha Sen. Joni Craighead and Lincoln Sen. Patty Pansing Brooks.
He said other senators he contacted were reluctant to put their names on the bill.
Bellevue Sen. Sue Crawford, who sponsored the hemp oil measure last year, did not sign onto the medical marijuana bill. She said she had pledged to seek legalization of hemp oil and go no further.
Crawford has reintroduced her hemp oil proposal this year, and, unlike in 2014, has enlisted the help of the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
Garrett said his medical marijuana bill is patterned after a similar proposal under consideration by Kansas lawmakers. It would allow nonprofit "compassion centers" to grow and sell marijuana to people who obtain a state card from a physician they see regularly, one who has seen them at least three times in the past 90 days.
The bill also states that card holders or designated caregivers could have up to 12 marijuana plants and 6 ounces of "usable cannabis" for themselves, but Garrett said he will seek to remove home growing from the bill.
The Nebraska Medical Association does not have an official position on medical marijuana, but its executive director, Dale Mahlman, said the organization's legislative committee would discuss it next week.
"It's going to be an interesting discussion," he said.
Source:livewellnebraska
