URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v10/n072/a05.html
Newshawk: Howard Wooldridge
Webpage: http://mapinc.org/url/bW4nxMbB
Pubdate: Thu, 28 Jan 2010
Source: Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, VA)
Copyright: 2010 The Virginian-Pilot
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/zJNzcThR
Website: http://hamptonroads.com/pilotonline
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/483
Author: Alicia P.Q. Wittmeyer

GLOUCESTER DELEGATE’S MARIJUANA BILLS VOTED DOWN

Testimony from a former police officer,* a professor, and patients with HIV and an artificial hip wasn’t enough to sway lawmakers on a House subcommittee Wednesday evening.  Both of Del.  Harvey Morgan’s bills to loosen restrictions on medical marijuana and reduce marijuana-related penalities were voted down.

The Gloucester Republican’ s first proposal, to decriminalize possession of small amounts of the drug and reduce penalties for distributing certain quantities, was voted down by committee members who disputed that it would save the state money and said it eased the punishments dealt out to drug dealers.

But his second bill, which would allow doctors to use marijuana to treat more diseases, found more traction, including from the subcommittee’s chair, House Majority Leader Morgan Griffith, who said he helped Morgan draft the bill.

“I truly believe if we can use morphine and opiates and narcotics, we ought to be able to use marijuana,” he said.

The bill was voted down, but delegates said they would be open to a proposal that named specific diseases that marijuana could be prescribed to treat.

*Howard Wooldridge