ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, February 17, 1997 TAG: 9702170058
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
A 1979 Virginia law allowing doctors to prescribe marijuana for cancer or glaucoma patients will stay on the books for at least another year.
The Senate Education and Health Committee voted 9-6 Sunday to kill a bill repealing the law. The bill had sailed through the House of Delegates, 86-13, and Gov. George Allen had said he would sign it.
The committee voted to have a subcommittee study the issue.
``We killed that piece of trash,'' an exuberant Roy Scherer, a self-described ``marijuana advocate,'' said after the Senate committee vote, which drew applause from about three dozen people who had come to speak against the bill.
Dr. William Regelson of the Medical College of Virginia, who has researched marijuana's effect on cancer patients, said the drug helps alleviate nausea in some patients. It also can stimulate weight gain, he said.
Virginia's law was largely forgotten until California and Arizona passed similar measures. The Clinton administration threatened to revoke the prescription-writing privileges of doctors in those states if they prescribe marijuana.
LENGTH: Short : 32 lines KEYWORDS: GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1997by CNB