[420 Girl]

At a prayer vigil on the steps of the state Capitol late last month, protesters -- including a former U.S. Marine and Iraq war veteran -- asked legislators to act on a medical marijuana bill that has stalled in committee.

Gov. Jim Doyle has said that if it passes, he would sign the bill. But one of the organizers of the protest, Gary Storck, is not too optimistic for this legislative session.

"(Legislators) just got so used to saying 'no' that they won't even consider it," said Storck, a Madison resident who uses marijuana to cope with glaucoma and chronic pain.

Storck heads the Wisconsin chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws and serves as a spokesman for Is My Medicine Legal Yet?, which promotes medical cannabis. He has been an advocate for medical marijuana for years. But today, as California prepares to vote on a ballot initiative that would broadly legalize possession and sale of marijuana, he said he believes society is moving in the direction of fewer restrictions on marijuana.

"It's really a matter of quality of life, and a life with dignity," Storck said of permitting medical marijuana.

There are 14 states, plus the District of Columbia, that have legalized medical marijuana. South Dakota will also vote on medical marijuana in November. The Wisconsin legislation was introduced by Democrats Rep. Mark Pocan of Madison in the Assembly and Sen. Jon Erpenbach of Janesville in the Senate.

Sen. Russ Decker, D-Weston, who is state Senate Majority Leader, told The Associated Press last fall that the Senate bill needed work.

The Wisconsin Medical Society has opposed the measure. Dr. Michael Miller, a Madison physician who is also the president of the American Society of Addiction Medicine, testified before the state Senate Health Committee in December.

"THC (marijuana's active ingredient) is a dangerous drug," Miller told the committee. "THC is addictive. There's no debate about this, no controversy -- no controversy within the fields of medicine and science."

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