By Leslie Rovetti Source: Guilford Courier Rhode Island is one step closer to the legalization of medical marijuana, after the Senate overrode Gov. Donald L. Carcieri's veto of the bill that would decriminalize marijuana for medical purposes. Ten states -- Maine, Vermont, Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Montana, Nevada, Oregon and Washington -- have laws allowing medical use of marijuana. A recent Zogby poll indicated that 69 percent of Rhode Islanders favor the measure. Both the House and Senate submitted versions of the bill, and both were vetoed by Carcieri. The Senate overrode the veto on its own bill last month. At the time of this writing, the House had not yet met to override the veto of either version, but that action was expected. Both of the congressmen who represent Westerly voted for the passage of the bill, largely because of the input they received from their constituents. Rep. Peter L. Lewiss, D-37th District, said he voted in favor of the bill after hearing from constituents who were suffering from cancer. Not only did Rep. Matthew J. McHugh, D-36th District, receive a lot of calls from people in his district, but he said he also felt "criminalizing sick people" was wrong. Although there are still implementation issues to be worked through, he said, "It's a good first step for the state of Rhode Island." Senate Minority Leader Dennis L. Algiere, R-Westerly, voted against the bill, but could not be reached for comment. Once passed, the law would go into effect immediately. The Department of Health would issue identification cards to patients who have been authorized to use medical marijuana by their doctors. Marijuana users with a valid state-issued card could not be arrested under state law if caught with the drug, provided other conditions are met, such as not possessing more than a certain amount, or being on school grounds. They could still be arrested under federal law, but state officials cannot arrest under federal law. According to reports, a Drug Enforcement Agency administrator said the federal agency usually involves itself in cases of major drug traffickers and producers, and does not intend to begin targeting people who are sick and dying. But while this has become cut and dried for some people in Rhode Island, members of the medical community are a little fuzzier on the issue. Robert Mills of the American Medical Association said the AMA recommends keeping marijuana as a controlled substance "pending the outcome of studies to prove the application and efficacy of marijuana and other related cannabinoids." He said they would prefer to see a smokeless delivery system for either marijuana or its active components, "to reduce the health hazards associated with the combustion and inhalation of marijuana." Joyce Gallagher Sullivan of the American Cancer Society said that "our position is that we do not advocate the use of inhaled marijuana." The cancer society is funding research into alternative delivery systems for marijuana. She said they recently awarded a four-year, $720,000 grant to a researcher in Kentucky to study "transdermal delivery of cannabinoids in cancer patients." And while both spokesmen advocate a wait-and-see approach with medical marijuana, they both mentioned that patients afflicted with cancer and other painful medical conditions should not be prosecuted for trying to alleviate their suffering. Complete Title: Medical Marijuana On The Way: 'Criminalizing Sick' is Wrong, Says McHugh Source: Guilford Courier (CT) Author: Leslie Rovetti Published: July 15, 2005 Copyright: 2005 The Day Publishing Co. Contact: news@shorepublishing.com Website: http://guilford.shorepublishing.com/ Link to article: http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread20954.shtml
By Joyce Nalepka Source: Providence Journal Silver Springs, Md. -- I remember when illegal-drug horror stories, such \t\tas those that follow, were unheard of, or reported only in scandal-sheet \t\tpapers at the checkout counter. Today, they're on the front page of our \t\thometown newspapers. \t\t \t\tI think much of the blame belongs to uninformed or paid-off legislators, \t\twho have allowed public opinion to be twisted into forgetting what \t\treally happens when we let our guard down and don't teach disdain for \t\tillicit-drug use. \t\t \t\tRhode Island legislators have joined legislators in 10 other states in \t\tvoting to let self-absorbed admitted drug-using adults buy public policy \t\tand promote "medicalization" of pot, instead of letting the U.S. Food \t\tand Drug Administration first prove it safe and effective. Doesn't \t\tanyone remember thalidomide? \t\t \t\tThe most ridiculous point here is that the Supreme Court has ruled \t\ttwice, once unanimously, that there is no medical-necessity defense for \t\tmarijuana, and that federal law supersedes state law -- thus nullifying \t\tall 10 