Shameful: House Committee Kills Medical Marijuana Bill

A bill passed by the NM Senate that would allow patients suffering from diseases like cancer or AIDS to use medically prescribed marijuana was tabled yesterday in the House Agriculture and Water Resources Committee on a  4-3 vote. Tabling of a bill this late in the Legislative Session means it's effectively dead.

The vote tally indicates that at least one Democrat voted for tabling. Both Rep. Ray Begaye (D-Shiprock) and Rep. Joseph Cervantes (D-Las Cruces) reportedly voted against tabling so that leaves Democrats Joe Stelle (D-Carlsbad) and Andy Nunez (D-Hatch) as possible votes for killing the bill. If anyone knows how these Representatives voted, please let me know.

SB 258, the "Lynn Pierson Compassionate Act," was sponsored by Senator Cisco McSorley, who had predicted the bill had an excellent chance of passage. Apparently someone in the Democratic House Leadership didn't want that to happen, despite Governor Richardson's professed support for the measure. The referral of the bill to the House Agriculture and Water Resources Committee was generally seen as an attempt to kill it, given the conservative nature of some of its members. It worked.

What a victory for small-mindedness and muddied thinking. What a painful and even dangerous loss for those suffering from serious diseases who can gain some measure of relief from a relatively harmless substance that has been used medicinally for centuries. Certainly the forces of compassion were trumped by the forces of backwards thinking. Again.

The bill had bipartisan support in the Senate, including that of Republican Senator Steve Komadina, a physician. It passed by a whopping margin of 34-6. Medical marijuana acts have been approved in Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, Oregon, Nevada, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington. But again, small numbers of Democrats and Republicans stood in the way of New Mexico joining that enlightened group.

Shame on those who voted against this bill on the basis of distorted claims by DEA-related cronies and other alarmists who seem more responsive to law enforcement fearmongering than to real human suffering. An Albuquerque Journal article reports that the committee's unconscionable vote was greeted by a shout of "Why are you trying to kill us?" by Essie DeBonet, 61, who said she has suffered from AIDS for 18 years and needs marijuana to control the pain without giving her nausea that prevents her from eating.

Maybe she should ask Big Pharma. Another article in the Santa Fe New Mexican describes how drug makers are funding people to testify against medical marijuana bills. Money talks. The pharamaceutical industry contributed more than $97,000 to New Mexico political campaigns in 2002 and more than $56,000 in 2004.