#420Empire: Medical Marijuana Becomes Legal in Connecticut this month

This October, a certain set of people -- those with chronic illnesses, such as multiple sclerosis or Crohn's disease, or cancer patients suffering from the debilitating effects of chemotherapy -- can become certified, and legal, smokers of marijuana.

"That part of the law will be in place," William Rubenstein, state commissioner of the Department of Consumer Protection, said in a recent interview.

Where they get that marijuana will be, for the near future, up to them.

The state's system of growing, distributing and selling medical marijuana -- approved by the General Assembly last month and signed into law by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy on June 1 -- will be a complicated business.

The regulations that will govern how growers in the state raise marijuana and how licensed pharmacists dispense it have yet to be written.

When they are, they'll have to pass muster at a public hearing and win the approval of the General Assembly's Legislative Review Committee.

"That can take a while," observed state Rep. Robert Godfrey of Danbury, who voted for the medical marijuana bill.

"We hope to have the entire law up and running sometime in 2013," Rubenstein said.

When that happens, the state will join 16 others in what is, in effect, both a medical and a social experiment -- whether Connecticut can successfully manage a system for the legal sale of marijuana, which the federal government still lists as an illegal drug.

Allen St. Pierre, executive director of NORML -- the National Organization to Reform Marijuana Laws -- said there have only been federal raids in states where there has been blatant abuse and disregard of state regulations, notably California.

"Generally speaking," St. Pierre said, "where people have been compliant, there hasn't been a problem."

Many doctors now see marijuana as an acceptable product to prescribe in the right situations.

"There are always new treatments, new modalities coming along," said Dr. Patrick Broderick, chairman of emergency medicine at Danbury Hospital and president of the Western Connecticut Medical Group.

"You don't want to be way out ahead of everybody, but you want to be able to help your patients. If we have another tool to help patients, that's a good thing," Broderick said.

Dr. Robert Kloss, an oncologist at the Praxair Cancer Center at Danbury Hospital and a doctor who works in hospice and palliative care, said patients are well-informed of what's happening in the other states where medical marijuana is legal, thanks to the Internet and a variety of social networks.

"People are very informed," Kloss said.

And, he said, there's strong anecdotal evidence -- if not rock-solid, double-blind medical studies -- that people get relief from smoking marijuana.

Kloss said people on chemotherapy use it to reduce nausea and as an appetite enhancer; people with colitis, inflammatory bowel disease and Crohn's disease have reported a improvement in bowel function through smoking marijuana; people with multiple sclerosis say marijuana can control their tremors.

"There are receptors in the brain that are affected by cannabinoids," he said of the chemical compounds in cannabis (marijuana). "And these chemical agents do have beneficial effects."

They may include anti-inflammatory effects and effects on the immune system, Kloss said.

"There are studies in mice that show it may have an effect in cancer cell suppression," he explained.

Dr. Peter Rostenberg, an internist and family doctor in New Fairfield, said he has treated people with a serious addiction to marijuana and knows its effects.

But Rostenberg said he could see himself prescribing medical marijuana for some of his patients.

"If it's strictly regulated, it will be a benefit," he said.

The first laws allowing medical use of marijuana were passed in 1996 in California, St. Pierre of NORML said. Canada approved medical marijuana use in 2001.

Four states in New England now allow its use -- Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maine and Vermont.