states' legislation that would support smoking marijuana \t\tcgarettes as medicine. \t\t \t\tAlthough the Rhode Island lawmakers passed the pro-pot legislation, \t\tGovernor Carcieri fortunately has a backbone and vetoed it. However, \t\tbackers of drug legalization, who are pushing this legislation, \t\tpersuaded the Rhode Island Senate to override the governor's veto. \t\t \t\t(The House has delayed its vote on the override.) \t\t \t\tThe campaign to get marijuana reclassified as "medicine" began in 1979. \t\tAt the time, it was led by a group of admitted pot-smoking zealots with \t\tlittle money. They were mostly supported by the sale of drug \t\tparaphernalia, until parents united and closed the shops nationwide. \t\t \t\tToday, these zealots are older admitted drug users, with access to \t\tmillions of dollars, provided by currency trader George Soros and Peter \t\tLewis, founder of Progressive Insurance. At least 15 Rhode Island \t\tlegislators received money from Peter Lewis, and one received $1,000 \t\tfrom a group called the Marijuana Policy Project. Nationwide, the two \t\tbillionaires have contributed an estimated $40 million to challenging \t\tdrug laws. \t\t \t\tFoes of this scam, for the most part, are using their grocery money to \t\ttry to stop them before it's too late. \t\t \t\tThe largest Rhode Island General Assembly recipient was Rep. Rhoda \t\tPerry, who got $500 from Lewis and $1,000 from the Marijuana Policy \t\tProject. (Full disclosure is available at the Rhode Island Board of \t\tElections.) \t\t \t\tMuch damage occurs when people such as Fox News's Bill O'Reilly \t\t(apparently a libertarian) say that it doesn't matter if people use \t\tdrugs, as long as they do it in the privacy of their home! \t\t \t\tUnfortunately, O'Reilly has many listeners. He needs to realize that \t\tusers eventually run out of drugs, and usually money, and they go \t\tlooking for more, or they get high and want more excitement outside \t\ttheir home. \t\t \t\tLet's look at the reality of societal damage from others' drug use. \t\t \t\tIn Pennsylvania, a group of parents, neighbors, and friends gathered \t\taround a girl's gravesite one recent Sunday to sing "Happy Birthday." A \t\tsweet, caring high-school junior, she had died two years before of a \t\theroin overdose. \t\t \t\tIn Florida, little Jessica Lunsford also died because of drugs -- not \t\ther own drug use, but the crack use of an addict, who stole her from her \t\tbed in her grandmother's humble home and killed her. \t\t \t\tNear Harrisburg, Pa., a toddler left in the care of an 18-year-old \t\tmarijuana user was repeatedly burned by his lighted joint and had \t\tmarijuana smoke forced into her mouth. She was slapped so hard that, \t\tdays later, when her grandmother discovered her injuries and took her to \t\tthe emergency room, she still had the handprint on her face. She tested \t\tpositive for marijuana. \t\t \t\tIn Washington, D.C., the police were called to a crack house. They \t\texpected to find an overdosed adult. Instead, they found a 4-month-old \t\tbaby in an unchanged diaper; her skin was rotted. Her crack-addicted \t\tmother had remembered to feed her but not to change her diaper. She was \t\tdead on arrival at the hospital. \t\t \t\tA 13-year-old Texas youth was found with heroin near his body and \t\tmarijuana and needles elsewhere in the house. In Virginia, a woman went \t\tto prison for prostituting her 12-year-old daughter for money to feed a \t\tcocaine habit. \t\t \t\tOh yes, Mr. O'Reilly and every state legislator who voted for these \t\tbills nationwide: Illegal drug use does matter. The horror of abuse to \t\tthe children of those who "just use their drugs at home" must be \t\tconsidered. \t\t \t\tJoyce Nalepka is president of Drug-Free Kids: America. During the Reagan \t\tadministration, she headed Nancy Reagan's National Federation of \t\tParents. Source: Providence Journal, The (RI) Author: Joyce Nalepka Published: Sunday, July 17, 2005 Copyright: 2005 The Providence Journal Company Contact: letters@projo.com Website: http://www.projo.com/ Link to article: http://www.freedomtoexhale.com/joyce.htm
By Mary-Catherine Lader Source: Brown Daily Herald Rhode Island -- The Rhode Island General Assembly is one step away from making the Ocean State the eleventh U.S. state to legalize the medical use of marijuana by the chronically ill. After the House voted 52-10 in favor of the bill on June 22, Republican Gov. Donald Carcieri '65 vetoed the legislation, prompting a Senate override vote of 28-6 only four days later. The bill now awaits a House override vote in September before being made law. Carcieri's veto was expected and presented no serious challenges to the success of the legislation, said the bill's lead House sponsor, Rep. Tom Slater, D-Providence. The bill - also referred to as the "pot-for-pain bill" - will protect patients, their doctors, pharmacists and caregivers from arrest and prosecution under state law if a Department of Health-certified doctor determines marijuana a useful form of pain relief for a patient. Individuals suffering from AIDS, cancer, multiple sclerosis and other illnesses causing symptoms alleviated by use of the drug, including nausea and seizures, will be eligible for use, pending Department of Health approval. However, the drug remains illegal at the federal level. