Medical Pot Bill May Wind Up in the Ash Heap
June 14, 2007
New York Daily News
ALBANY Medical marijuana legislation may go up in smoke.
The measure passed the Assembly last night, but it has been caught up in partisan bickering in the Senate.
Senate Republicans insisted patients cleared to receive marijuana should do so from state-authorized dispensaries.
But Democrats said the federal government would step in and close the dispensaries, forcing patients to seek out street dealers as a last resort.
Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno, a survivor of prostate cancer, said his house would introduce its own bill.
"The Assembly version doesn't work, in my estimation, with all due respect," said Bruno (R-Rensselaer).
The Assembly measure, authored by Richard Gottfried (D-Manhattan), passed 92 to 52.
During the debate, Assemblyman Kevin Cahill told of how his late father had smoked joints in a hospital room while suffering from brain cancer.
"They could have put him in prison for that, and that would have been wrong," Cahill said.
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