State may take over dealers' game
Rachel Arndt
Issue date: 3/20/08 Section: Metro
Like most people looking for marijuana, Bobby Ebert used to turn to a drug dealer. But unlike those who use the plant for recreation, Ebert relies on it for medication and needs a safe supply he can count on. And though he's registered with the state as a legal medical marijuana user, he still struggles with finding a trustworthy source for his medication.
Ebert, who is 48, smokes marijuana to help with pain caused by neuropathy and a bad back and to help lessen the nausea caused by his AIDS medication. He now relies on appointed caregivers for marijuana, but sometimes they don't come through, and the variability among the plants can be tricky to navigate.
But soon Ebert may no longer have to worry about tracking down his medicine from these sometimes unreliable sources.
Almost two years after Rhode Island began allowing medical marijuana, the state legislature is looking for a way to get marijuana to patients without relying on the illegal drug trade.
On Feb. 26, State Sen. Rhoda Perry P'91 and State Rep. Thomas Slater, both Democrats, introduced a bill that would give the state's 357 medical marijuana patients legal access to their medication. The new bill - essentially an amendment to the Edward O. Hawkins and Thomas C. Slater Medical Marijuana Act of 2006 - calls for the creation of a nonprofit, Department of Health-controlled "compassion center."
The compassion center would be able to "acquire, possess, cultivate, manufacture, deliver, transfer, transport, supply, or dispense marijuana, or related supplies and educational materials" to patients and caregivers, according to the bill.
To receive a license for medical marijuana today, a patient must have a doctor sign a Department of Health form stating "that medical marijuana will do more good than harm," says Jesse Stout '06, executive director of the Rhode Island Patient Advocacy Coalition, known as "Rhode Island's non-profit grassroots medical marijuana community," according to the group's Web site.
Ebert, who is 48, smokes marijuana to help with pain caused by neuropathy and a bad back and to help lessen the nausea caused by his AIDS medication. He now relies on appointed caregivers for marijuana, but sometimes they don't come through, and the variability among the plants can be tricky to navigate.
But soon Ebert may no longer have to worry about tracking down his medicine from these sometimes unreliable sources.
Almost two years after Rhode Island began allowing medical marijuana, the state legislature is looking for a way to get marijuana to patients without relying on the illegal drug trade.
On Feb. 26, State Sen. Rhoda Perry P'91 and State Rep. Thomas Slater, both Democrats, introduced a bill that would give the state's 357 medical marijuana patients legal access to their medication. The new bill - essentially an amendment to the Edward O. Hawkins and Thomas C. Slater Medical Marijuana Act of 2006 - calls for the creation of a nonprofit, Department of Health-controlled "compassion center."
The compassion center would be able to "acquire, possess, cultivate, manufacture, deliver, transfer, transport, supply, or dispense marijuana, or related supplies and educational materials" to patients and caregivers, according to the bill.
To receive a license for medical marijuana today, a patient must have a doctor sign a Department of Health form stating "that medical marijuana will do more good than harm," says Jesse Stout '06, executive director of the Rhode Island Patient Advocacy Coalition, known as "Rhode Island's non-profit grassroots medical marijuana community," according to the group's Web site.