Resusitated Medical Marijuana Bill Passes House with Help of Gov. Richardson!

UPDATE 3.15.07: The Senate quickly approved a House floor amendent yesterday. The House floor amendment states that medical marijuana could not be distributed within 300 feet of any church, school or day-care center. The bill now goes to the Governor.

UPDATE 3.14.07: I've since learned the bill was passed with a minor amendment so it will have to go back to the Senate before heading to the Governor for his signature. It's not anticipated this will cause any real problems. The original medical marijuana bill passed the Senate by a margin of 34-7.
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This just in from Steve Terrell's Legislative Blog. A medical marijuana bill passed the NM House today by a vote of 36-3, with 29 Democrats and 7 Repubs voting "yes." This means nine Dems voted "no" along with 22 Repubs (unless some didn't vote). The bill now goes to the Governor for his signature. Richardson has said he'll sign it. I hear there may have been some amendments to the bill, but I have no further info on that.

Terrell reports that Santa Fe Reps. Lucky Varela, Jim Trujillo and Peter Wirth voted yes, while House Speaker Ben Lujan voted no.

As my rather irate Friday post reported, another version of the bill, SB 238, failed in the House by a margin of 36-33 after some confusion in the voting process. In that tally, 26 Democrats and 7 Republicans voted to support the bill and 15 Democrats and 21 Republicans voted against it.

On Saturday, a bill that originally allowed only marijuana patches and ointments and known as SB 523, was revived and a substitute crafted to mimic the bill that failed in the House. This is the version that was then passed by the Senate and sent to the House, and which gained passage today. Whew. These things get complicated during the waning days of a legislative session.   

Anyway, on this last vote, three more Dems voted for passage, but I don't yet know who they were. Whoever they are, I think they should be commended to changing their minds and voting for compassion in the treatment of seriously ill or dying New Mexicans who will now be able to have an additional choice for pain and nausea relief. So should the Governor, who reportedly was doing all he could to persuade a revival of a bill to permit medical marijuana.

Hats off to Governor Richardson and the three as yet unnamed Dems who changed their votes, as well as all the other Reps and Senators who voted for a common sense policy and against scare tactic spin! I know the bill will mean a lot to suffering New Mexicans and anyone who believes in patients and their doctors being empowered to make important decisions about their care.

As Terrell reports in an earlier Santa Fe New Mexican article,

For the past seven years, drug-law reform advocates have been trying to get the Legislature to adopt a medical marijuana program. The Senate has passed such bills several times, only to see the legislation die in the House.

In 1978, the Legislature passed a medical marijuana research project at the urging of Lynn Pierson, a cancer patient who died before the bill went into effect. That bill had a "sunset clause," which means it expired several years ago.

This progressive legislation has been a long time coming. Congratulations to all those who helped make it a reality.