Rhode Island has become the first state to enact a law sanctioning the use of medical marijuana since the Supreme Court ruled in June that the authorities could prosecute users, even in states with laws that allow its use. The State House of Representatives overrode the veto of Gov. Donald L. Carcieri, a Republican who rejected the measure last year, 59 to 13. Rhode Island is the 11th state to allow the use of marijuana for medical purposes. [end]
PROVIDENCE -- People who suffer from cancer, multiple sclerosis, AIDS, and a variety of other debilitating diseases now have a new medication option: marijuana. In a series of lopsided votes cast even before they officially opened their 2006 sessions, the House and Senate Tuesday overrode Gov. Donald Carcieri's vetoes of identical 2005 bills that remove the threat of arrest, prosecution and forfeiture by state and local authorities of people who use marijuana to relieve pain, nausea and other symptoms as recommended by a doctor. [continues 834 words]
PROVIDENCE -- People who suffer from cancer, multiple sclerosis, AIDS, and a variety of other debilitating diseases now have a new medication option: marijuana. In a series of lopsided votes cast even before they officially opened their 2006 sessions, the House and Senate Tuesday overrode Gov. Donald Carcieri's vetoes of identical 2005 bills that remove the threat of arrest, prosecution and forfeiture by state and local authorities of people who use marijuana to relieve pain, nausea and other symptoms as recommended by a doctor. [continues 832 words]
PROVIDENCE - Rhode Island has become the 11th state to legalize medical marijuana and the first since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that patients who use the drug can still be prosecuted under federal law. House lawmakers voted 59-13 Tuesday to override a veto by Gov. Don Carcieri, allowing people with illnesses such as cancer and AIDS to grow up to 12 marijuana plants or buy 2.5 ounces of marijuana to relieve their symptoms. The law, which also drew override approval from the Senate last year, requires them to register with the state and get a photo identification card. [continues 687 words]
PROVIDENCE - For about half his life, Warren Dolbashian has been a criminal. The 34-year-old Cranston man has been smoking marijuana since he was 17 to combat symptoms of Tourette's syndrome. Pot greatly eased the violent tics associated with this neuropsychiatric disorder. Dolbashian found it worked better than the pharmaceuticals prescribed by his doctors. "Something must be working because I'm standing here and there are no tics," a smiling Dolbashian said Tuesday standing in a Statehouse hearing room. [continues 680 words]
Rhode Island on Tuesday became the 11th state to legalize medical marijuana and the first since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that patients who use the drug can still be prosecuted under federal law. The House overrode a veto by Gov. Don Carcieri, 59-13, allowing people with illnesses such as cancer and AIDS to grow up to 12 marijuana plants or buy 2.5 ounces of marijuana to relieve their symptoms. Those who do are required to register with the state and get an identification card. The U.S. high court ruled June 6 that people who smoke marijuana because their doctors recommend it can still be prosecuted under federal drug laws. Federal authorities, however, have conceded they are unlikely to prosecute many medicinal-marijuana users. [end]
PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND -- Rhode Island on Tuesday became the 11th state to legalize medical marijuana and the first since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that patients who use the drug can still be prosecuted under federal law. The House overrode a veto by Gov. Donald Carcieri, 59-13, allowing people with illnesses such as cancer and AIDS to grow up to 12 marijuana plants or buy 2.5 ounces of marijuana to relieve their symptoms. Federal law prohibits its use, but Maine, Vermont, Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Montana, Nevada, Oregon and Washington allow it to be grown and used for medical purposes. [end]
PROVIDENCE -- Rhode Island became the 11th state yesterday to legalize medical marijuana and the first since the US Supreme Court ruled in June that patients who use the drug can still be prosecuted under federal law. House lawmakers voted 59 to 13 to override a veto by Governor Don Carcieri, allowing people with illnesses such as cancer and AIDS to grow up to 12 marijuana plants or buy 2 1/2 ounces of marijuana to relieve their symptoms. The law requires them to register with the state and get a photo identification card. [continues 70 words]
