R.I. Senate OKs marijuana ‘compassion centers’

The R.I. Senate last week voted 35-2 to approve a bill that would allow the creation of “compassion centers” to give marijuana to patients in the state’s medical marijuana program.
Rhode Island is one of 13 states that have legalized the medical use of marijuana, which has been proven effective to relieve the symptoms of cancer, AIDS, nerve damage and many other problems, easing pain and nausea and stimulating appetite, among other benefits.
Marijuana remains illegal at the federal level, however, and even though Rhode Island’s medical marijuana law, which went in to effect in January 2006, exempts patients who register with the state from prosecution for using the drug, there’s no legal way to buy it here.
As a result, supporters of “compassion centers” testified before the Senate, they have to buy marijuana on the streets, and they have been robbed and scared. But previous efforts to set up dispensaries in the state have failed, in part because of fear of federal action.
In a news release, bill sponsor Sen. Rhoda E. Perry, D-Providence, noted that there are indications that under President Barack Obama, the conditions will be more favorable.
“I understand the concern that some people have had about federal drug laws and the possibility that there would be federal raids if we created marijuana dispensaries for patients,” she said. “But the new administration has promised it won’t raid dispensaries for patients whose states have given them the right to use medical marijuana. Medical marijuana is legal in Rhode Island now, and now that we have that assurance from Washington, we have a responsibility to allow patients a safe, legal way to get their medicine.”
The bill sets a limit of three compassion centers statewide. It would make Rhode Island the third state, after California and New Mexico, to allow dispensaries.
The measure has been forwarded to the House of Representatives, where an identical bill, sponsored by Rep. Thomas Slater, D-Providence, is already being considered. Last year, Perry and Slater sponsored similar measures and they passed in the Senate but not the House. A bill setting up a study of the issue was passed by both chambers but vetoed by the governor.