NORML seeks medical-use bill

BOISE – Now that every other state in the Northwest has passed some form of medicinal marijuana legalization over the last decade, one organization wants to bring similar legislation to Idaho.

“Idaho needs to step up to the plate,” said Tim Teater, state coordinator of the Idaho affiliate of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, or NORML. “The time is long past for Idaho to pass this law.”

At a news conference in the Statehouse on Monday, Teater said he is involved in talks with several Idaho legislators about the issue. He wants lawmakers to introduce a bill that would give patients suffering from serious illnesses, or their primary caregivers, the ability to grow marijuana without fear of prosecution.

If a bill doesn’t pan out, a ballot initiative also is a possibility, he said.

No sponsor for the bill has been named yet.

Teater said polls have shown a majority of Americans favor legalized medical marijuana. That’s largely because of the drug’s benefits in treating diseases such as multiple sclerosis and Lou Gehrig’s disease. Marijuana also has proved effective in combating common side effects – such as nausea and vomiting – of chemotherapy treatments for cancer as well as side effects of AIDS.

If an initiative were put on the ballot, “I am absolutely positive it would pass,” Teater said.

But state Sen. Denton Darrington, R-Declo, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said any bill, in whatever form, is going nowhere.

“More than anything else, illegal drugs are destroying the lives of our people,” Darrington said. “Marijuana is a gateway drug. Everyone knows that suicide, child abuse and many other things are often caused by drugs.

“They can say what they want, but nothing good would come out of that bill.”

In 1998, voters in Washington state approved Initiative 692, which grants immunity from state-level prosecution to patients who use marijuana medically.

At the end of last year, Montana voters approved a similar law. So, too, have Oregon, Alaska, California and Nevada voters, among others. All told, 12 states have passed such measures over the past nine years.

“I don’t see how it would be any different in Idaho,” Teater said. “Western states have a tendency to want individual liberty and less government intrusion. We like to make our own decisions, and there’s no more important issue to do so than health care.”

However, there’s no way for patients to buy marijuana legally. And, Teater said, some recreational users and drug dealers have been able to hide behind people with illnesses.

Oregon uses mandatory identification cards to prevent abuse of the law, Teater said. Another alternative is the use of a registry, which Montana has implemented. Controversy has arisen there, however, because of the $200-per-person cost to register.

NORML, according to Teater and the American Civil Liberties Union of Idaho, wasn’t allowed to have a display in the Idaho Capitol last year and had to petition for a spot this time.

“Some people didn’t want that kind of display in the Statehouse,” said Jack Van Valkenburgh, executive director of the ACLU of Idaho. “We argued that you can’t bar the display just because of the message.”

After a series of discussions, “cooler heads prevailed,” Teater said.