DELAWARE GOV. JACK MARKELL SIGNS LAW ALLOWING MEDICAL MARIJUANA

Regulatory, Licensing Process Begins for Three Dispensaries

Gov. Jack Markell signed legislation Friday legalizing marijuana
growing, distribution and use in Delaware for limited medical purposes.

The General Assembly sent Markell the medical-marijuana legislation on
Wednesday.

The governor signed the bill Friday morning without the usual ceremony
in order to initiate a one-year regulatory and licensing process for
three not-for-profit dispensaries that will be authorized to sell
marijuana to qualified patients, according to his office.

Under Senate Bill 17, physicians could recommend marijuana for
patients suffering from cancer, HIV/AIDS, multiple sclerosis,
amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Alzheimer's disease and
post-traumatic stress disorder.

People with other chronic disease or debilitating medical conditions
could qualify if other medicines or surgical procedures have failed to
relieve their pain or caused seizures, severe or persistent muscle
spasms and intractable nausea.

Physicians and patients would have to have a "bona fide
physician-patient relationship" and other medical treatments would
have to be exhausted before marijuana is recommended, according to the
bill and its legislative sponsors.

Qualified patients who get a doctor's recommendation and a
state-issued identification card will be able to purchase up to six
ounces of marijuana at one of the dispensaries.

Marijuana growing and purchases will be limited to the dispensaries.
Patients will not be allowed to grow their own cannabis.

"We made clear that this would need to be very limited in scope and
actively targeted to only Delawareans with profound and chronic
illness like cancer and ALS. It is. This bill needed to be about
giving targeted help to the most sick in a way that made medical
sense, and it is," Markell said in a written statement.