Pubdate: Fri, 29 Jul 2011
Source: Hartford Advocate (CT)
Copyright: 2011 New Mass. Media, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.hartfordadvocate.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/182
Author: Gregory B. Hladky

IF HOMEGROWN MEDICAL MARIJUANA IS LEGALIZED, WHAT OPTIONS DOES THAT
LEAVE THE SICK PEOPLE WHO DON'T HAVE TIME OR STRENGTH TO GROW IT?

It's understandable why Connecticut medical marijuana advocates are
looking to Rhode Island as a model. Rhode Island's already approved
homegrown medical pot, authorized three marijuana growing/dispensary
operations, picked out who should run them, and has a governor who
appears to be fully behind the program.

Except there seems to be a weird disconnect between Rhode Island Gov.
Lincoln Chafee's office and his state's chief medical marijuana
advocates about the urgent need to get those state-licensed
dispensaries up and running.

"It's so frustrating," says JoAnne Leppanen, executive director of the
Rhode Island Patient Advocacy Coalition, the group pushing the hardest
for medical marijuana in that state. She says Chafee's timid decision
to delay the startup of the dispensary program means lots of patients
looking for pain relief from devastating illnesses are suffering needlessly.

"We've had patients going up to the State House begging for medicine,"
Leppanen says.

Chafee put the new dispensary system on hold weeks ago in reaction to
a U.S. Department of Justice memo that appeared to threaten
prosecution of state-authorized growing and dispensary programs like
the one gearing up in Rhode Island. He ordered his legal eagles to
review the issue, and that review is still going on despite a more
recent federal memo indicating such operations really wouldn't risk
federal law-enforcement action.

That Rhode Island review is slogging ahead despite New Jersey Gov.
Chris Christie's recent decision to give the go-ahead to his state's
very similar medical marijuana dispensary program.

Chafee's spokesman, Michael Trainor, says there's no rush to complete
the review because Rhode Island has already legalized homegrown
medical marijuana, which he argues eliminates any issue about access
to medical pot.

Leppanen insists that's just flat out wrong.

She acknowledges there are now more than 3,200 Rhode Island patients
with doctors' prescriptions authorizing them to use marijuana for
medical purposes. But the Rhode Island law requires medical pot grown
at home must be grown indoors (to prevent pot-heads from stealing it),
and Leppanen says that raises all kinds of problems for seriously ill
people who are in pain and often short of money.

"A lot of our patients are too sick to grow their own; others live in
public housing and can't grow marijuana there," she explains. Although
the Rhode Island law allows a patient's caregiver to grow a limited
number of pot plants for restricted medical purposes, Leppanen points
out that many patients in need of marijuana as medication don't have
any caregivers able or willing to grow weed.

There's also the issue of cost, expertise and time. It can be
expensive to create an indoor grow room, particularly for patients on
limited disability incomes that are often less than $1,000 a month.
Many people simply don't know how to grow anything, and even if they
do get some grass planted, Leppanen says it can be months before any
weed is ready for harvesting.

"It can be a challenge," she says. "If you're starting chemotherapy
and your doctor signs a prescription, it could take six months" before
that patient gets the relief from pain and nausea he or she is
seeking, Leppanen explains.

"We have an immediacy problem, and that's a huge access problem,"
insists Leppanen.

Connecticut's General Assembly passed a medical marijuana bill in
2007, only to see it vetoed. A similar proposal died in the
legislature this year when opponents threatened to talk it to death.
Supporters of the concept say there's a good chance some form of
medical pot legislation will finally get through in 2012 with Gov.
Dannel Malloy's backing.

The way things are going in Rhode Island, that state may not be quite
the perfect model medical marijuana advocates here are seeking.
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MAP posted-by: Richard R Smith Jr.