HOUSE APPROVES MEDICAL MARIJUANA BILL

PROVIDENCE -- With two months to spare, the House of Representatives
overwhelmingly voted yesterday to make permanent a law that legalizes
marijuana for medicinal purposes. The Senate is scheduled to vote on
the bill today -- and is expected to approve it easily.

Rhode Island became the 11th state to legalize medical marijuana last
year; since then New Mexico has passed similar legislation. However,
Rhode Island's pioneering move had an expiration date. The law has a
built-in sunset clause for June 30, unless legislators make it permanent.

Governor Carcieri will likely veto the bill, for the same reasons that
he vetoed it last year, said his spokesman, Jeff Neal. While the state
law legalizes marijuana possession for authorized caregivers and
patients with doctors' approval, the only way to actually get the
seeds or plants is to buy it illegally.

That was the heart of the passionate debate on the House floor
yesterday, before representatives voted 50 to 12 to approve the bill.

No one questioned whether patients with cancer, multiple sclerosis,
HIV and other debilitating illnesses found pain relief from smoking
marijuana. Several legislators said they'd gotten letters and e-mails
from patients who told them that marijuana helped relieve their
suffering in ways that traditional medicine hadn't.

Yet, some questioned supporting a bill that legalized an illegal
drug.

North Kingstown Rep. Laurence W. Ehrhardt held a police report from
his town about a man who was arrested after using his MySpace page to
lure teenage girls to smoke marijuana with him. The man was registered
to have medical marijuana -- although his alleged possession of 72
plants was well over the allowed limit.

Ehrhardt said he voted for the bill last year, but not again. "I
cannot face the parents in my district with a straight face and
support it," he said.

Warwick Rep. Joseph Trillo called it bad legislation, and accused the
General Assembly of trying to act as medical doctors, when the Food
and Drug Administration hadn't approved marijuana. That brought
Providence Rep. Steven M. Costantino to his feet. Legal prescription
drugs, like Oxycontin and Vicodin, pose a greater threat than medical
marijuana when they're sold on the street, he argued, and
sarcastically called the FDA "that guiding light."

"This is about giving people with cancer, with HIV, with any diseases
that involve the wasting away of the human body -- that they have
dignity in their life," Costantino said.

The bill's sponsor, Providence Rep. Thomas C. Slater, who has cancer,
pleaded for legislators' support. There is pain and suffering from
these illnesses that legal modern medicine doesn't relieve, he said.
"Please don't take this law from the people who need it," Slater said,
his voice rising.

The current law is named for Slater and for Edward O. Hawkins, the
nephew of Sen. Rhoda Perry, D-Providence, who died of AIDS. The bill
removes the repeal and doubles the amount of marijuana that caregivers
can have on hand, as well as makes some changes to the information on
the patient's identification card.

Under the current law, the caregivers, who register with the
Department of Health, may supply up to five patients and possess 12
marijuana plants and 2 1/2 ounces of usable marijuana for each
patient. Anyone with a felony drug conviction is barred from becoming
a primary caregiver.

The bill doubles the amount of marijuana the caregiver can possess, to
24 marijuana plants and 5 ounces of usable marijuana, for his or her
qualifying patients. The bill also requires the Health Department to
report on the medical-marijuana program every odd-numbered year to the
House Committee on Health, Education and Welfare and the Senate
Judiciary Committee.

Already, there are 257 Rhode Islanders who are registered to use
medical marijuana. Medical studies have been issued, as recently as a
few months ago, that show marked relief for people suffering from
chronic debilitating diseases.

And that's what won over most of the legislators. "This law may be
imperfect, but it helps a lot of people in need," said Providence Rep.
John J. DeSimone.