Newsnight Maryland; 142

It. Getting high for health reasons tonight medical marijuana does it have a fighting chance. This. Is NEWSNIGHT. With Bob over. And Camilla gone. Good evening everyone. Chronic pain glaucoma. Those are just some of the symptoms of AIDS. But unless you're living with them there's really no way of knowing the toll they take. Some who are say they find relief from smoking marijuana and those who enforce the law remind us all that it's still a controlled drug and still illegal. On tonight's edition of NEWSNIGHT Maryland the fight to legalize marijuana for medical purposes. Is

it ever right to bend the drug law. And another issue growing in Montgomery County tonight. This over a controversial development practice. Tonight a debate in the Maryland polls and I'm going one on one with tonight's newsmaker and Randall County executive John Gary. But first let's check in with Jeff Salkin for a look at news making headlines around the state tonight. Jeff good evening Camilla. Larry Young will speak publicly tonight about the move to expel him from the state senate. Young has made no comment on the Ethics Committee report of yesterday or the Senate leadership's decision last night to endorse that report. Senate leaders also voted to strip young of his Committee chairman's ships and schedule a vote on expulsion. Senate President Mike Miller said Young might consider resigning but no word yet from Mr. Young. Meantime the owner of a radio station group that received the controversial state business crashed today said that she would give the money back in protest of the treatment of Senator Young. In other news today Lieutenant Governor Kathleen Kennedy Townsend inaugurated the state's first automated criminal information

system in Westminster today. The system will notify witnesses and victims when a criminal is being released. And a new proposal tonight to redraw the Intercounty Connector of the long debated highway is meant to link Rockville and Laurel Montgomery County a state senator now says that it should go from Rockville to Columbia instead. Those are the news headlines to the moment Senator diong is scheduled to meet with reporters around 8 o'clock this evening. We'll have the latest on that through the evening Bob during him TV news breaks. Thank you Jeff. Last year voters in California and Arizona approved ballot initiatives to permit the use of marijuana for medical purposes. Now voters in D.C. may be faced with the same issue. Should marijuana be made legal for the seriously ill. It's a hot issue that sparked a lot of debate. We'll hear from both sides of DC's initiative 57 in a moment. But first this background. Even before medical marijuana use became legal in Arizona last year. Guido

Capone he was using it. The doctor treating his cancer confidentially told him it might help control his pain and nausea from chemotherapy and the results were from one lab that might return to. I didn't feel as miserable nor miserable in terms of physical and psychological as well. Don't these doctors actually prescribe. That's because until last year marijuana use either for recreation or medicinal purposes was legal everywhere in the U.S.. Then voters in Arizona and California approved ballot initiatives decriminalizing pot for medical use. Soon voters in D.C. may have the same choice. Initiative 57 would make marijuana legal for the treatment of serious illnesses. It would permit it's possession use cultivation and distribution and set up a distribution system in the district. Pot would still be illegal without a doctor's

recommendation like the ballot measures in California and Arizona. Initiative 57 is highly controversial. The Federal Office of Drug Control Policy is adamantly opposed I think to be clear this is not as much an issue about marijuana as it is an issue about protecting the health of the American people. But it's clear that marijuana is a harmful drug and that this is not an issue which is what should be decided at the ballot box until the late 1930s marijuana was legal in the U.S. It has long been thought to have therapeutic qualities among many people with AIDS. Pot is used to help fight the catastrophic weight loss that accompanies the disease and many claim its active ingredient THC is usable in controlling other diseases. But I think the medical data is pretty clear that it's beneficial for glaucoma is beneficial for preventing some of the nausea and eating problems associated with chemotherapy administration and there's many patients who are

living with HIV who feel is beneficial as prevention against wasting their helps increase appetite and appetite stimulant as well as an anti-nausea agent. But critics of legalization contend other medications are at least as effective as marijuana. Some suggest the initiatives are really aimed at making marijuana legal for any purpose. When patients ask me Is marijuana medically indicated to drink alcohol the answer is No. I mean the Vatican I mean that I mean this is old stuff. This is in the 70s and 80s we've gone way beyond this. In fact THC is available in legal form a medicine called Marinol. However many patients who have used it complained it's not as effective as marijuana and its side effects are undesirable. So some people claim much better results when they smoke. Smoke marijuana rather than when they ingest THC Marinol for Dr. Elyon and others argue that more research needs to be done about marijuana's

