This may be another repeat but worth the read
Rhode Island news
Feds working with states to resolve medical-marijuana issues, U.S. Attorney General says
01:00 AM EDT on Friday, June 3, 2011
By W. Zachary Malinowski
Journal Staff Writer
Attorney General Eric Holder, right, tours The Institute for the Study & Practice of Nonviolence in Providence Thursday, with director Teny Gross and street workers Ajay Benton and Juan Carter.
The Providence Journal / Bob Thayer
PROVIDENCE — U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder suggested on Thursday that the Justice Department will work with governors and other states to reach a satisfactory resolution to the establishment of dispensaries that sell marijuana to patients in state-sponsored medical-marijuana programs.
“We are in the process of working [on] these issues with the U.S. Attorney for Rhode Island and other U.S. Attorneys across the country,” he said. “My hope is that sometime in the not too distant future … it will be addressed.”
Holder’s cautious comments came during a news conference at The Institute for the Study & Practice of Nonviolence in the city’s South End. He toured the recently refurbished facility on Oxford Street with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, U.S. Attorney Peter F. Neronha and state Attorney General Peter F. Kilmartin.
Afterward, Holder was peppered with questions about the Justice Department’s position on dispensaries, also known as compassion centers, that sell marijuana to people approved by the state to use cannabis to cope with chronic pain and other debilitating ailments.
He promised to clarify the Justice Department’s position on medical-marijuana laws in Rhode Island and elsewhere.
On April 29, a letter from Neronha was hand-delivered to Governor Chafee, saying that federal authorities may prosecute anyone affiliated with the three dispensaries that the Health Department selected to sell medicinal marijuana in Rhode Island. Chafee got the message and quickly placed a hold on licensing the centers.
Meanwhile, federal prosecutors in other states opening or considering opening dispensaries issued similar threats. Those states include Vermont, Maine, Montana and Colorado.
In Washington state, U.S. Attorneys Mike Ormsby and Jenny Durkan, went one step further. They recently said that state employees involved in the licensing or regulation of medical marijuana could be subject to arrest and prosecution. As a result, Gov. Chris Gregoire vetoed key pieces of a medical-marijuana law, saying she didn’t want to place state employees at risk.
Thursday, Holder sidestepped questions about whether he would support the arrest of state employees in Rhode Island involved in any medical-marijuana licensing or regulation. He repeatedly said that he hopes more discussions between federal and state officials will lead to a fair resolution of the conflict between the Justice Department’s policy of prosecuting significant growers and distributors of marijuana and the operation of medical-marijuana dispensaries whose operators would grow quantities of cannabis.
The operators of the three proposed dispensaries in Rhode Island — Thomas C. Slater Compassion Center in Providence; Greenleaf Compassionate Care Center in Portsmouth and Summit Medical Compassion Center in Warwick — as well as hundreds of medical-marijuana patients, have been deeply disappointed in Holder, Neronha and the Justice Department.
JoAnn Lepannen, executive director of the Rhode Island Patient Advocacy Coalition, has repeatedly stated that the threat of a federal crackdown is simply hurting the more than 3,000 patients in the state who need marijuana to cope with pain. She also has said that it will force many patients to find the drug illegally on the street or turn to prescription narcotics that are expensive, highly-addictive and can cause serious side effects.
Lepannen has made a point of separating her group seeking medicinal marijuana from those who advocate for legalization of cannabis. Holder, at his news conference, said that he was wary of dispensaries becoming a tacit form of legalizing the drug.
On Tuesday, Sen. Rhoda E. Perry and Rep. Scott A. Slater, both Providence Democrats, met with Chafee to press him on awarding state licenses to the dispensary groups. He told them that he will continue to have discussions with governors in the other 15 states with medical-marijuana programs before making a final decision on the licenses.
They also said that they would like to meet with Senator Whitehouse.
Following Holder’s news conference, Whitehouse said that Rhode Island’s medical-marijuana program and its plans to open dispensaries “seems reasonable and the state has spoken.”
He said that he will continue to work on the issue with representatives from the Justice Department and Rhode Island, “so people know what the rules of the game are.”
Late in the day, Representative Slater introduced eight medical-marijuana patients to the full House of Representatives. Speaking on their behalf, he urged the legislators to keep pressuring Chafee to license the dispensaries. He reminded his colleagues that legislation was passed two years ago to establish the centers.
“We still have nothing to show for it,” he said.
Following his brief speech, the patients, four of whom were in wheelchairs, dropped by Chafee’s office to give him a four-page letter and, possibly, meet with him.
The letter said, in part: “The patient community is tired. We are tired of legislative hurdles, administrative delays and political interference. We are desperately seeking compassionate leadership on this issue. We respectfully ask that you join the many other governors throughout the country who are moving forward on state laws that allow for safe patient access to medicine.”
Chafee was in his office meeting with Whitehouse when they arrived, but a few minutes later, he emerged from his office to tell the delegation that to grant the dispensary licenses, he would need a guarantee from the Justice Department “that they are not going to raid us and shut us down.”
bmalinow@projo.com
AI
