Jim Finnel
Fallen Cannabis Warrior & Ex News Moderator
Sometime in the next couple of months, Maine lawmakers will take up a bill that could revolutionize the way medical marijuana patients are treated in Maine and how they get access to the drug. If the Legislature fails to approve the Maine Medical Marijuana Act, the measure will be headed for Maine voters this fall. That's because supporters have gathered more than 55,000 valid signatures to get it on the ballot. In the second part of our report on medical marijuana, Susan Sharon looks at what the initiative would do and how it would be regulated.
Maine, along with 12 other states including California, has had a medical marijuana law on the books for ten years. Maine voters approved it by a wide margin. But ever since the law was passed, patients have had no practical, legal way of accessing marijuana. First they have to find a doctor willing to recommend it as a treatment. Then they have to grow a few plants on their own or find someone willing to do it for them. So activists have launched a new initiative to legally distribute medical marijuana through non-profit, state-licensed dispensaries.
"It's just kind of odd that we would have a law on the books that says people can have it for medical use but there's no place to go to get it that's safe and legitimate and legal," says Ben Chipman, a volunteer with "Maine Citizens for Patients' Rights," which is spearheading the medical marijuana initiative.
As the group prepares to take its campaign before the Maine Legislature and onto voters, if necessary, Chipman is trying to sign up as many supporters as possible. He found several at a recent book signing by University of Southern Maine professor Wendy Chapkis, author of "Dying to Get High." Organizers say they'll need to raise at least $250,000 and probably much more to wage a successful statewide campaign. They say their plan for dispensaries is different from California's where distributors can sell medical marijuana for profit.
Roy McKinney, director of Maine's Drug Enforcement Agency says he's skeptical that medical marijuana can be tightly controlled here, even though the plan calls for licensing and oversight of dispensaries by the Department of Health and Human Services. "With these dispensaries, they're operating under the guise of being a pharmacy but there certainly isn't any of the governmental regulation to protect the public at large -- in regards to both public health and public safety aspect."
"I am not interested in listening to people who have wasted the taxpayers' resources on opposing the rights of patients to have medicine. I don't - I tend not to validate that criticism," says Jonathan Leavitt, Executive Director of the Maine Medical Marijuana Initiative. "The policy that's been in place and the policy that's been upheld by people in positions of law enforcement and power -- those policies have failed on every conceivable level."
The initiative proposed by Leavitt and the group Maine Citizens for Patient Rights directs DHHS to issue identification cards to patients who qualify for medical marijuana. The cards are voluntary. And they would also be issued to patients' primary caregivers, those who provide pot through the dispensaries. Each caregiver would be limited to five qualified patients and no more than six marijuana plants for each. The plants would be grown in a secure facility.
But Roy Mckinney says the very nature of these dispensaries will make them hard to police. He points to research from the California Police Association that highlights numerous problems with California's medical marijuana law and a white paper from the Riverside District Attorney's Office, "that in fact stated, and I'll quote: 'Medical marijuana storefront businesses have allowed criminals to flourish in California.' And I don't think that's anything that the people in Maine want," he says.
In addition to creating a dispensary system for medical marijuana, including registration and renewal fees to pay for it, Maine's initiative also expands the list of diseases and conditions eligible for medical marijuana treatment. Hepatitis C, Crohn's disease, ALS and chronic pain would be added.
And doctors who treat them could not be arrested or disciplined, something AIDS patient and medical marijuana activist Charles Wynott says is crucial for Maine's law to work. "We're creating more of a protector for the doctors so that the doctors are more willing and able to to discuss medical marijuana with their patients. Right now they're kind of shying away from it because of the federal -- you know, problems that they may or may not have."
Wynott himself has been arrested twice for marijuana possession, and both times he has successfully defended himself as a medical marijuana patient under Maine law. But marijuana is still illegal under federal law. And Wynott says many doctors in Maine and in other states with medical marijuana laws have been reluctant to treat patients with pot because of fear of being arrested or having their licenses challenged.
Recently, the Obama Administration signaled its willingness to end raids and prosecutions of marijuana distributors unless they violate both federal and state laws. Activists say this is a major step forward. But not for Guy Cousens, Director of the Maine Office of Substance Abuse at DHHS. He says his department will be opposing the Maine bill. "The entire office works at reducing access to illicit substances and that's one of the challenges that we have with the legislation, is that it creates opportunities for greater access for people to use."
Cousens says there are still no estimates on the number of patients that might be interested in using the dispensaries or how many dispensaries might be established. Without knowing that, he says, it's difficult to know how much it will cost to create the registry. A hearing date for the bill has not yet been scheduled.
