[420 Girl]

PA: Kenny Brown understands the issue of legalizing medical marijuana might be a non-starter in Pennsylvania, but he spent Friday trying to change a few minds.

Along with 70 supporters, the 21-year-old spent the afternoon rallying on Public Square to share stories, information and a petition for sanctioning the drug for medicinal use. While supporters understood residents' hesitation to the idea, they said the movement's goal isn't solely to legalize the substance outright and is grounded in giving patients another treatment option.

"This is a compassionate movement," Brown said. "I don't need marijuana for medical use, but I don't think it should be illegal because of that. Just because I don't benefit doesn't mean my friend who may have HIV or cancer may not be helped."

The fledgling chapter of the Cannabis Defense Movement, of which Brown is a member, tried to take advantage of Public Square's prominent location in downtown Wilkes-Barre to aim its message at Wilkes University and King's College students along with residents during breaks in the work day, Brown said. By Friday afternoon, the group had collected 250 signatures supporting medical marijuana.

Brown touted the benefits of marijuana not as competing treatment with traditional medication but as a means to ease nausea and vomiting associated with chemotherapy, stimulate hunger in AIDS patients and as a general pain reliever for conditions such as chronic arthritis. He said potentially discovering other benefits through medical research are blunted by the drug's illegal status.

In recent years, 14 states have approved medical marijuana in some form, most prominently California and recently Colorado, according to the National Organization for Reforming Marijuana Laws. Yet, there have been controversies associated with those moves.

In California, whose voters approved medical marijuana in 1996, local governments are grappling with how to regulate and monitor dispensaries and discern whether users have valid identification to make purchases. On top of that, there have been issues in Humboldt County and other counties with covert and illegal growing operations setting up shop in state parks and other rural areas, sometimes draining local creeks of water to grow plants.

Adam Szomski, 21, said legalizing medical marijuana and directing money and resources used for drug enforcement would help crack down those who abuse the system. Meanwhile, he said if the medical marijuana were treated as a normal crop, it would be an incentive for farmers to preserve their land.

"I think with the way politics have been changing, it's time for a more rationale debate rather than outright stigmatizing the subject," Szomski said.

Brown sees Pennsylvania as a place where the tenor of the debate is changing, with large chapters of NORML flourishing in urban areas such as Philadelphia and Pittsburgh balanced with conservative attitudes in western parts of the state.

"Even medical marijuana is something can breach party lines," he said. "A patient isn't just a liberal or a conservative. A patient is a patient."


NewsHawk: User: 420 MAGAZINE
Source: Citizens' Voice, The (Wilkes-Barre, PA)
Copyright: 2010 The Citizens' Voice
Contact: yourvoice@citizensvoice.com
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Author: Matthew Harris


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