House Speaker William J. Murphy Welcomes the Legislators Back into Session by Urging Them to Work Together and Put Petty Politics Aside. PROVIDENCE -- Rhode Island became the 11th state yesterday to allow the use of marijuana to ease the pain of people suffering from serious and chronic illnesses such as AIDS and cancer. Patients whose doctors or caregivers recommend marijuana will soon be able to possess up to 12 plants, or 2.5 ounces of marijuana. The new law protects them from arrest under state law, but does nothing to stop federal prosecution, leaving some critics to call the measure nothing more than a symbolic act. [continues 1279 words]
The Law Doesn't Say Where the Marijuana Will Come From, but It's Understood That It Will Be Obtained Illegally From Drug Dealers, or Grown From Seeds Obtained Illegally. The medical marijuana law that passed yesterday allows doctors to recommend that patients obtain from illegal sources a drug of unknown potency and unknown purity. This is not how doctors normally prescribe treatment. But if the longstanding support of the Rhode Island Medical Society is any indication, many are willing to go this route -- because of the potential benefits to patients who can't get relief from pain, nausea, muscle spasms and other problems. [continues 966 words]
PROVIDENCE, R.I. --Rhode Island on Tuesday became the 11th state to legalize medical marijuana and the first since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that patients who use the drug can still be prosecuted under federal law. House lawmakers voted 59-13 to override a veto by Gov. Don Carcieri, allowing people with illnesses such as cancer and AIDS to grow up to 12 marijuana plants or buy 2.5 ounces of marijuana to relieve their symptoms. The law requires them to register with the state and get a photo identification card. [continues 452 words]
PROVIDENCE -- Giving proof to Yogi Berra's adage that "it ain't over 'til it's over," the 2005 House of Representatives will meet one last time at the start of the new year to complete the override of Gov. Donald Carcieri's veto of a medical marijuana bill. House Speaker William Murphy will gavel the 2005 session to order one last time at 2 p.m. next Tuesday for the override and formal adjournment of the session, which closes out all business from last year. Then the 2006 session will convene at 4 p.m. [continues 422 words]
The House of Representatives is expected to meet early Tuesday, the first day of the 2006 legislative session, to override the governor's veto of medical marijuana legislation. Last year, both the House and Senate overwhelmingly approved the legislation, but Gov. Donald L. Carcieri vetoed the bill. The Senate easily overrode the veto before the legislature recessed for the year. House leaders said at the time that they expected the General Assembly to return sometime in September to consider several of the governor's vetoes, but it never did. [continues 340 words]
To The Editor As the executive director of AIDS Project Rhode Island, the state's oldest provider of HIV care, prevention and advocacy, and on behalf of the thousands of Rhode Islanders living with HIV/AIDS on whose behalf we advocate, I urge the Rhode Island House of Representatives to take up the Rhode Island Medical Marijuana bill as their first order of business on Jan. 3 and to join the state Senate in overriding the governor's misguided veto of this sensible, humane bill [continues 211 words]
PROVIDENCE -- Billboards are usually intended to spread a message to a broad array of people - the thousands or tens of thousands who drive past on a highway or other busy road, for instance. The billboard at Orms and State streets, however, has a target audience of just 75: the membership of the House of Representatives, which meets at the Statehouse just a block away starting next month. It was erected by a group that wants the House to override Gov. Donald Carcieri's veto of the medical marijuana bill passed by the General Assembly earlier this year. Unlike its splashier, more colorful cousins, the message put up on the roadside sign by the RI Patient Advocacy Coalition consists of three stark lines of type on a plain white background. It says: "Protect medical marijuana patients ... Don't leave us out in the cold ... Override the governor's veto!" [continues 509 words]
The Marijuana Policy Project is stepping up its efforts to get the General Assembly to enact a law allowing the use of marijuana to ease the pain of people with serious illnesses. The General Assembly passed such a measure this past session, but it was vetoed by Governor Carcieri . The Senate voted to override Carcieri's veto in June, but the House never dealt with the issue. Today, the Marijuana Policy Project will unveil a billboard at the corner of Orms and State street in Providence, urging the House to override the veto. [continues 121 words]
Some Parents And School Board Members Say The Movie's Themes Of Drug Addiction And Homosexuality Are Inappropriate And Lack Educational Value GLOCESTER -- A planned field trip for Ponaganset High School ninth-graders on Monday to see the movie Rent has sparked a protest by some parents and School Committee members who challenge its content -- drug addiction and homosexuality -- and its educational value. The movie, rated PG-13, is based on one of the longest running shows on Broadway, which won the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and four Tony awards, among other honors. [continues 691 words]
