MARIJUANA LAW GETS SENATE NOD

PROVIDENCE - Following in the footsteps of Wednesday's House vote,
the Senate approved legislation Thursday to make the state's medical
marijuana law permanent.

The vote was 28-5, far exceeding the three-fifths vote required to
survive the veto Gov. Donald Carcieri says is likely to come. The law
that protects from arrest or prosecution patients who suffer from a
debilitating medical condition as certified by a physician and one or
two "caregivers" who help them procure, grow or use the drug, was
passed over the governor's veto in January, 2006, it is set to expire
on June 30 unless a so-called "sunset clause" is eliminated. The
now-identical measures that passed the House and Senate this week do
just that. Under General Assembly procedure, the House bill will now
go to the Senate for passage and the Senate bill will go to the House.

Then both bills will go to Carcieri, who said if the measures are
similar to what was passed last year, which they are, he would
probably veto them. He must do that within six days (excluding
Sundays) from the date he receives the bills from the respective chambers.

Sen. Rhoda Perry, who has sponsored medical marijuana legislation in
one form or another for nearly a decade, thanked fellow senators for
supporting the law and lifting the sunset clause. "It really has
taken almost eight years for it to be at the point we are at right
now," Perry told her colleagues. "I believe my actions and your
actions have allowed seriously ill people to alleviate their pain and
suffering and pain without fear of arrest or prosecution on a state
level. "Over 250 of our constituents," Perry said, "people who are
suffering from AIDS, cancer, multiple sclerosis, other debilitating,
chronic pain conditions are now a part of this groundbreaking program.

These people who are using medical marijuana are not using it to get
high. They are using it to alleviate pain and other serious symptoms."

The bill is titled The Edward O. Hawkins and Thomas C. Slater Medical
Marijuana Act. Hawkins, who died three years ago of AIDS, was Perry's
nephew and she said it was his struggle with the disease that
inspired her to push for the legislation. Rep. Thomas Slater, himself
a cancer patient, is the prime sponsor of the House bill. The law
makes no provision for patients to obtain the drug, so they must buy
it illegally on the black market.

The law does not shield individuals from arrest or prosecution under
federal law. Sen. Charles Levesque told colleagues, "The numerous
people who came in and individually told us their experience was they
had no desire to go down this road, they had no desire to put their
friends down the road of obtaining an illegal substance, putting
themselves at risk in doing so. But they said ultimately it was their
only form of relief, the only thing that allowed them to eat, to
sleep, to find any comfort when they had been suffering from a
debilitating disease.

"It was beyond my ability to look at these folks and say, I will not
be prepared to give you that relief that you are begging us for,"
Levesque continued. "Boy, if that didn't make me feel humble, that
someone had to come and ask me or any of us for that relief."

Patients are allowed to possess up to 2.5 ounces of "useable
marijuana" or 12 plants and they may designate one or two caregivers.
A caregiver can serve up to five patients, but under amendments
approved in both the House and Senate this week, may possess no more
than 5 ounces of the drug or 24 plants.

The law as it stands allows care givers to possess 2.5 ounces and 12
plants for each patient, but some lawmakers felt that could amount to
too much marijuana and urged the amendment to cap the amount
caregivers can hold at any one time.

Sen. Leo Blais of Coventry, a pharmacist, tried to amend the
legislation to prevent anyone from being a caregiver if a court found
them to be in violation of the Rhode Island Uniform Controlled
Substances Act. "My concern with this bill is there is no prohibition
currently for folks who have been given the extreme privilege of
doing a patently illegal act under federal law" if they violate other
drug laws. "There is no provision that says you lose your privilege.

On the one hand we say we give you this big privilege to violate
federal law and do this process of growing marijuana plants, but go
ahead if you want to sell Oxycontin (a prescription narcotic) out the
back door, that's fine because no matter what happens to you on that
side, when you get out of prison, you still have your card to grow."

Actually, the bill passed in the House and Senate prohibits anyone
who has a drug felony on his or her record from being a caregiver.

"The science supporting medical marijuana is now beyond doubt, and
Rhode Island's experience with this law has been completely
positive," said Ray Warren, director of state policies for the
Marijuana Policy Project in Washington, D.C. "The only controversy
seems to be in the governor's mind, but strong support from the
public and the medical community overcame his veto once, and if
necessary, will do so again."