Burnt Orange Report

Medical Marijuana Bill has Bipartisan Support

By Byron LaMasters

The Dallas Morning News reports:

Two Republican House chairmen and a Democrat have filed legislation that would give patients... protection [from drug charges]. It would also clear the way for physicians to discuss marijuana with patients.

Despite years of resistance by lawmakers to pass such legislation, proponents say they have hope now for two reasons: a well-organized grassroots movement and a battery of studies and polls in their corner.

A recent Scripps Howard Texas poll showed 75 percent of Texans in favor of medical marijuana. The American Medical Association and the New England Journal of Medicine have endorsed it. Ten states have passed similar laws. And the year-old Texans for Medical Marijuana claims 7,500 members, including doctors, preachers and patients.

The bill's author, Austin Democratic Rep. Elliott Naishtat, said the bill could also find a Senate sponsor for the first time.

"I've never used an illegal drug in my life," said Rep. Suzanna Gratia Hupp, R-Lampasas, chairwoman of the House Human Services Committee and a joint author of the bill, "but God forbid any of my loved ones contract some dreaded disease, and if a doctor tells me that may make a difference in the final outcome, I'd be on the street in a heartbeat looking for it. ... And how dare a legislator be willing to stand in the way of that?" [...]

A similar bill sponsored by House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee Chairman Terry Keel, R-Austin, didn't make it out of his own committee in 2001.

But the issue's political and social stigma is starting to fade, he said.

The Texas Medical Association last year said doctors should be allowed to discuss all treatment options with their patients, including marijuana. But the group stopped short of endorsing the legislation.

"With each passing year, there's a better chance for it," said Mr. Keel, another sponsor of the current bill.

Science and medicine are increasingly on the side of proponents of this bill and medical marijuana. Any bill that can get the support of ideological opposites such as Elliott Naishtat and Suzanna Gratia Hupp has a shot. We'll have to watch to progress of this bill.