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House Committee Advances Medical Marijuana Bill By One Vote

By a single vote, a bill to allow medical marijuana in certain situations is moving to the full House.  The House Health and Human Services Committee denied an attempt to kill Senate Bill 171.

George Hendrickson of Sioux Falls has a son who suffers from a rare form of epilepsy.  He supports Senate Bill 171, which, if passed, allows the child to treat his disorder with marijuana.  Henrickson says it’s difficult to be admitted to clinical trials to test new, more traditional medications.

He told the committee, "When you are asking permission from these medical groups or the government—the first thing they’ll say is ‘Are you terminal?’  Today, my son, when I left the house at 4 AM, he was not terminal.  Two hours from now, he could go status epilepticus—and he could become terminal, and he could become dead.  So, there’s a little bureaucracy problem there I’m afraid of.  Now, I don’t know if there’ll be one for sure or not—but I know going through application processes like that can sometimes get that way.”

Hendrickson took his son to Colorado, where Marijuana is a legal substance.  He says doctors told him all medications react differently in people, and there’s a chance marijuana may not help the child’s condition.

He explained, “My experience has been, when we had that short expedition with it in Colorado, that within three days, there was an extreme difference in my son—and not a negative one.  It was as if someone had turned on a light switch inside my child.  He was interacting with us—he was looking at us instead of through us or away from us.  For the first time in his life, he actually played with me.  He could actually play on the floor with a toy and he would giggle and play with it.  You saw him here earlier this week—there’s no sign of that anymore.”

The House Health and Human Services Committee rejected a move to defeat the bill on a seven-to-six vote.  That’s the same margin that sends Senate Bill 171 to the House floor.