May 3, 2011 - projo.com
PROVIDENCE — Governor Chafee “placed a hold” Monday on the state’s medical-marijuana dispensary program in response to a warning by the U.S. Attorney for Rhode Island that he might prosecute or take civil action against the centers and anyone involved with them.
The owner of one of those planned centers, Dr. Seth Bock, asked Chafee in a letter Monday to “stand strong against the federal threats,” saying there was “no rational argument” for halting the dispensary program
Attorney General Peter F. Kilmartin, who while a member of the Rhode Island House voted to allow medical marijuana and create state-licensed dispensaries, said through a spokeswoman Monday that the question of their legality is not something his office intends to pursue. “This is a conflict between state law and federal law,” said the spokeswoman, Amy Kempe.
Kempe said that Kilmartin plans to introduce a bill to “tighten up the current medical-marijuana laws.” She declined to be more specific.
Chafee’s decision leaves in place the current informal medical-marijuana production system with licensed patients permitted to grow for themselves a limited number of plants or to obtain marijuana from state-licensed growers or caregivers who may grow for up to two patients. That construct would remain in place with dispensaries.
Sen. Rhoda E. Perry, D-Providence, who was the prime sponsor of the medical-marijuana dispensary statute in 2009, said she is looking into an amendment –– before the General Assembly adjourns –– to address Justice Department concerns. She called Chafee’s action “appropriate” in light of U.S. Attorney Peter F. Neronha’s intimation that he would raid the dispensaries if they were open.
“I don’t know where this comes from,” Perry said of Neronha’s views of the dispensaries. “It is quite bothersome to me.”
“There are thousands of people who need the substance and need it in a legal way,” said Perry.
The state has licensed about 3,400 people to use marijuana to treat medical conditions.
Six weeks ago, the state Health Department tentatively approved licenses for three dispensaries: Greenleaf Compassionate Care Center, in Portsmouth; Summit Medical Compassion Center, in Warwick and the Thomas C. Slater Compassion Center, in Providence. Principals of the three had been planning to open this summer and fall.
But on Friday, Neronha, in a letter hand-delivered to Chafee’s office, threatened to take action against those involved with the compassion centers if they open. And on Sunday, in an interview with The Journal, the U.S. Attorney said he hoped the dispensaries don’t open because he considers them to be large-scale for-profit cannabis production centers that are against federal law.
The Summit organization had said in its application for a state license to operate that it expected to be serving 8,000 patients and taking in $25 million in revenue by 2013, Neronha pointed out.
Chafee, who was in North Carolina Monday at an education conference, said in his announcement some 72 hours after Neronha’s letter: “In light of the United States Attorney’s articulated position on closing compassion centers, seizing proceeds and prosecuting business enterprises that market and sell medical marijuana, I have placed a hold on the state’s medical-marijuana certificate of registration program.”
“During this hiatus, I will be consulting with the governors of other states with similar medical-marijuana programs, with federal officials and with the compassion center applicants themselves.”
In a 2009 memo, the governor said, “The Department of Justice … indicated that it would not focus its limited resources on doctors and their sick patients who prescribe and use marijuana if such use was permitted by state law. This position was interpreted by some states as giving them latitude to authorize medical-marijuana cultivation and distribution programs. Friday’s letter makes it clear that DOJ will now pursue certain commercial cultivation and distribution of medical marijuana, even if such cultivation and distribution is permitted by state law. Compassion centers, their owners, landlords, financiers and other operations ‘facilitators’ are identified as potential targets of federal law-enforcement activities.”
None of the compassion centers had been authorized by the state to begin operations.
Bock, an acupuncturist and herbalist who heads the Greenleaf dispensary project, said the organization has spent tens of thousands of dollars on plans for his facility, the Health Department registration process, attorneys’ fees “and thousands of dollars in unpaid effort to build a perfect model of how to run a compassion center.”
He said he just got his building permit Monday from the Town of Portsmouth to start constructing his dispensary and that he’d planned to open in August. But now, he says, he is going to hold off starting construction.“It wouldn’t make sense to start construction now if they’re going to pull the plug on the entire program,” he said.
He termed Chafee’s announcement Monday as “a little bit of a surprise,” but said “it’s understandable that the governor would want to research this a little bit more. In my opinion, Rhode Island has crafted a program that we feel the Department of Justice would want to stand behind, as opposed to the types of dispensaries that are in the media a lot in California and other states out in the Wild West,” Bock said.
Under state law, the number of plants that can be grown by the compassion centers are strictly limited based on how many patients designate a particular dispensary as their caregiver.
Bock said he is optimistic that some consensus will be forged between state and federal authorities and the dispensaries will open. “I feel strongly that we are going to prevail on this,” he said.
Chris Reilly, spokesman for the Slater organization, said, “We look forward to meeting with the governor to stress the importance of providing safe access to patients in need of medicine … Any disruption of that mission is something that concerns us.”
Over the past several weeks, U.S. Attorneys in several states — including Washington, Hawaii, Colorado, Montana, New Jersey, Arizona and California — have written letters to their states’ public officials warning that the 2009 Justice Department memo dealing with medical marijuana does not protect business enterprises dealing in medical marijuana or those who work or help facilitate them, even if such activities are sanctioned by state law. There have been recent raids on dispensaries and greenhouses in Washington, California and Montana.
Fifteen states and the District of Columbia have medical-marijuana programs. But only Colorado, New Mexico and, as of this month, Maine, have state-regulated dispensaries in operation. Rhode Island would be the fourth.
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