Three medical marijuana compassion center licenses issued

Published: March 15, 2011

It’s been a long haul, but the Rhode Island Department of Health has granted registrations to operate medical marijuana compassion centers. Three of the 18 applicants were awarded registrations. State law allows up to three compassion centers to dispense medical marijuana to qualifying patients in Rhode Island. The compassion centers granted registrations are: Summit Medical Compassion Center in Warwick, The Thomas C. Slater Compassion Center in Providence, and Greenleaf Compassionate Care Center in Portsmouth.

Following a lobbying and grassroots campaign by MPP and our allies at the Rhode Island Patient Advocacy Coalition, the General Assembly passed compassion center legislation in June 2009. Since then, the Department of Health has promulgated regulations for the operation of compassion centers and twice accepted applications (the first time no applicant was accepted and the process started anew). It has been a long process, but safe and reliable access for Rhode Island medical marijuana patients is officially on the way.

Thank you all for your support! Keep an eye on your inbox, as the state legislature is taking up legislation to decriminalize possession of up to an ounce of marijuana. In addition, I’m thrilled to announce that a bill to tax and regulate marijuana was introduced earlier this month.