therapeutic effects. Last year researchers associated with an anti-drug thinktank reported there is no significant evidence that pot helps. And opponents contend it's harmfulness militates against legalization. The weight of the evidence is fairly clear that marijuana indeed causes very significant and harmful effects. We have a very well-established process for deciding what substances should be decided as medicine and we should not subvert that process with marijuana through the ballot box. But proponents of legalization point out that many legal medicines carry with them the risk of abuse. I think we just need some controlled studies to delineate the benefit of the inhaled substances first THC and try and see what's really best for our patients. Joining us now to discuss the issues surrounding the legalization of marijuana for medical purposes our Dr. Donald Dzerzhinsky chief of the Center for chemical dependency at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. Steve Michael the founder of ACT UP the gay rights

group heading up the push for initiative 57 man and McKinnon from Empower America and Douglas Ward a doctor and internist who treats AIDS patients and is in favor of using marijuana in medical treatment. Mr. Michael let me ask you first. What's the status now of initiative 57 initiative 57. We turned it in on December 8th to the Board of Elections and ethics and we are now embroiled in a debate with the board of elections over the voter rolls and the size of the voter rolls in the District based on their account of the voter rolls. We fell 800 signatures short. So what we're doing now is we've got a parallel track we're pursuing the matter in the courts we filed yesterday in D.C. Superior Court and we're working on that avenue for 57. We have since we filed an identical initiative 59 which will begin the signature gathering effort early in February. Why is this necessary. It's necessary because the federal government and people who have I guess

failed drug warriors are looking for a scapegoat and the easiest scapegoats have been the sick people with AIDS people with cancer or people with glaucoma. We're trying to move forward in terms of the research. Have FDA research happen have research happen at the NIH and the groups in opposition are the groups that have failed in the drug war are now attempting to claim a victory. So the best thing to do is to find something we can someone easy and it's the sick what we're trying to do is move that research forward creating a debate creating a discussion. The medical marijuana initiative we're doing in D.C. we know is a stopgap. We believe that within a few years 10 years maybe the marijuana will be medically available. We know that it is. It works. I have seen people come from death's door because they were able to finally take something to hold down their food. It's about people's survival. Dr. Judy Pinsky aren't there already alternatives though to marijuana. Yes I think that when one looks at these issues and again I think the piece did very well to separate out two issues one which is legalization and the

use of what a. A banned drug for recreational purposes may be used therapeutically. I think the issue from someone like me who's a scientist who facilitates drug development. We have a long history of looking at a plant which may have an effect. Finding the active ingredient and then developing it. And the question which is here for medical people which is really the questions of safety and efficacy. We have two issues in our society. One is we want products which we know which we administer which are safe and efficacious. So the issue is is a plant which is grown illicitly outside the country without any controls which is brought in. We don't know what the ingredients are we don't know what has been treated with we have no quality control and that's Should people be allowed to use this. Is it safe. Well that's the second. We don't have an answer to the question. There is nothing out there that helps people with AIDS and cancer down their food

the way Merom marijuana does. Doctor what is that true. There are approved drugs Marinol THC. It does not work in many instances as effectively as inhaled marijuana. You have to plan to take your Marinol pill hours in advance of the nausea. You can't control the dose. You don't get an immediate effect. No question marijuana which contains the same active ingredient as Marinol is effective maybe more effective with other ingredients in it. And for many patients is. Very effective in controlling the symptoms of what is what is Empower America's position. Well it's simply this that the medical discussion that's going on here proves that there are a great deal of questions about Ross smoked marijuana as a medicine. It is not a medicine. We don't know what's in it. However there is widespread agreement of the fact that if you wanted to study

