Rhode Island Will License Medical Marijuana Shops, Overriding Veto

The Rhode Island legislature overrode a gubernatorial veto of a medical marijuana law Tuesday afternoon by an overwhelming margin, paving the way for state-licensed medical marijuana shops to begin operating. The House voted 68-0 for the pot measure and the senate moved it minutes later by a 35-3 count.

Once the law takes effect, the state will be the first in the nation to have one officially licensed nonprofit center selling marijuana. Over time, the state will license further nonprofit dispensaries.

The bill got a boost in the state after a much publicized incident in which a pot dealer beat up a medical marijuana patient. Proponents of the bill argued that patients shouldn't have to deal with unregulated, unlicensed drug dealers, but deserved a more orderly system.

In March, New Mexico became the first state to grant a state license to a medical marijuana producer.

"We are seeing a historic shift to allowing state-licensed, regulated medical marijuana production and distribution," said Karen O'Keefe of the Marijuana Policy Project after the vote.

Legislators in Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina and Pennsylvania are considering similar legislation. Arizona and Maine voters may soon vote on similar initiatives.

The Rhode Island bill's passage was only made possible by President Obama's announcement that his Justice Department would not raid medical marijuana dispensaries in states where they were following the law.

California's dispensaries operate legally in the state but don't have the kind of exclusive state license that the new Rhode Island shop will have.

Jesse Stout, executive director of the Rhode Island Patient Advocacy Coalition, which led the charge on the bill, said that state Rep. Tom Slater's announcement Saturday that he would himself begin using medical marijuana to treat his rapidly advancing cancer swayed the General Assembly. Slater, a Democrat, is the bill's sponsor.

The Rhode Island Department of Health will license one nonprofit "compassion center" in 2010 and two more in 2011. They will grow and distribute marijuana and provide it to an unlimited number of patients.

My book, This Is Your Country On Drugs: The Secret History of Getting High in America, is now out.

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Comments

[Godmad]

LARGE AMOUNTS OF SALT KILLS

[Godmad]

CRACK KILLS, SALT IN SODA AN FOOD= STROKES HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE , NO LAW AGAINST THAT.

[DrDemon]

J
U
S
T

SAY YES!

[CestLaVie27]

Marijuana helps with my depression, anxiety, bi-polar, & eating disorder. The 8 pills I'm prescribed for daily use could potentially be replaced by a PLANT! A plant that God, Himself, put on this Earth. God did not create anti-depressants, mood stabilizers, A.D.D. medication, or anti-anxiety pills on the 7th day.
Marijuana is given to chemo-patients for goodness sake! Studies show that marijuana can alleviate anorexia. According to clinical trial data done by investigators at the Hadassah University Hospital in Israel, cannabis may stimulate appetite in patients with anorexia. Also, Australian news outlets report cannabis tincture stimulates chemicals in the brain that can boost appetite in women with anorexia. Results from a research conducted at the Saint Louis University show that the use of THC may increase weight in elderly subjects who suffer from anorexia. Being a victim for 6 years of a life threatening eating disorder, these studies hit home. There's no medication to alleviate eating disorders. My journey to recovery has consisted of in-patient rehab and currently out-patient rehab weekly. But in reality, recovery is all on me. So if studies show that marijuana can alleviate this constant battle, sign me up!
And this plant is ILLEGAL when cigarettes and alcohol are LEGAL! Absurd! A large amount of deaths are related to these LEGAL materials.
Where is there even an argument if marijuana should be nationally legalized? What happened to freedom of choice in this "Land of the Free?"

[4peace]

I've often wondered who ARE these people that say we can't smoke/grow our own pot...seriously the "war on drugs" is so bogus, I personally think its just a way to fill up the privately owned, for profit prisons.

[kindGSL]

I think that is a very good question. It seems to be a religious prohibition.

That is a very bad reason to send people to jail.

[zizyphus]

I really believe that no government has the right to tell people what kind of plants they may use, anymore than they would try to restrict your right to drink water or breathe.

Eating plants, breathing air, and drinking water is what we do. Our bodies developed over the ages to be tuned in to plants in the environment that provide the molecules that our bodies need. People who smoke cannabis do so because they feel better when they get the cannabinoids and THC that their bodies are asking for.

The slight euphoric effect that comes with them actually helps potentiate the healing process. Something in our weird, Puritan heritage choose to look down on all physical pleasures, so that one must take one's medicine, but by God, you better not enjoy it!

