January 26, 2010 – (ANNAPOLIS) – Tomorrow, Maryland lawmakers, patients and advocates will hold a press conference to announce the introduction of medical marijuana legislation in the Maryland state legislature.

“This bill will provide Maryland’s doctors and patients with another tool in the toolbox, to be used safely and responsibly like any other therapy,” said Del. Dan Morhaim (D-Baltimore County), the bill’s co-sponsor and a physician board-certified in both Internal Medicine and Emergency Medicine.

“I can’t emphasize enough how important it is for patients to have access to the medicines that work best for them, especially for those suffering from serious ailments like cancer and multiple sclerosis. Marijuana may provide the greatest possible relief, one that can help when other therapies are not effective.”

Fourteen other states, including New Jersey, and the District of Columbia have passed laws that give seriously ill patients safe access to medical marijuana and protection from criminal prosecution. Maryland’s current law provides medical marijuana patients with a limited affirmative defense in court, but no protection from arrest. Patients can still be given a $100 fine that results in a criminal conviction.

“As a cancer survivor, I feel that it shouldn’t be the policy of this or any other state to arrest, prosecute or imprison a person who uses marijuana under a doctor’s advice to alleviate pain and suffering,” said Sen. David Brinkley (R-Frederick County), the bill’s co-sponsor in the Senate.

“We don’t want the government to interfere with the doctor/patient relationship in that way. I just watched my mother pass away from cancer as she chose to forego the only options that doctors could prescribe her to relieve her pain, because the treatments were so excruciating. If you disagree with me, I ask: would you call the police on a family member who confided in you that they were using marijuana under a doctor’s order to ease their suffering from cancer or MS?”

The press conference to announce the introduction of a medical marijuana bill in Maryland with state lawmakers, patients and advocates, happens Tuesday, January 26, at 3:00 p.m. in Room 318 in the House Office Building in Annapolis. Source.

January 20, 2010 – RICHMOND — It’s high times in the Virginia General Assembly. The lobbyists are cracking jokes about “joint” sessions, and the legislators are laughing that free Girl Scout cookies delivered Wednesday could prove useful.

In the District, the city council is on the verge of approving legislation to allow the use of medical marijuana. In Maryland, a senior Republican has joined a senior Democrat in planning to propose a similar bill in the state Senate. But in conservative Virginia, the idea is a joking matter for many.

That is, except for the slight, bespectacled, often-bow tie-wearing Republican delegate from Gloucester County who has proposed decriminalizing marijuana this year. Del. Harvey B. Morgan has also sponsored a separate bill that would allow medical marijuana.

At an earnest, and well-attended, news conference Wednesday, Morgan, 79, said doctors, who are accustomed to weighing the risks and benefits of drugs, should be able to prescribe marijuana in instances in which research has shown it could be medically effective.

Morgan, who is a pharmacist and, with 31 years in the House, the second-most senior delegate, said he thinks criminalizing pot has done nothing to curb its use. Instead, a possession conviction can permanently mar the records of people who have made mistakes in their adolescence.

He distributed a list of jobs from which someone with a drug record is permanently barred in Virginia — teacher, pawnbroker, taxi driver. And he said the state could save millions during a budget crisis by relieving the jails of those incarcerated for marijuana possession.

Under Morgan’s proposal, possession of less than an ounce of marijuana would become a civil offense, punishable by a $500 fine.

Morgan said his bills have been viewed largely with amusement by his Republican colleagues. Some have taken to holding pinched fingers to their lips, to mime smoking a joint, as they pass him in the hallway. Others have been plotting to hang a bow tie festooned with cannabis leaves on the doorknob of his General Assembly office in the dead of night.

“I think there is nobody in the House of Delegates who has more credibility, knowledge and experience with pharmaceuticals than Harvey Morgan,” cracked Del. William R. Janis (R-Goochland), “because he’s a pharmacist, of course.”

Janis continued: “This accounts for why there’s never any brownies in the members’ lounge when Harvey’s around.”

Morgan said he was not concerned about the jabs.

He has a history of going against the grain within his party. Once a supporter of Virginia’s death penalty, he has more recently become an opponent. In 2004, he sponsored a bill requiring earplugs at venues that sponsor live entertainment louder than 80 decibels.

“Sometimes they roll their eyes at me anyway,” he said. “I’m an individual.”

Morgan, widely admired by his colleagues because of his long years of service and genial nature, said he would stick with the issue.

“I think if they will take the time to see the information that I have, I think they will take it more seriously,” he said.