other properties within the drug then do it through the scientific process. Barry McCaffrey has agreed to that. That's the president's position and we agree with that too that it can certainly be studied. But the larger question is drug legalization and there is movement afoot throughout the world not just this country but throughout the world and it's much farther along in some countries than it is here to legalize drugs. This is a step toward drug legalization that AIDS drugs stalking horse for them nothing could be further from the truth. Our campaign disclosure forms are clear on it. Everything is clear. This initiative is local. It has nothing to do with anybody on either side of the drug war. As a matter of fact. The person that's their primary foil the main funder of legalization efforts is George Soros and others who is opposing our initiative because it is so tightly written. Initiative 57 and the child of 57 59 are written tightly written strictly for medical purposes. We have adopted strict guidelines to make

sure that it's done that way and to tie this all this in together it is questionable. This is about access for people that are sick. Here in Washington D.C. right now and I got to tell you. Groups like Empower America have done nothing in the history of the AIDS epidemic except stand in the way of the research that needs to be done. How would how would this assure quality control though of the drug that would be made available. Well we have set up and we have not put the restrictions on the D.C. government agency that would be in charge of this. The same agency Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs would be entitled to do exactly the same sorts of things they're doing and anything else nothing in our legislation bars the council the district council from doing the things that it needs to do which is where it needs to be our government taking care of this issue ourselves. You know groups that talk about this race talk about the research at the federal level dharna at every turn they stand in the way of this research they block the research that needs to be done. And General McCaffrey is one of the leading culprits in that issue. It's a sad fact that they really don't care about the lives of those of

us that are ill. We care a great deal about the lives of anyone who is Eyl America is a very compassionate country and that's why we have to be very careful about this drug legalization. Steve I'm not accusing you of being a person who's interested in drug legalization but this is a giant step on the road to Ward drugs legalization whether you intend to or not. But remember this is not a failed war on drugs in 1979 we had 26 million people on drugs. By 1992 we had 13 million. This is why it needs to be separated because the facts don't mean a 30 year high. Let's look at the old out of psych drugs. You have to separate the issues. This is about the medical use of marijuana. Morphine is available by prescription. The availability of legal morphine has nothing to do with street use of heroin and they are the same drug. This is for the medical use of marijuana and making it available to patients so that they don't have to go into undesirable neighbourhoods

to a legal way by it to control their symptoms. Dr. Drew Pinsky would you agree that there needs to be more study of its medical needs. Yes I think that. The doctor here made one point which is which is which is correct. And I have done direct comparisons of oral tetrahydrocannabinol with smoke marijuana that's THC THC the THC when taken orally has the same effect but it comes on much more slowly. The issue with with marijuana with smoking is the reason people abuse it by this route is that it gets a very rapid distribution into the brain you get an immediate hit. So that's the issue the issue which is really a technical logical one is can we make a preparation which has the same onset as the cigarette. But I also must tell you that you know there is no real evidence when there have been. Also with the pharmaceutical history has developed other conjurors have tried to have an all which

none of which reached the market to me and I could see. I'm sorry I have to end this. We have run out of time. Thank you all very much for contributing to this story to have Mark Steiner and the American Pulse. Tonight the controversy over pay in. Gold. Tonight there is no evidence. It was a made for TV. It's. Five months away. From live coverage the first hard evidence this is the jury together. We all know how she is with the doctor and can't resist. Probing. This. I'm done it

for the Maryland pulse the Montgomery County Council pass legislation easing the burden of infrastructure cost to developers of commercial and residential developments. Proponents say it will encourage needed commercial development. Opponents maintain it opens the floodgates to unbridled development. Joining us from Montgomery County Council woman Gail Ewing and Bill O'Neil from the Citizens United for Responsible building. And Bill let me start with you if I might just want this is the bill was passed apparently because commercial development is down in Montgomery County revenues need or needed. So why is the opposition if it's just to raise developments at combat Fairfax County taking all the business away why are you opposed to it. Well let's let's tackle that first. There's 36 million square feet of commercial space currently on line in the pipeline to be built. There are 36000 homes already approved ready to be ready to go ahead right now on Montgomery County's market. There are 50 to 100 homes ready to be sold on the market. Homes that have been built and ready to be sold. We don't see a problem here. What we see is a developer handout.

