Assembly OK's Medical Marijuana Bill
Jay Gallagher
June 18, 2008
The Journal News
The Assembly just approved a bill to legalize the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes, 79-48. This is an annual exercise in futility, since the measure has never been passed in the Senate, and is unlikely to be this year as well.
Sponsor Richard Gottfried, D-Manhattan pointed out that other more potent drugs are legal, and that marijuana can bring some significant pain relief to people whose suffering otherwise goes unabated. But opponents are concerned that legalizing its use for this narrow purpose would result in more widespread use.
The Assembly also today will pass another "one-house" bill — public financing of political campaigns. That idea is also likely to die in the Senate.
Later today the Senate was expected to get on the “one-house-bill’’ bandwagon, passing a death-penalty bill that has virtually no chance of passing the Assembly.
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