Tempers Flared During a Speech by Conservative Speaker David Horowitz Last Night in the Memorial Union Ballroom. 11/30/05 - Sometimes rowdy but mostly calm, University of Rhode Island NAACP and Uhuru SaSa student members last night filled the rear of the Memorial Union Ballroom in protest of conservative speaker David Horowitz. The protesters - peaking at about 125, police estimated - stood in silence during the speech, turned their backs to Horowitz during a standing applause and participated in a question and answer session. [continues 658 words]
Despite widespread recognition that mandatory minimums is bad policy, the politics of being 'tough on crime' precludes a more rational approach to sentencing As a twenty-something federal prosecutor in Washington DC, during the crack epidemic in the late '80s, David M. Zlotnick realized that mandatory minimum sentences gave him more discretion than judges who had been on the bench for decades. Since the US attorney's office had the resources, it "prosecuted every five-gram crack-cocaine case." Zlotnick recalls how the poor black kids caught with these small quantities received "sentences of 10 to 15 years, as if they were kingpins of some sort, which seemed absurd to me.O Cases involving similar amounts of powder cocaine, which disproportionately involved white defendants, got far less scrutiny. [continues 3819 words]
A Fatal Overdose From A Prescription Pain Patch Leads To A Murder Charge In Westerly Last spring, 48-year-old Elfreida Cook, diagnosed with colon cancer and awaiting surgery, was using a powerful prescription pain killer, a fentanyl patch, which, once it is applied to the skin, slowly delivers, over the course of three days, a medicine that can be 100 times more potent than morphine. When some of the patches disappeared from her home on Bowling Lane, one side of a decrepit duplex in the old mill village of Bradford, on the rural outskirts of Westerly, she went downtown to the police station to report them stolen, according to her niece, Derlyn Scott. [continues 1481 words]
PROVIDENCE - Some Brown University students joined others across the country Thursday to protest a federal law denying college financial aid to applicants convicted of drug offenses. The Higher Education Act is up for reauthorization this year, and both the House and Senate have proposed legislation loosening, but not eliminating, the ban on federal aid for drug offenders. Wearing graduation gowns and standing before cardboard jail bars, six members of Students for Sensible Drug Policy handed out fliers and urged passers-by on the Brown Campus to tell their senators and representatives to vote against the ban. [continues 318 words]
To the Editor: I'm writing in response to Jesse Adams' outstanding opinions column "Against the tide of DARE's misinformation" (Oct. 11). Common sense tells us that the DARE program should deter our youth from using illegal drugs. But it doesn't. DARE graduates are more likely to use illegal drugs - not less. Common sense tells us that the Earth is the center of the universe and our solar system. But it's not. Common sense tells us that prohibiting a product should substantially reduce the use of the product that's prohibited. [continues 111 words]
I heard it for the first time in first grade and then again every single year from the fourth grade to the end of high school: "Drugs are bad. Drugs are addictive and destroy your life. Drugs will kill you." Considering that this message came from my kindly neighborhood police officer, the guidance counselor with the never-ending supply of Tootsie Roll Pops and eventually my high school's endearingly dim-witted football coach, I was at first inclined to believe their obviously well-intentioned warnings. But over time, just like thousands of kids who have endured the DARE program, my peers and I became jaded and cynical. [continues 540 words]
10/12/05 - To the Cigar, As college students around the country prepare for this semester's midterms, thousands of their would-be classmates don't have anything to study for because of a federal law that strips financial aid from people with drug convictions. The policy is currently being reconsidered as Congress renews the Higher Education Act (HEA) for the first time in seven years. While the HEA was originally enacted in 1965 to make higher education more accessible and affordable for all Americans, the Drug Provision - added during the 1998 HEA reauthorization - is an unjustifiable roadblock in the path to college. [continues 671 words]