[Kalarchis]

It was a means of controlling an otherwise chaotic populace. It's kind of an outdated stigma these days, but it sticks around through tradition and exploitation. It'll go away in time. Just another dying element washed away by the flow of life.

Excellent post, btw

[TheAlabamaRambler]

"I really believe that no government has the right to tell people what kind of plants they may use, anymore than they would try to restrict your right to drink water or breathe."

So peyote, cocaine, heroin... all plants or plant derivatives, are all okay?

[TheBlackCat]

cocaine and heroin have to be processed in order to be made potent. There's no such thing as a cocaine or heroin plant. You can't potentially pick a wild dose of heroin the way you can with weed.

When it comes to chewing on coca leaves, eating poppey seeds, or taking peyote or shrooms, then I'm all for it.

[4peace]

If an individual so chooses to use these substances, yes.

[kindGSL]

You might want to join my church, the THC Ministry.

There is safety in numbers. The cannabis plant is a sacred healing plant. It is wrong to deny it's healing power to the people who need it.

[Godmad]

HOW CAN I JOIN YOUR CHURCH? I HEARD ABOUT IT AN IT WOULD BE GOOD TO BE WERE I'M ACCEPTED, I BELIEVE IN GOD AN HIS NATURAL LAW OF LIFE AN THE PEOPLE TODAY ARE NO DIFFERENT WHEN CESEAR RULED.

[jerryd]

War on drugs or a war on people?

[RevRayGreen]

well, first of all botanical cannabis is an herb not a drug. So yes, a war on people.

[Raster]

Both. DEA has been doubled down on its continuing crackdown (pun intended) on so-called (in its opinion) "medical marijuana." Apparently in DEA's official bible there is no such entity as "medical marijuana"; all marijuana.is illegal under federal law, which completely and totally trumps any and all state laws.

[kindGSL]

They have a religious prohibition against us, they are strongly against our religion.

They can't allow us to use herbal medicines like marijuana because that is what witches would do. They have a bible prohibition against us as a kind of people. Pot prohibition is a religious discrimination based on biblical scripture,

Exodus 22:18 Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.

Of course they don't want to admit to that, so they snow everybody with stupid bullshit and racist propaganda. Don't let it fool you, the actual purpose of pot prohibition is a religious and ethnic cleansing.

I don't think they should be allowed to get away with that, do you?

[Godmad]

IT'S NOT THAT LONG AGO THAT THEY MARIJUANA ILLEGAL, SO IT CAN BE CHANGED, THE SAME WAY THEY CHANGED IT .

[Godmad]

THE WAR IS ON PEOPLE, I AGREE, HOW CAN YOU TAKE SOME THING THAT WAS LEGAL AN NOW SAY YOUR A CRIMINAL

[OmarSpence]

Legalize it !!! and buy some from Jamaica when you do. We produce the best & have lots of unused agricultural land & unemployed people it could put to work here.

[Godmad]

I AGREE I ALSO SEE THE USAGE IT HAVE FOR US, YOU COULD REBUILD A STATE OFF OF IT, CLOTHS, SO GO GREEN!!!!!!!! YEAH!

[Ulvang]

Standing Ovation for Rhode Island State Government! Proof that not all politicians are spineless!

[pragmaticdallasite]

Indeed. I was impressed with the vote tally.

[Godmad]

THANK GOD, FOR RHODE ISLAND STATE.

[Eagleman]

Look at the bright side. This take care of some of the health care affordability issues.

This should go in the stimulus budget. I am surprised why our friend Barney Frank is a quiet about this.

[bsc]

great news legalize it for everyone though

[Jamie Kowalski]

Yes, we can-nabis!

[DrDemon]

lol

[pragmaticdallasite]

niiiiiiice

[lastrose]

Hello Annapolis!!! Did ya see this....??­??...."Mar­yland the Free State".....not when one of the largest employers is Johns Hopkins Hospital......

[alwqb]

State by state, that's the way we do it.

[Godmad]

KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK, ALOT WILL BE ACCOMPLISHED SOON

[confidance government]

I am glad they had the stones to override the veto. But its kind of ironic that it took one of their own using the product to push the bill.

[Godmad]

THANK GOD!! YEAH!!

[Macready]

Bravo RI . . . this is great news!!!!!!!!!!!!!