PROVIDENCE – The R.I. Department of Health started hearing formal testimony on Monday morning about whom to permit to open the state’s first medical marijuana distribution center.
The hearing, which started at 10:23 a.m., was expected to last until 4 p.m. including a one-hour lunch break.
By noon, health department staff had already heard from a handful of elected officials and medical marijuana patients. They spoke to about 120 people in the auditorium at the department’s headquarters.
Elected officials who spoke at the meeting were opposed to the centers primarily because of concerns about safety.
Eighteen companies are vying for the chance to open the state’s first so-called compassion center that would serve people the state allows to use marijuana for pain management of chronic health conditions. State law allows the health department to permit up to three such centers. The health department is expected to select the first one in March, although officials have cautioned that the internal review panel may find none of the applicants qualified, as it did last September.
Advocates for the centers have been pushing for them as an alternative to growing their own, seeking a state-approved caregiver to grow it or buying it on the street.
Norma Winkler, who said she suffers from serve back pain, told the audience that marijuana was the only drug that allowed her to sleep at night. A state registration card allows her to use marijuana for medical purposes and Winkler encouraged officials to permit the centers and, specifically, allow the proposed Thomas C. Slater Compassion Center in Providence.
“The power of medical marijuana is altering, life altering,” she said.
Her comments, and those of other patients, drew cheers and applause from the crowd while comments by elected officials were met with silence.
Cranston Mayor Allan Fung stood to oppose any centers within his city. Fung, a former prosecutor, said he and his police chief worried that a center would encourage criminal activities. And Fung reminded the crowd that marijuana remained illegal under federal law.
“I have seen the shady side of activities that spring from even legal mandates,” Fung said.
State Rep. Peter Palumbo, a Democrat who represents Cranston, also said he opposed the centers because of similar safety and security concerns, along with Rep. Doreen Marie Costa, a Republican who represents North Kingstown where one center is proposed.
Costa said her e-mail box “exploded” with messages from constituents resisting the center after the local newspaper ran an article about the proposal.
“I just don’t think North Kingstown or Rhode Island is ready for compassion centers,” she said.
Patients who rose to speak disagreed. Jerome Scott from Jamestown said after two replaced hips, marijuana was the only medicine that treated his pain. Another patient, Michael Grahm, who said he experiences chronic pain, called marijuana “the only thing that has every worked.”
Harlan Benetti said the centers would provide a method for him to secure high-quality marijuana on a regular basis to treat his health conditions.
The health department’s reaction to the testimony was unclear. People delivered their testimony to a moderator. The health department has declined to release the names of the people serving on the selection committee, saying making their identities public could open them up to inappropriate lobbying. But health department spokesman Peter Hanney did say that the committee was composed of health department staff plus one law enforcement official.