We have many misgivings about the so-called war on drugs. But as long as it is being prosecuted, it should not hurt the drug-taking poor more than the drug-taking rich. Almost every statistic on the subject says that this is the case. One of the most sordid examples of the unequal treatment is the law that withdraws federal financial aid from students with drug convictions. Because such aid goes mainly to low-income students, the law hits them far harder than their well-to-do classmates. Aid has so far been pulled from 175,000 students, no doubt ending a college education for many people who needed it. [continues 277 words]
To the Cigar, The so-called "tough on drugs" policies don't work. They never have and they never will. I'd like to add that if tough-on-drugs policies worked, the quixotic goal of a drug free America would have been reached a long time ago. And if tolerant drug policies created more drug use, the Netherlands would have much higher drug usage rates than the United States. They do not. In fact, the Dutch use marijuana and other recreational drugs at much lower rates than Americans do. See the web site at http://www.drugwar-facts.org/thenethe.htm. [continues 151 words]
DURING the 2000 presidential campaign, George W. Bush was asked whether he had ever tried cocaine. His answer was that he hadn't used drugs for 25 years. I take that as a "Yes." That same year, Lincoln Chafee was running for the U.S. Senate from Rhode Island and was asked the same question. He gave a more forthright response, admitting that he had sniffed coke while a student at Brown University. Possession of cocaine, a felony, did not interfere with either politician's Ivy League education. Nor did it stop them from seeking and attaining high public office. Today, taxpayers cover both men's salaries and health-care costs, and will eventually provide their government pensions. All, apparently, is forgiven. [continues 615 words]
M.J. Andersen's Aug. 26 column ("U.S. drug policy a childish pursuit") was right on target. While local governments are struggling with a methamphetamine epidemic, the Office of National Drug Control Policy is spending millions on a Reefer Madness-revisited ad campaign. This reflects a bizarre sense of priorities. A National Association of Counties survey found that the vast majority of county officials report that methamphetamine is the biggest drug problem. Local law enforcement is where the rubber meets the road -- these are the public-safety professionals who deal with drug offenses on a daily basis, and it's not marijuana that concerns them, but, rather, meth. [continues 137 words]
THE FIRST FULL-LENGTH RESEARCH REPORT I wrote, as a sixth-grader, was about drugs. Who knows what materials instructed me. All I remember is that they scared me stiff. I penned a horrified summation, then made a lurid red cover illustrating the varieties of chemical damnation (I was artistic in those days). I was rewarded with an A. A better report would have been about the luck that came with my birth. I could read spine-tingling tales of what heroin would do to your brain, then go home to supper and two responsible parents. It would have been tough, in those days, to find any drug stronger than whiskey in my small Midwestern town. [continues 748 words]
To the editor: Can't the police find more important things to do than overvalue a small pot find. Seems the police love to enforce nonviolent crimes because there's less threat to themselves. I wish I could pick and choose what I want to do in my job. The only reason pot is a problem is because our government deemed it evil - -- which drives up the cost. As long as there is a large profit to be made from it, the criminal element will never go away. And our government can keep sucking your taxes to combat it. I say ban hard liquor. Guess our drunken elected officials will never stand for that. Rick Caron Portsmouth [end]
I'm writing about your outstanding July 11 editorial, "The dubious drug war." If Plan Colombia had exceeded all expectations and eliminated all the cocaine in Colombia, it would still not have affected the supply of cocaine - -- or any other drug -- reaching the United States. As long as people want recreational drugs and will pay a substantial price for them, someone will produce the drugs and someone else will get them to the buyers. We cannot keep illegal drugs out of our highest-security prisons, so how can we expect to keep them out of our country -- with its thousands of miles of coastline and international border? Mesa, Ariz [end]
Rhonda O'Donnell's July 21 letter "I'm waiting (in pain) for pot to be legalized" strikes a chord with many of us with Multiple Sclerosis (MS). It took me a while (about two years) to finally throw caution to the wind and try marijuana regardless of what the law dictates. The excruciating pains in my legs, as well as other common MS symptoms, are far less severe and even tolerable when I use marijuana. If my being able to enjoy the quality of life I had before MS means I am a criminal, then so be it. There are too many people, like Rhonda, that are courageously enduring pain everyday while waiting for marijuana to be legalized for medicinal use in Rhode Island. [continues 100 words]
