Andrew Averill
Pocan: 'It's important to have a hearing and get people to come out and talk about it.'
Erin Silbaugh, a 28-year-old U.S. Marine Corps veteran and resident of Lodi, attended a news conference at the Wisconsin Capitol on Wednesday wearing seven pins on his right lapel. One pin signified his service in Operation Iraqi Freedom, another his rank of Sergeant. Four others marked each year he spent in Iraq. The last pin was special for the occasion: shaped like a heart and purple in color, it had a green marijuana leaf in the upper left corner.
Silbaugh returned from Iraq with post-traumatic stress disorder, and found marijuana was the best way to relieve such symptoms as severe anxiety. He, like other medicinal marijuana patients in Wisconsin, must acquire the plant through illegal channels since its use is not legal in the state.
"I'm forced to hide within my own country to be able to use medicine that helps me," said Silbaugh at the news conference.
Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Madison) announced at the news conference he was introducing legislation that would, if passed, make Wisconsin the 17th state to legalize the cultivation and possession of medicinal marijuana. Similar bills authored by Pocan have failed to pass in previous legislative sessions going back to 2001. The Republican-controlled Legislature is not expected to pass the bill this session, but Pocan wants to have a public hearing on the bill to gauge public support.
"We're done in March and, given the dysfunction that we've had this year, I doubt, unless it involves a gun, it will pass," Pocan told an audience of reporters and medicinal marijuana advocates. "But it's important to have a hearing and get people to come out and talk about it, because we find there's so much more support in this state than opposition."
The bill -- named the Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act after a Mondovi woman and medicinal marijuana user who is a longtime advocate for legalizing medicinal marijuana and co-founded the group Is My Medicine Legal Yet? (IMMLY) -- is co-authored by Sen. Jon Erpenbach (D-Middleton). It would allow patients with glaucoma, cancer, AIDS and other diseases to access marijuana with a prescription from their doctors.
The Wisconsin Department of Health Services would keep a registry of approved patients, and provide them with ID cards that would allow them access to medical marijuana dispensaries. Patients could have up to 12 plants, which could be used to supply the dispensaries, and three ounces of marijuana.
At the last public hearing on a similar bill in 2010, 104 people testified in support and six in opposition. A recent CBS News poll showed 77% of Americans supported medicinal marijuana.
Despite this support, marijuana is still classified as a Schedule 1 drug by the Federal Drug Administration and Drug Enforcement Agency, which puts it in the same league as heroin and LSD. The largest association of medical doctors in Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Medical Society, acknowledges some therapeutic effects of marijuana but expects that a number of medical marijuana users would smoke it and that would bring associated health costs.
Dr. Michael Miller of the Wisconsin Medical Society said the group's policy on medical marijuana is in line with other major medical societies. He says it wants to move beyond anecdotal evidence provided by patients and conduct research that would compare the efficacy of marijuana with alternatives.
But for Silbaugh, the alternatives have not been as successful as marijuana in treating the symptoms of PTSD. The veteran has taken anti-psychotics, anti-depressants, Benzedrine, tranquilizers and sleep medication. Sometimes he's ended up in the emergency room because of adverse reactions to these drugs.
"Cannabis has never caused me or anybody else harm," said Silbaugh, "only peace and harmony."
