Medical marijuana compassion center hearing this Wednesday afternoon
On Wednesday, April 2 at about 4:00 p.m., the Senate Health and Human Services Committee will hear testimony on whether to dramatically improve patients' access to medical marijuana by allowing state-licensed compassion centers to dispense medical marijuana. This legislation will improve access to medicine for those too sick or frail or otherwise unable to grow their own much-needed medicine. It will greatly reduce the need to seek relief in the unregulated illegal market.
If you are able to, please attend the hearing to show your support. Whether or not you are able to attend, please write your legislators to let them know you support this compassionate bill. Then, ask other compassionate Rhode Islanders to follow suit. Too many patients aren't able to find reliable caregivers and are having to suffer without their medicine or risk the criminal market.
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Where:
Rhode Island Statehouse, 82 Smith St., Providence, Room 212
When:
Wednesday, April 2. Supporters should arrive at 4:00 p.m., though the precise time of the hearing is not known.
What:
Hearing on S. 2693, medical marijuana compassion center bill
Details:
Advocates from the Rhode Island Patient Advocacy Coalition (an MPP grant recipient) are coordinating the lobbying and grassroots effort for the compassion center legislation. They will be at the hearing room. We might fill the room so full of supporters that some will have to stand. If we do, please give patients and the elderly priority for seating. | |
If you aren't able to make it to the Statehouse on Wednesday, you can still help move this bill forward. Please write your state legislators and ask them to vote in favor of the bill. Only 14 people wrote their legislators in response to the last e-mail alert. It's time to step it up. We know we can create the groundswell of support it will take to move the bill forward. Please take just a few minutes to send a pre-written letter through our automated system or to write your own. Then, encourage friends and loved ones to do the same.
If you are a patient, caregiver, or medical professional, e-mail Karen O'Keefe at Karen@mpp.org to see how you can be of special help.
Sen. Rhoda Perry, the chair of the Health and Human Services Committee, sponsors S. 2693. In addition to allowing licensed compassion centers to distribute medical marijuana, the bill would make a few other improvements to Rhode Island's medical marijuana law, which Sen. Perry also sponsored. For example, it would allow doctors from neighboring states to certify Rhode Island patients for the program. It would also explicitly allow patients to donate medical marijuana to one another.
Thank you for supporting the Marijuana Policy Project, the Rhode Island Patient Advocacy Coalition, and Rhode Island patients. |