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last month that state laws sanctioning medical marijuana use provide no defense against enforcement of federal anti-drug laws by federal agencies. Once issued registration cards by the Department of Health, patients or their caregivers could possess up to 12 plants or 2.5 ounces of "usable marijuana" at any time. A specific amount was not included in the original bill, which passed the state Senate - sponsored chiefly by Sen. Rhoda Perry P'98, D-Providence - largely unaltered earlier in June. Debate on the floor of the House led to that change, among others, after representatives raised concerns about the drug's possible accessibility to children, and the remaining illegal step - acquiring marijuana - after testimony against the bill from state police officials and a representative from the Family Court. How illegal marijuana would find its way to a legally approved user remains unaddressed in the final version of the bill. But Slater said this ignores the purpose of the legislation, which aims simply to protect medical marijuana users from arrest. "I told them on the floor, (debate over acquiring) was irrelevant," Slater said. "(The patient) can get it themselves - it's readily available all over the state." In an effort to protect children from stumbling across the drug outdoors, representatives added language specifying the plants be kept in an indoor facility. House members also included clauses that disqualified individuals with a felony record from serving as caregivers and limited the number of patients to whom doctors could recommend the drug in order to prevent possible abuse of the legislation. Slater said that more serious than any of these changes was the addition of a "sunset" clause. According to this stipulation, the Department of Health would report back to the State House on the law's success on Jan. 1, 2007, and unless legislators vote for its renewal, the law would expire June 30 of that year. "Hopefully, at that point things will be functioning smoothly just as they have in every other (of the 10 states with similar legislation)," said Trevor Stutz '07, outgoing president of the Brown chapter of Students for Sensible Drug Policy. SSDP kept its members updated on the bill's progress over the past few months, at times urging them to sign a petition to the governor or to write letters and call legislators to voice their support of medical marijuana use. Stutz said SSDP and the Rhode Island Patient Advocacy Coalition, whose executive director is Nathaniel Lepp '06, will work together this fall to inform the community of the legislation's impact. Slater credited such public involvement, in addition to strong lobbying, with the bill's success. He said one representative received 50 calls from constituents - all of them in support of the bill. "Everyone knows someone who has one of these chronic diseases who would like relief," Slater, a cancer survivor, said. "The only challenge left now is how the Department of Health makes up its regulations on it - how they will control it, how they will see the cards are given out. Then it's up to the individual to get a hold of the drug." Though Slater is confident of the bill's prospects in an as-yet unscheduled House override vote this fall, he is hesitant to celebrate too soon. "Once it's all finished in September, it will be a great victory," he said. Source: Brown Daily Herald, The (Brown, RI Edu) Author: Mary-Catherine Lader Published: July 18, 2005 Copyright: 2005 The Brown Daily Herald Contact: letters@browndailyherald.com Website: http://www.browndailyherald.com/ Link to article: http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread20966.shtml e