And at the end and at the expense of the taxpayers right now we're taking a look at paying go as a way of what will result will be increased taxes. Crowded roads and in crowded schools. We can't take any more of that. We're going to have the councilman going how do you justify that in the council if it is going to be more money coming out of taxpayers pockets because developers won't be paying for it more. Finally and eaten up by development. How do you justify that all of it's unjustified. It's not fact. Paying go is all about sending a real choir strong message. Doors at Montgomery County are open for business. We've had Zippo market. I mean you look at 96 we had the equivalent of zero commercial buildings built while Fairfax County had 1.5 million square feet built even this next year. In 97 we a little bit more but Fairfax still is far behind and we're nowhere near where all the studies have shown we need to be to have a thriving economy. And it's not going to lead to more taxes. It's not going to lead to any more

development than you ever would have gotten. It's all according to the master plan. It's all meeting all the structures. Everybody still has to meet all the standards will go to school for everything. Well let's talk about those facts. The working group on infrastructure financing said that we would need over the next 15 years between $80 million one 100 million annually to meet the infrastructure needs. And this was this was a group put together that it consisted of civic groups developers and in addition to that need of $100 million they said the taxes would have to be increased and that was before pain go. And let me address that Fairfax Montgomery County competition. You said 1.5 million square feet versus the 26000 that Montgomery Bill. Well no one seems to mention the 2.5 million that Montgomery County built in a recession era and not only that but Montgomery County is being very competitive in a variety of ways. Why should taxpayer subsidized developers in a market that clearly it's sixty six point nine percent right now the vacancy rate is in the commercial market. It's the lowest it's been in a

decade. Why should taxpayers so taxpayers are not going to carry the load here. That's the whole idea with pay and go is you get an increased tax base. You take some of that off of our shoulders. As long as it's just does the costs go up it cost the taxpayers money. Oh no wait wait wait. Let me address your other point. Developers are getting a 75 percent tax break in this bill. They used to pay interest that is not in your legislation. I suggest you read it at 100 percent. They used to pay 100 percent. Now they only pay 25 percent to 75 percent funding has to come from somewhere it's going to come out of my pay a set fee depending on which development it will be a problem Larry. But it'll be less than 1 percent. Now that's not that's not what it says and I just think it says you will pay a set fee and depending upon the development it will be a varying degree of percentage but it is less. It's a shot in the arm for a short period of time in order to spur development. We've got to get businesses interested in coming here. They're not coming. All this development that bill talks about has been in the pipeline for six 10 almost 12 years and so it went nowhere.

I mean we have practically nothing you. I've got to tell you every short man a very short amount of relief to get them here so that our developers can be competitive to get those missiles here. So of us the taxpayers don't have to carry all of our schools that are 110 percent capacity. This is a glass of water filled to ten percent and told me it's not overflowing. And that's just let me finish. That's. Wait a minute. No it's not and that's just the building that doesn't include the net doesn't even include the portable classrooms right now. We have 50 100 students in two hundred and four portable classrooms and 53 over 100 91 schools right now that office as mayor of the office of planning in Maryland said we can expect seven thousand seven hundred new students by the year 2003 and that's before the storm even gelled to set standards. Those standards are the ones that the County Council has decided on. We could talk about classroom overcrowding that is different than school overcrowding. We don't not build to the capacity.

We know that community goes up and down mean we watch out so we never have. It's always a good when I get a word in edgewise. I mean I think that's something on the table here. Well thank you for joining us. Have an intense discussion although that's not going to go our fingers on the pulse. And this just in Newsnight Marilyn embattled state senator Larry Young has said he will not resign. We'll have more on his decision tomorrow night. Now tonight's newsmaker is at Arendal county executive John Gary thank you for joining us sir. My pleasure. The session convenes tomorrow. Do you have a wishlist. We don't have a big agenda for the for the General Assembly. I have been a legislator for 12 years prior to becoming a county executive. So I'm quite familiar of what happens in the fourth year of a term and we just didn't feel it wasn't appropriate to be putting in what we consider to be policy matters. Obviously we do have requests for money. And the biggest issue that's on our agenda will be a 10 million dollar request for Brooklyn Park Middle

