R.I. committees hold hearings on medical marijuana compassion center legislation

Seriously ill patients in Rhode Island seeking safe access to their medicine had an exciting day. On Wednesday, March 4, the House Health, Education, and Welfare Committee and the Senate Health and Human Services Committee held simultaneous hearings and heard riveting testimony on H. 5359 and S. 0185, legislation that will create non-profit compassion centers that can distribute medical marijuana to qualified patients.

Please urge your representative and senator to stand up for patients and support this legislation so that Rhode Island patients will finally have safe access to the medicine they need. Constituent calls and e-mails were key to passing Rhode Island's medical marijuana law in 2006, and they are vital to this effort as well.

More than 600 seriously ill Rhode Islanders are registered to use medical marijuana. However, some of these patients are too ill or lack the financial resources or physical ability to grow their own medical marijuana, and do not have a trusted friend or family member to act as a caregiver and cultivate on their behalf. This lack of safe access has forced some seriously ill patients into the underground market, which can be dangerous.

In 2008, the Senate passed similar legislation by an overwhelming majority of 29-5. The House of Representatives instead overwhelmingly passed a study commission bill, which Gov. Donald Carcieri (R) vetoed. This year, Sen. Rhoda Perry (D-Providence) and Rep. Thomas Slater (D-Providence) have introduced identical bills that will allow Rhode Island to join New Mexico in licensing and regulating non-profit compassion centers. Fifty of Rhode Island's 75 representatives have co-sponsored H. 5359. For more information on the specifics of the bills, check out the Rhode Island Patient Advocacy Coalition.

The Rhode Island Patient Advocacy Coalition did an amazing job coordinating testimony before both the House and Senate committees. On Wednesday, representatives from the the Rhode Island State Nurses Association and the American Civil Liberties Union spoke, as did nine patients and doctors.

To ensure that patients can safely obtain the medicine that Rhode Island law allow them to possess, please don't forget to write your legislators.

Thank you for supporting the Marijuana Policy Project, the Rhode Island Patient Advocacy Coalition, and Rhode Island's seriously ill patients. Please pass this e-mail alert on to friends, family, and listservs in Rhode Island so that we can create the momentum necessary to provide patients with a safe supply of their medicine.