By Larissa Lytwyn Source: Easton Courier Connecticut -- A few months ago I wrote a column advising readers not to underestimate the dangers of marijuana use. The topic was inspired by my coverage of a school and community sponsored event on a variety of familial social issues, including substance abuse. The keynote speaker was DEA agent Thomas Pasquarella, whose presentation included raw footage of individuals mixing rat poison and house cleaners with the "club drug" ecstasy. Pasquarella also discussed the importance of underestimating the issue of marijuana use, stating that it could easily lead to experimentation with harder drugs. In the column, I noted, "many people praise activist efforts to legalize marijuana in the U.S., purportedly for medical use." The hackles on many hemp-friendly readers rose considerably at this statement. I received dozens of critical emails from people across the country. My column was also the subject of many blogs; an Internet search connecting my name to the phrase "marijuana" scored numerous hits. While much of the feedback was laced with vitriol, some of it was useful. I was moved to do more research on the topic of medical marijuana use. Before I explore that issue, however, allow me to make clear that I am still very much against recreational marijuana use. I know lots of people do it and still hold illustrious careers. But the point is that smoking marijuana harms lungs as much as tobacco, inhibits short-term memory and, according to voluminous studies, can easily lead to harder drug use. An aspect of considerable debate is whether marijuana is truly addictive. In a study conducted by the University of Vermont published in the 2001 "Archives of General Psychiatry," researchers concluded that the withdrawal effects of heavy marijuana users (using marijuana more than once a week) was "similar in type and magnitude" to nicotine withdrawal. Now, let us move forward to the issue of marijuana use for medical reasons. Medical marijuana advocates often cite research suggesting that marijuana is effective in treating the side effects of serious ailments including AIDS, glaucoma, cancer, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy and chronic pain. While the American Medical Society opposes legalization of the sale and possession of marijuana, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana lists more than two dozen allied medical and health groups that support it; including the AIDS Action Council, the American Public Health Association and the Connecticut Nurses Association. THC, marijuana's core psychoactive ingredient, is now sold in pill form as the prescription drug Marinol. But, according to the Connecticut chapter of the Marijuana Policy Project, a medicinal marijuana advocacy group, patients have complained that they absorbed too much or too little of the substance. In a panel discussion on medical marijuana held a few years ago, Avram Goldstein, M.D., of the National Institute of Health stated, "The bio-availability is generally very good by the smoked route, and generally very predictable, while the oral route [pills] is both not good and not predictable. By the smoking route, the person can self-regulate the dosage." While I generally do not advocate smoking marijuana, I believe an exception could be made for a critically ill person who has their doctor's authorization. After all, a groundbreaking 1999 study conducted by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) noted that it would still be "several years" before a safe cannabinoid delivery system, such as an inhaler, would be available for patients. This year, a Connecticut bill that would have protected medical marijuana patients from arrest and punishment passed the Senate 19-15 but was unable to garner a House vote because time literally ran out in the legislative session. While the House could have sent S.B. 124 to Gov. M. Jodi Rell's desk, it chose not to. The bill's sponsor was State Rep. Penny Bacchiochi (R-Somers), who bought marijuana off the street 20 years ago for her husband, who was dying from bone cancer. She has publicly asserted that the marijuana was the only thing that eased his pain. Science suggests benefits; if the substance is properly prescribed and monitored, I believe it would be prudent the legislature to bring this bill up again next spring. In the meantime, our sister state, Rhode Island, is on the brink of joining Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont and Washington, D.C. in approving medical marijuana laws that remove state-level criminal penalties on the use, possession and cultivation of marijuana by patients who possess written documentation from their physician advising that they might benefit from the medical use of marijuana. While Rhode Island's legislature passed a medical marijuana bill this spring, Gov. Donald Carcieri vetoed it. The Rhode Island Senate voted 28-6 to override it; now the House is expected to follow suit. While I want to make clear that I do not condone the recreational use of marijuana, the issue of medical marijuana is a compelling one. At the very least, there are countless testimonies from severely ill adults who deserve our lawmakers' open minds and hearts. This column reflects the opinion of Editor Larissa Lytwyn and does not necessarily represent the views of Hometown Publications. Source: Easton Courier (CT) Author: Larissa Lytwyn Published: July 29, 2005 Copyright: 2005 Easton Courier Contact: eastoncourier@add-inc.com Website: http://www.eastoncourier.com/ Link to article: http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread20999.shtml