News Hawk: User: 420 MAGAZINE ® - Medical Marijuana Publication & Social Networking
Source: Maine Public Broadcasting Network
Author: Susan Sharon
Copyright: 2009 Maine Public Broadcasting Network
Contact: Maine Public Broadcasting Network, Maine News & Programming
Website: Maine News
Maine, along with 12 other states including California, has had a medical marijuana law on the books for ten years. Maine voters approved it by a wide margin. But ever since the law was passed, patients have had no practical, legal way of accessing marijuana. First they have to find a doctor willing to recommend it as a treatment. Then they have to grow a few plants on their own or find someone willing to do it for them. So activists have launched a new initiative to legally distribute medical marijuana through non-profit, state-licensed dispensaries.
"It's just kind of odd that we would have a law on the books that says people can have it for medical use but there's no place to go to get it that's safe and legitimate and legal," says Ben Chipman, a volunteer with "Maine Citizens for Patients' Rights," which is spearheading the medical marijuana initiative.
As the group prepares to take its campaign before the Maine Legislature and onto voters, if necessary, Chipman is trying to sign up as many supporters as possible. He found several at a recent book signing by University of Southern Maine professor Wendy Chapkis, author of "Dying to Get High." Organizers say they'll need to raise at least $250,000 and probably much more to wage a successful statewide campaign. They say their plan for dispensaries is different from California's where distributors can sell medical marijuana for profit.
Roy McKinney, director of Maine's Drug Enforcement Agency says he's skeptical that medical marijuana can be tightly controlled here, even though the plan calls for licensing and oversight of dispensaries by the Department of Health and Human Services. "With these dispensaries, they're operating under the guise of being a pharmacy but there certainly isn't any of the governmental regulation to protect the public at large -- in regards to both public health and public safety aspect."
"I am not interested in listening to people who have wasted the taxpayers' resources on opposing the rights of patients to have medicine. I don't - I tend not to validate that criticism," says Jonathan Leavitt, Executive Director of the Maine Medical Marijuana Initiative. "The policy that's been in place and the policy that's been upheld by people in positions of law enforcement and power -- those policies have failed on every conceivable level."
The initiative proposed by Leavitt and the group Maine Citizens for Patient Rights directs DHHS to issue identification cards to patients who qualify for medical marijuana. The cards are voluntary. And they would also be issued to patients' primary caregivers, those who provide pot through the dispensaries. Each caregiver would be limited to five qualified patients and no more than six marijuana plants for each. The plants would be grown in a secure facility.
But Roy Mckinney says the very nature of these dispensaries will make them hard to police. He points to research from the California Police Association that highlights numerous problems with California's medical marijuana law and a white paper from the Riverside District Attorney's Office, "that in fact stated, and I'll quote: 'Medical marijuana storefront businesses have allowed criminals to flourish in California.' And I don't think that's anything that the people in Maine want," he says.
In addition to creating a dispensary system for medical marijuana, including registration and renewal fees to pay for it, Maine's initiative also expands the list of diseases and conditions eligible for medical marijuana treatment. Hepatitis C, Crohn's disease, ALS and chronic pain would be added.
And doctors who treat them could not be arrested or disciplined, something AIDS patient and medical marijuana activist Charles Wynott says is crucial for Maine's law to work. "We're creating more of a protector for the doctors so that the doctors are more willing and able to to discuss medical marijuana with their patients. Right now they're kind of shying away from it because of the federal -- you know, problems that they may or may not have."
Wynott himself has been arrested twice for marijuana possession, and both times he has successfully defended himself as a medical marijuana patient under Maine law. But marijuana is still illegal under federal law. And Wynott says many doctors in Maine and in other states with medical marijuana laws have been reluctant to treat patients with pot because of fear of being arrested or having their licenses challenged.
Recently, the Obama Administration signaled its willingness to end raids and prosecutions of marijuana distributors unless they violate both federal and state laws. Activists say this is a major step forward. But not for Guy Cousens, Director of the Maine Office of Substance Abuse at DHHS. He says his department will be opposing the Maine bill. "The entire office works at reducing access to illicit substances and that's one of the challenges that we have with the legislation, is that it creates opportunities for greater access for people to use."
Cousens says there are still no estimates on the number of patients that might be interested in using the dispensaries or how many dispensaries might be established. Without knowing that, he says, it's difficult to know how much it will cost to create the registry. A hearing date for the bill has not yet been scheduled.
News Hawk: User: 420 MAGAZINE ® - Medical Marijuana Publication & Social Networking
Source: Maine Public Broadcasting Network
Author: Susan Sharon
Copyright: 2009 Maine Public Broadcasting Network
Contact: Maine Public Broadcasting Network, Maine News & Programming
Website: Maine News
