Madison NORML

At this point, the bill's fate is in the hands of Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch (R-West Salem), Assembly GOP Majority Leader Jeff Fitzgerald, Assembly Health and Healthcare Reform Committee chair Rep. Leah Vukmir (R-Wauwatosa) and Assembly Health and Healthcare Reform Committee vice chair Terry Moulton (R-Chippewa Falls).

If you are a constituent of any of these representatives, please call their office and request AB 550, the Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act receive a hearing. Assembly Speaker Huebsch has the power to pull AB 550 from Rep. Vukmir's committee and assign it to the Assembly Public Health Committee, chaired by Rep. J.A. "Doc" Hines (R-Oxford), who has promised to hold a hearing. If you are a constituent of Rep, Hines, please call and ask that he request that AB 550 be reassigned to his committee so it can receive a public hearing.

Rep. Mike Huebsch (R-West Salem)
Speaker iof the Wisconsin Assembly
94th Assembly District
Telephone (608) 266-3387 Or (888) 534-0094
District Telephone (608) 786-3512
Email Rep.Huebsch@legis.wisconsin.gov

Rep. Jeff Fitzgerald (R-Horicon)
Republican Assembly Majority Leader
39th Assembly District
Telephone (608) 266-2401
District Telephone (920) 485-0586
Email Rep.Fitzgerald@legis.wisconsin.gov

Rep. Leah Vukmir (R-Wauwatosa)
14th Assembly District
chair, Assembly Health & Healthcare Reform Committee
Telephone (608) 266-9180
Email Rep.Vukmir@legis.wisconsin.gov

Rep. Terry Moulton (R-Chippewa Falls)
68th Assembly District
vice-chair, Assembly Health & Healthcare Reform Committee
Telephone (608) 266-9172
Email Rep.Moulton@legis.wisconsin.gov

Rep. J.A. Hines (R-Oxford)
42nd Assembly District
chair, Assembly Public Health Committee
Telephone (608) 266-7746 Or (888) 534-0042
District Telephone (608) 586-5999
Email Rep.Hines@legis.wisconsin.gov
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Source: Capital Times
Pubdate: January 8, 2008
Author: Gary Storck

DREYFUS SUPPORTED MEDICAL MARIJUANA; TODAY'S POLS SHOULD TOO

Dear Editor: I was sorry to read of the passing of former Wisconsin Gov. Lee Sherman Dreyfus. Dreyfus signed Wisconsin's first medical marijuana bill into law on April 19, 1982.

As a glaucoma patient fighting each day to save my precious eyesight, I had been using cannabis for 10 years and had lobbied for the bill. The Therapeutic Cannabis Research Act passed both houses easily. Similar legislation was passed in more than two-thirds of U.S. states.

Unfortunately, these bills were written with the expectation that the federal government would supply the program's medical marijuana. With federal authorities unwilling to supply marijuana to sick and dying U.S. citizens, the law became symbolic.

While Dreyfus remained a supporter of medical marijuana in his later years, many of the Republican legislators who followed him in state government have blocked medical marijuana legislation.

This session, the Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act is awaiting action in the Assembly's Health and Healthcare Reform Committee. Chair Leah Vukmir, R-Wauwatosa, a nurse, has stated that the bill will not receive a hearing. If the bill does not receive a hearing soon, it will die in committee like previous attempts dating back more than a decade.

Polling has established that popular support for medical marijuana exceeds 80 percent in Wisconsin. As an advocate for medical cannabis, I constantly receive calls from patients and family members who indicate there is a crisis in pain management in our state. I know the good folks who call me represent only the tip of the iceberg.

Memo to the GOP leadership: The sick and dying are not your enemy. I get calls from Republicans too. Let's get this done, this session, in honor of the memory of not only a man ahead of his time, Gov. Lee Sherman Dreyfus, but also the thousands of Wisconsinites who died in pain. Please make passage of the Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act a true priority when the Legislature reconvenes Jan. 15!

Gary Storck, Is My Medicine Legal YET?, Madison