DELAWARE SENATE APPROVES USE OF MEDICAL MARIJUANA

After an 18-3 Vote, the Bill Moves on to the House

DOVER -- The Delaware Senate approved legalizing marijuana for limited
medical purposes Thursday, despite reservations from some supporters
who indicated the legislation has flaws.

The bill would decriminalize parts of the state's drug laws and allow
adults with debilitating diseases such as HIV or cancer to get
permission from their doctors to purchase marijuana from a
state-licensed dispensary.

On an 18-3 vote, the Senate sent Senate Bill 17 to the House, where
supporters believe they have enough votes to get the legislation to
Gov. Jack Markell's desk for a signature. Critics said the bill puts
Delaware on a path toward legalizing marijuana altogether. "If you
don't think this is a step in that eventual process, you are sorely
mistaken," said Sen. Colin Bonini, R-Dover South.

Markell, a Democrat, supports the concept of the bill and changes that
have been made to address concerns by doctors and law-enforcement
agencies, spokesman Brian Selander said.

"There's a long road between the concept of providing medical
marijuana to people with medical needs like cancer patients and the
implementation of that effort," Selander said.

Fifteen other states and the District of Columbia already have
legalized marijuana possession and use for medicinal purposes.
Pennsylvania and Maryland lawmakers are currently considering similar
legislation.

"This is really out of compassion for people who have been suffering
unnecessarily," said Sen. Margaret Rose Henry, the bill sponsor and a
Wilmington Democrat.

After the bill passed, Henry handed out packages of brownies from BJ's
Wholesale Club, making a joke about the recreational use of "pot
brownies" as an edible form of ingesting marijuana.

"They were just regular brownies," Henry said afterward. "It was done
in jest and not to take away from the seriousness of the bill."

Under the bill, individuals with qualifying illnesses would be issued
identification cards and be limited to purchasing up to six ounces of
marijuana each month. Marijuana could only be purchased from a
dispensary, and home cultivation would be prohibited. Qualifying
conditions would include cancer, multiple sclerosis, HIV/AIDS,
hepatitis C, post-traumatic stress disorder, glaucoma, Crohn's
disease, Lou Gehrig's disease or other chronic wasting diseases.

Republican Sens. Joseph Booth, David Lawson and Bonini were the three
senators who voted against the legislation.

Since the bill was introduced in January, lawmakers have heard
testimony from individuals with debilitating diseases about how
marijuana, used illegally, has helped them with pain management or
helped them fight nausea caused by toxic cancer and HIV drugs.

"You don't have witnesses and people whose personal lives, their
family lives, have been irrevocably scarred by drug use," Bonini said.
"In lots of those cases, that drug use started with the product we're
talking about today."

Despite the lopsided vote, some of the senators who voted "yes"
expressed concerns about certain provisions in the bill.

Sen. Brian Bushweller, D-Dover, said he was concerned the bill could
encourage unscrupulous doctors to recommend marijuana for patients in
order to make money off additional visits.

Bushweller also expressed opposition to a section of the bill that
could allow someone with a written doctor's recommendation to use
marijuana to make an "affirmative defense" in court if they were
caught with marijuana before receiving their marijuana purchasing card
from the state.

"I think that's going to lead to a lot of unnecessary court cases, and
I don't think it needs to be in [the bill]," Bushweller said.

Still, Bushweller said, he felt the bill was tightly written to
prevent the type of abuses in medical marijuana laws that have been
documented in California and other states.

"This is not a California bill," Bushweller said. "I believe the
therapeutic value outweighs concerns about legitimizing it for
recreational use."

Henry said many details of the regulation of marijuana dispensaries
will have to be crafted in the rule-making process by the Department
of Health and Social Services.

"You don't see everything written because we're still evolving," Henry
said.

Department of Safety and Homeland Security Deputy Secretary Liz Olsen
said her agency and the Delaware State Police remain neutral on the
bill. But law-enforcement officials have worked with lawmakers to
ensure police will have access to a database that tracks marijuana
sales at the dispensaries or so-called compassion centers, Olsen said.

During two hours of debate, the Senate added an amendment sponsored by
Sen. Robert Marshall that would let individuals 18 years or older
obtain medical marijuana. Marshall had sought to allow children with
qualifying illnesses to get access to medical marijuana with
permission from their parents, but that amendment was withdrawn
because of lack of support. Henry said the American Academy of
Pediatrics had written her a letter, warning of the negative health
impact on children smoking marijuana.

Henry had another amendment added that would protect doctors who
refuse to recommend marijuana use from being sued by their patients.

Markell will be examining the changes "to see how they impact
implementation" of the law before considering signing the bill,
Selander said.

Support in the Democratic-controlled House is seen as hinging on
convincing retired police officers who are representatives that the
benefits outweigh the potential problems of having two different
marijuana laws in Delaware.

House Majority Leader Pete Schwartzkopf, a retired state police
captain and Rehoboth Beach Democrat, said he had not read the Senate
bill yet, but he's convinced marijuana "does have medicinal value."

Rep. Dennis P. Williams, a former Wilmington police detective, said
"times have changed," and the stigma of marijuana use is fading with
recognition of its medical value.

"There's some people in this building who smoked marijuana," said
Williams, D- Wilmington North. "They just won't admit it."

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THE BILL

Under the bill passed by the Senate and sent to the House:

Individuals with qualifying illnesses would be issued identification
cards that would enable them to purchase marijuana from a dispensary.

Qualifying conditions would include cancer, multiple sclerosis,
HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C, post-traumatic stress disorder, glaucoma,
Crohn's disease, Lou Gehrig's disease or other chronic wasting diseases.

Individuals would be limited to purchasing up to six ounces of
marijuana each month.

Home cultivation would be prohibited.