MEDICAL MARIJUANA BILL TO PROVIDE RELIEF FOR TERMINALLY ILL IN RHODE ISLAND

On Jan. 3, Rhode Island became the eleventh state to legalize medical
marijuana, overriding a June 2005 veto by Governor Donald Carcieri '65.

The new legislation "provides an alternative option for those men and
women who have clinical pain and who are dealing with a terminal
illness (like cancer)," said District 3 State Sen. Rhoda Perry P'91,
the Senate's main sponsor of the bill, who has supported similar
measures for the past seven years.

Under the bill, doctors will be able to recommend that patients be
issued medical marijuana registration cards by the state. These
registration cards will protect patients from arrest under state law
for possession of up to 12 marijuana plants, or 2.5 ounces of the drug.

"Our law has made possession of marijuana in small doses by properly
enrolled patients and caregivers legal in the state of Rhode Island,"
Perry said. "On a federal level it is still illegal."

Carcieri has noted this as a major problem with the legislation, as
noted in a Jan. 4 press release by Jeff Neal, the governor's press
secretary. "Rhode Islanders who rely on state law can still be
prosecuted criminally by the federal government," Neal wrote in the release.

"This is also a victory in the conversation about marijuana on a
national level," said Nathaniel Lepp '06, a member of Brown's
Students for Sensible Drug Policy. "The Rhode Island bill will
accelerate the pace at which the federal government considers medical
marijuana."

Perry stressed that while she has been a big proponent for medical
marijuana, she is not in favor of legalizing the drug for purposes
other than medicine.

"That is a far broader endorsement," she said.

Lepp said he believes the legislation represents a major success for
student political activity.

"My main reflection on the medical marijuana campaign is that
students have the capacity to initiate real change," Lepp said.

Perry agreed that activism from students at Brown and the University
of Rhode Island was "helpful and meaningful."

Dr. Tom Bledsoe, clinical associate professor of medicine and interim
director for the Center of Biomedial Ethics at the Brown Medical
School, said he would prescribe marijuana if he encountered a patient
whom he felt "might benefit" from its use.

"This is a relatively cheap, available and effective treatment," Bledsoe said.

Marijuana is defined by the federal Drug Enforcement Agency as a
Schedule 1 drug, meaning it has no "therapeutic value," Bledsoe said.
This classification pairs marijuana with often-abused drugs like
heroin instead of drugs with recognized medical properties, like morphine.

The medical profession's response to the law involves a tenuous "grey
zone," Bledsoe said. Practitioners might be prosecuted by the federal
government for issuing licenses to possess marijuana, even while
trying to do what is best for their patients, he said.

Another potential problem in prescribing marijuana involves doubts
about dose strengths and impurities. In obtaining the drug off the
street, the true content of the substance is unreliable, he said.

Carcieri's administration also considers this issue to be a major
concern with the legislation. "This bill will encourage criminal
activity because it does not provide any means for the legal purchase
of medical marijuana," Neal said in the press release.

The law mandates that patients grow the marijuana plants indoors, on
the theory that this is the safest way to obtain the drug.

Perry said this was a "concession" which aided the bill's passage.
"There was too much controversy about growing the plants outside," she said.

A sunset provision in the law poses the next challenge for activists,
as the medical marijuana statute will expire in July 2007. This was
another concession "required to get more people to vote for the
bill," Perry added, noting, "we would have lost meaningful votes without it."

The program itself until will not begin until April 3, 90 days after
the law's passage. The Rhode Island Department of Health is still
drawing up regulations to govern the program.

In other states, there have been few problems with the implementation
phase of the medical marijuana program, according to Perry, who hopes
that a similar situation in Rhode Island over the next year will
encourage the General Assembly to extend it beyond 2007.

"There are claims that mari-juana laws will increase drug use amongst
young people, but data of the last 10 years shows that the use of
marijuana by young people mirrors national trends (even in states
with medical marijuana laws)," Lepp said.

When SSDP held its first meeting in the fall of 2002, the 20 or so
members agreed that one of their long-term goals was to "make sure
Rhode Island had a medical marijuana law by the time the youngest
people there graduated," said Lepp, who was among these youngest students.

"This is really an issue of compassion for people in need," Lepp
said. "If that wasn't the cause, I don't think the Senate would have
overridden the governor's veto. This is a situation of tremendous
political will and that comes from a place of compassion."