Talk Show Host Montel Williams, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, advocated for the passage of a bill that would allow doctors to prescribe medical marijuana to patients in Connecticut who could benefit from its medicinal effects.
Williams said the public only sees him on television for one-hour a day. They don’t see him in the morning when it takes five to 10-minutes for him to get out of bed and put his feet on the floor. “I’m in pain now and I’ll be in pain when I leave,” he said.
He said he’s been on everything from morphine to Oxycontin to percocet and nothing works to decrease the spasms and alleviate the pain. He said marijuana is the only drug that does both.
A resident of New York, Williams said “I hope local law enforcement lets me get back to my state because when I walk out of here I will smoke pot.” Williams said he has a driver.
Standing next to Williams at the press conference was state Rep. Penny Bacchiochi, R-Somers, who has been advocating for the legislation since she took office in 2003.
Bacchiochi has testified that in the 1980s she risked arrest to buy marijuana for her husband, who had developed terminal bone cancer. She said he suffered intense pain and nausea until he died and marijuana use lessened his suffering.
She said Friday that she no longer needs to be the “emotional voice” for medical marijuana but will work in a bipartisan manner to make sure “this is the year.”
In 2005 the bill narrowly passed the House, but the Senate never took up the matter.
