Montel Williams to lobby for medical marijuana bill

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Medical marijuana access in Missouri would become a reality under a bill sponsored by a Republican representative and supported by television personality Montel Williams.

Williams will testify in support of a bill to allow limited medical marijuana access for patients through a state-monitored distribution program at a House committee hearing Monday. The measure would set up a process for patients to register for access to marijuana for cancer, HIV, post-traumatic stress disorder and other medical conditions.

Williams said the legislation could be a model for the rest of the country to allow access to medical marijuana. Williams, who starred in the syndicated talk show "The Montel Williams Show," has multiple sclerosis and uses marijuana to treat some of his symptoms. He lives in New York and has advocated for medical marijuana across the country.

It's "a tightly controlled medical marijuana bill so that patients and doctors can determine what their course of treatment should be and nobody else," he said.

Republican Rep. Dave Hinson's bill would not allow recreational use of marijuana. It would require growers and distributors of medical marijuana to be licensed and follow certain security procedures. The legislation also limits the amount of marijuana a person could get without special permission to 2.5 ounces every two weeks.

A patient would have to get a recommendation from a physician and then apply to the state's health department before being able to purchase medical marijuana. The bill lists specific eligible ailments but also lays out a process for a patient to appeal and the department to add illnesses.

But the risk for abuse of marijuana remains despite the limits in the bill, said Jason Grellner, vice president of National Narcotics Officers Associations' Coalition, who opposes the bill.

Grellner said supporters of marijuana access will chip away at any law passed in Missouri by filing lawsuits to expand it.

"Every legislator that brings this forward, I don't care what state you're in, believes they've built the perfect mousetrap," he said. "There are so many unanswered questions and loopholes and pitfalls. You can't write a law tight enough."

Twenty-three states have comprehensive medical marijuana laws. Missouri and 10 other states have approved more limited medical marijuana bills that loosen access to extracts from strains of marijuana with low tetrahydrocannabinol or THC and high levels of cannabidiol, which some have used to control epilepsy in young children.

A successful Republican-led effort last year to allow limited access to this low-THC marijuana extract was partly inspired by the family of a lobbyist who decided to move with his family to Colorado to get access for their daughter, said bill sponsor Rep. Caleb Jones, R-California.