ASSEMBLY, IN VETO-PROOF VOTES, OKs MEDICAL-MARIJUANA DISPENSARIES

PROVIDENCE -- Nearly a decade after patient advocates first pressed for
full-scale legalization of marijuana for medical use, Rhode Island on
Tuesday became only the second state to establish state-licensed
dispensaries to sell the drug to the critically ill.

Senate lawmakers gave final approval to the House and Senate versions of
the legislation, sending it to the governor's desk with enough votes to
override a veto, if necessary.

Governor Carcieri, a longtime critic of medical marijuana, confirmed in a
brief interview Tuesday that he will "do the same thing I've done with it
in the past." A year ago he vetoed a compromise plan to study the concept,
saying it would "move Rhode Island further down the path of weakening the
laws governing -- and public perception of -- illicit drugs."

But Senate lawmakers approved the legislation in an easy 31-2 vote
Tuesday, days after the House approved the same plans in a 63-5 vote. Both
tallies are well beyond the three-fifths majority needed to override a
veto.

Senate sponsor Rhoda Perry, D-Providence, predicts that if required, the
Assembly will override a gubernatorial veto before the session ends later
this month.

That's one of the reasons that we [passed] it as fast as we did it," Perry
said. "We still have a few weeks left here … I just can't imagine the
leadership wouldn't have the will to override a veto."

In 2006, lawmakers permanently legalized medical marijuana after a pilot
program. Yet the bill contained what some called a loophole: though it was
legal for the 600 patients enrolled in the marijuana program, the state
provided no means for them to obtain the drug, forcing most to grow it or
to buy it on the street.

The principal problem that our patients had was their fear of dealing with
the illegal market, and in some cases there were some reports of rough
people they had to deal with and they were very frightened," Perry said.

State-licensed dispensaries, or "compassion centers," as supporters dubbed
them, offer a safe and regulated alternative. The Rhode Island legislation
calls for licensing as many as three dispensaries in the coming years and
run by individuals or nonprofit organizations that apply.

In impassioned testimony this spring, frail patients squinted in pain as
they told lawmakers of being beaten up or robbed as they tried to purchase
marijuana from street-level drug dealers. Being sick is hard enough, they
said, and not knowing where the next dose of medicine might come from is
worse.

One by one in recent years, skeptical lawmakers came to support the idea
of state authorized dispensaries.

Our intent was never to send people out to deal with drug dealers," Rep.
Joseph McNamara, D-Warwick, chairman of the House Health Education and
Welfare committee and a one-time critic turned advocate, has said.

The new administration in Washington also helped. A year ago, Rhode Island
lawmakers expressed concern about a spate of federal raids on dispensaries
in California, where centers are not state-regulated. This winter, U.S.
Attorney General Eric Holder signaled that the Obama administration will
no longer tolerate such raids.

Rep. Thomas C. Slater, the Providence Democrat for whom the bill is named
in part, had few words Tuesday as he watched passage of the law he's
worked on for nearly decade, even as he has battled against his own
advanced cancer.

Just relieved," he said. "Relieved for people in pain."