THE GOVERNOR NEEDS TO DO THE JERSEY THING

Chris Christie, the governor of New Jersey, gave approval last week
for the opening of six marijuana dispensaries. Christie, a former
U.S. Attorney, said he made the decision despite never receiving
assurances from the Justice Department that those working in the
dispensaries would be exempt from prosecution.

Christie said that opening the dispensaries is a risk he is taking as
governor. He said the need to provide compassionate pain relief to
citizens of the state outweighs the risk.

Imagine that - compassion over caution.

So why can't Rhode Island have a governor like that?

Actually, JoAnne Leppanen, the executive director of the Rhode Island
Patient Advocacy Coalition, thought it did.

"If there's a governor you wanted to have during this time, he seemed
like the one," she said.

But so far, he isn't the one. Governor Chafee continues to delay
issuing the licenses for the three dispensaries approved for Rhode
Island. It is the flip side of the Jersey experience. Compassionate
pain relief is apparently not a priority in Rhode Island.

"Doesn't he understand?" asks Leppanen. "Every day he holds up the
licenses people are suffering."

Hers is the largest medical-marijuana advocacy group in the state.
She said the passage of the law legalizing medical marijuana provided
a real lift to people who count on it to ease the pain from such
diseases as AIDS and multiple sclerosis and the draining.misery of
chemotherapy. But, she said, those same people are discouraged by the
governor's delay.

"Some people aren't getting it," said Leppanen. "Some are paying a
fortune. Some are putting themselves in risky situations.

"Overall, most patients in the program are under-medicated."

She said that some of the 2,300 caregivers licensed to grow marijuana
for medical use have been generous in sharing what they can. But they
are stretched thin.

She has met with the governor and his chief legal counsel, Claire Richards.

"They say the same thing. It's illegal under federal law."

And Peter F. Neronha, U.S. Attorney for Rhode Island, has not given
Chafee any assurance that people working in the dispensaries will not
be prosecuted.

Busting a legally licensed state business and forcing some people
into illegal activity would seem a very strange thing for a U.S.
Attorney to do. But apparently it could happen.

It's so damndepressing that after finally taking a sane and healthy
approach to marijuana and opening up its pain-relieving promise to
the sick, the state has gotten hung up on this kind of needless legal
uncertainty. Some bold and caring action such as we've seen in New
Jersey would be welcome.

In the meantime, the people approved for medical marijuana are left
to wonder if they will ever be able to buy it in the kind of place
where there will actually be some controls on what they're getting
and what they're paying.

I know a few. One has multiple sclerosis and tells me she truly
cannot get through the day without the relief from pain the marijuana
gives her.

It works. It makes good things possible by making pain manageable.

It is perhaps the best reason Rhode Island will ever have to be just
like New Jersey.