School which helps complete an equity program in the northern part of our county it's the only part of our county that does not have this the sixth grade children in a middle school they're still in elementary. Yesterday the governor parceled out some money to the various counties for education and Arendal received about 2.2 2.1 million dollars. Basically are you telling me you're going to want more. Of course the parcel is just a piece of the money that he doles out throughout the year. And that is just one small piece of our request. We requested nine point nine million dollars in funding for various projects of which we have what we refer to as first cut approval about 6.6 million which is what we're really anticipating we'll get from the General Assembly and we're asking for the 10 million dollars over top of the big issue big issue in Arundel County is the NASCAR race NASCAR race track. Right the Middle River Racing Association wants to build a racetrack there at anti-retro County that this is after it's been turned down in Baltimore

County. Right. Where do you stand on that. Well when they first approached me I asked Dutch Ruppersberger where they were in the course of their discussions in Baltimore County and it certainly looked as though they were going a bit flat. The folks came to us and looked at properties in our county and they found a site that we had some some time ago. The stadium authority had identified us an ideal site for this type of a product. It's a 400 acre tract of land that has been sand and mine gravel for many many years and it's zoned heavy Israel isn't it. So it's it's it's you know it's out in the middle of an area that there was only one community it's really major to it. The rest of it is surrounded by other industrial parks has a sufficient road network to it. And it's as far as as locating a track it's a good location. But at any time you make a pulse of this nature you're going to have some community opposition to it. We charge the folks who want to build us with the duty of going out and speaking to the communities

and convincing the communities that there is a benefit to them. But isn't there another problem here and that is that the developers want to reduce the number of public hearing so they can speed up the kind of misleading. That's true but it's kind of misleading and what they're asking for is instead of going to a special exception they're asking to go through what we call conditional use a conditional You still has a public hearing before the County Council. And you still have an opportunity to appear before the County Council. And frankly the county council can have as many hearings as they wish on the issue. When you go through the other process there are set hearings that you go through and if they they really do have to undo the other process. On the one on the council they only have one bottom line here though the neighborhood that really would be impacted has already said we don't want the noise we don't want the traffic if it looks like those people are totally against this. Would you still support a race. No I would not. Our county is healthy. We don't necessarily need the racetrack. It does generate revenue for us. I happen to think that the community has given the

people an opportunity to make the presentation. The first community presentation was made last night by the racetrack association to the community leaders. They're having another one next Monday night which will be to the masses of the community. Do you have any feedback yet about how that meeting went. It was kind of a split meeting some of the longtime opponents of the Redskins stadium came out and basically held the same position they did before. But the Redskins stadium and frankly this is nowhere near the same issue. Some of the folks who were also were opposed at one time the Redskins Stadium have looked at this before and said they think it has some potential. So I think there are some mixed emotions out there right now. But it is the duty is on their shoulder. What about school overcrowding. You've already said you're going to ask about for 10 million dollars from their general assembly. School overcrowding is a big problem in parts of the county and for that reason you still have a moratorium on residential building permits

only in one part of our county that's in the mountain road corridor. And that was primarily because of roads not because of schools or school capacities. I adopted a policy when I was two years into my term which said 115 percent of elementary school. Hundred Twenty percent capacity for middle school or high school. We would not issue any more building permits and that's what you're referring to. Because we have some feeder systems like a Rondell high school feeder system where the school is at 120 percent. I want issue building permits. My understanding is that the developers have said that yes if you'll allow us to build here we will build an elementary school but that has been turned down by the school board. There have been two different occasions where they've refused that. There's one now on the piney orchards area which it appears as though they're going to agree to because there is capacity in the general area but you can't just build the elementary school you have to have the capacity in the middle school and high school as well. And what we're basically saying to the school board is if the developers

build the elementary school it really is of that burden and therefore we can put the money into the middle schools and high schools. So to be continued. Yes. OK. Thank you very much. And that's it for this edition of NEWSNIGHT. Marilyn for Bob offered you the rest of our staff. Thanks for watching. Have a great evening. Yes. Yes. Yes yes. It's