Backgrounder for Calls to State Senators

This is a background sheet that you may want to read over before calling your state senator's office. Don't try to make all of the points. It's here to help familiarize you with the issue and help you respond to some common concerns.

When you call your state senator, you should ask for the health care staffer. If there isn't one, you could ask whom the appropriate person is to talk to about the medical marijuana bill. Be sure to write down the staffer's name — one of the most important things about calling is following up. If the staffer asks you a question you don't know the answer to, just say you'll check on that and get back to him or her. Then, contact me (Karen O'Keefe) at Karen@mpp.org or (202) 462-5747, ext. 121, and I'll be happy to provide you with whatever information you need.

Please don't forget to be polite and respectful. And let me know how your call goes. Thanks for taking the time to help stop the senseless criminalization of New York's seriously ill.

Quick Facts About the Assembly Bill

• Unlike the Senate bill (S. 6303), the Assembly bill will work. It will ensure that patients have access to their medicine by allowing them or a caregiver to grow it, and it won't put state workers at risk of federal prosecution.
• Under the Assembly bill, home cultivation would end as soon as the federal government granted permission to replace it with a well-regulated distribution system. 
• The Assembly bill is A. 4867B, sponsored by Health Committee Chair Richard Gottfried.
• On June 18, the Assembly passed A. 4867B  in a 89-52 vote. Several Republicans voted for it, and seven are co-sponsors.
• The Assembly bill would likely create the narrowest medical marijuana law in the country. To qualify, a patient would need to do the following:
  • have a life-threatening or debilitating condition;
  • have a certification from his or her physicians certifying that he or she should use marijuana and that other medicines would not work as well; and
  • possess a registry ID card from the department of health. To get the card, he or she would need to submit their doctor's recommendation.

Quick Facts About the Senate Rules Committee Bill

• Unlike the Assembly bill (A. 4867B), the Senate bill puts doctors and state workers in danger of federal penalties. It would set up a  distribution system without federal permission. S. 6303 would involve state workers in distribution and gives doctors a role analogous to prescribing marijuana — which isn't allowed under federal law.
• For this reason, the Times Herald Record described the Senate bill as having a "poison pill" (9/21/07 editorial, "Baloney on Medical Marijuana").
• Patient and caregiver cultivation is working well in 12 states. It is providing patients with safe and steady access to their medicine without creating problems. A regulated distribution system has not been tested and may not work. Until state-regulated distribution is allowed under federal law, any regulated distribution should be in addition to — not instead of — cultivation.

Medical and Voter Support for Allowing Medical Marijuana

More than a dozen N.Y. health and medical organizations support allowing medical marijuana; none oppose it. Prominent supporters include:

Medical Society of the State of New York

Associated Medical Schools of New York

New York State Nurses Association

New York State Association of County Health Officials

Polls show strong support across all New York political parties. That includes:

76% of N.Y. voters (6/05 Siena Research poll)

72% of Republicans (6/05 Siena Research poll)

80% of Democrats (6/05 Siena Research poll)

79% of unaffiliated voters (6/05 Siena Research poll)

55% of Conservative Party voters (7/07 Mason Dixon poll) 

Responses to a Few Challenges

Challenge #1: The senator supports medical marijuana, he/she just doesn't want a free-for-all. The Senate bill is a more sensible approach than allowing patients to cultivate marijuana; it allows for state-controlled cultivation and distribution.

Sample Response: The Times-Herald Record described Senate bill 6303 as containing a "poison pill." The bill won't work: it puts doctors and state workers in danger of federal punishment by getting them involved in distribution. Until federal policy changes, an effective bill must allow patients to grow a safe and steady supply of their medicine, like the 12 other states do. Those bills do not create a free-for-all. The Assembly bill does not allow such dispensaries.

Challenge #2: Allowing medical marijuana is unnecessary because a "marijuana pill," Marinol, is available.

Sample Response: As Dr. Mark Kris explained in a panel on medical marijuana that the National Institutes of Health convened, "the last thing that patients want is a pill when they are already nauseated or are in the act of throwing up." Furthermore, the pill only contains THC, which is just one of marijuana's 60 components that have therapeutic value. Cannabidiol, for example, seems to be mostly responsible for controlling muscle spasms.  Thus the "pill" is not an effective form of administration for many patients and does not even contain the necessary ingredients for MS and other patients.

Challenge #3: Other drugs work better than marijuana.

Sample Response: Not all medicines work for everyone. If they did, no cancer patient would die of wasting away. In reality, 20% of all cancer deaths are associated with wasting. In 1999, the Institute of Medicine explained in its report on medical marijuana, "there will likely always be a subpopulation of patients who do not respond well to other medications." Many of the "other drugs" (such as powerful pain killers) are also more addictive than marijuana and have far more severe side effects.

Challenge #4: The New York legislature cannot act because of federal law.

Sample Response: There is no federal law that requires states to enforce federal laws against marijuana possession or cultivation. States are free to determine their own penalties — or lack of penalties — for drug offenses. States cannot directly violate federal law by directly facilitating the delivery of marijuana to patients as the Senate bill proposes, but they can refuse to arrest patients that grow their own. Considering that 99% of all marijuana arrests are by state and local officials — not federal ones — state law is what is really putting medical marijuana patients at risk. Twelve states have already acted, the earliest being more than a decade ago.

Challenge #5: The federal government needs to fix the problem.

Sample Response: Patients, doctors, and medical marijuana advocates have tried to convince Congress and federal agencies to allow medical marijuana, but have failed so far. The federal government often denies permission for the medical research that is necessary before marijuana can be federally rescheduled. Because of federal inaction, the 12 states have moved forward on their own. The growing number of state laws has resulted in more congressional votes in favor of changing federal law. Sick and dying New Yorkers should not be prosecuted by their state government because Washington refuses to act.

Challenge #6: This is just a smokescreen to make marijuana legal for recreational use.

Sample Response: Cocaine is legal when prescribed by a physician, and that hasn't resulted in decriminalization of cocaine for recreational use. Whether to allow the recreational and medical use of a substance are entirely separate policy questions