Regarding "Stop the border violence," by Jerry Brewer (Commentary, July 27): Our drug policies create the black market that triggers all this violence. Ending prohibition is the answer. If Texas Atty. Gen. Greg Abbott were sincere in his statement "We want to do everything we can to eliminate violence . . . and keep residents of Laredo and Nuevo Laredo as safe as possible," he would join LEAP: Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. Our poor drug policy causes more violence, pain, suffering and death than the drugs themselves. Constitutional policy would be about truth, not moral judgment. It would concentrate on harm reduction, and preservation of the family, if at all possible. Current policy is destroying families and all that America once stood for. Support for the federal war on drugs is inconsistent with support for individual freedom, constitutional government, and the teachings of Jesus. Leaders responsible for promoting our present nonsensical policy will have to answer to a higher power for their crimes against humanity. Colleen Minter Stephenville, Texas [end]
The May 19 Commentary piece by Jeremiah S. Jeremiah, chief judge of the Rhode Island Family Court, ("R.I. medical-marijuana bill's problems") tells it like it is. This was a poor bill, which should not have been be passed. [It has been vetoed; override vote not yet taken. As an infectious-disease physician who has cared for patients with HIV and AIDS for over 15 years, I have often prescribed the active ingredient in marijuana in the form of a pill called Marinol, which can be effective in decreasing nausea. Many of the medical benefits of marijuana are available through currently available prescription use. [continues 99 words]
The "war on drugs" today is mostly about marijuana ("The marijuana ruling," editorial, June 9). Marijuana arrests, convictions and incarcerations and the seizure of property in marijuana cases constitute the great majority of "drug-war incidents." Without marijuana prohibition, the drug war and its bloated budget would not be justifiable -- nor would the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, foreign intervention, or political anti-drug posturing. Without marijuana prohibition, the whole "war on drugs" would fall apart. America is in the throes of an addiction, to be sure. But it is to the prohibition of drugs, much more than to the use of drugs. Enormous and wildly increasing budgets are squandered on ever-higher doses of the drug-prohibition habit. Vehement denials are heard that the prohibition habit is the problem, along with pronouncements that one more big fix of "enforcement and interdiction" will solve the drug problem. In great fear of withdrawal, the addict will commit any disgrace, deception, double-think or crime to get a fix. Drug prohibition has become the monkey on the back of democracy itself. Lisbon, N.Y. [end]
The July 18 Commentary piece by Joyce Nalepka ("Don't swallow drug legalizers' lies") completely ignored the real issue with Rhode Island's proposed medical-marijuana law: Should seriously ill people be put in jail for using marijuana under the advice of a physician? I suffer from rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn's disease, and I have tried other treatments. For the past 3 1/2 years, I have treated Crohn's with maximum allowable doses of Percocet. But long-term usage of Percocet leads to liver disease, and could eventually kill me. Sadly, my doctors tell me that I have already exhausted every legal medication for Crohn's. [continues 108 words]
Rhode Islanders spend about $20 million each year to enforce state and local marijuana laws. What are these taxpayers getting for their money? Not much, according to a recent study. Jon B. Gettman, a senior fellow at George Mason University's School of Public Policy, prepared the study, titled, "Crimes of Indiscretion: Marijuana Arrests in the United States," for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. "Marijuana arrests," says Gettman, "are instruments of a supply-reduction policy." But, he adds, "The doubling of marijuana arrests in the 1990s has produced the opposite of the intended effect in every major indicator. An increase in arrests should produce a reduction in use and the availability of marijuana. However, during the 1990s, both use and availability of marijuana increased." [continues 559 words]
As a patient who might benefit from the medical-marijuana bill, I was shocked by Joyce Nalepka's July 17 Commentary piece, "Don't swallow drug legalizers' lies." I am not a "self-absorbed admitted drug-using adult," as Nalepka described supporters of the bill. I have multiple sclerosis (MS), but have not tried marijuana to see if it will help alleviate the stiffness and burning pain in my legs that I experience every day. I am waiting for it to be legal, so I don't have to break the law and risk arrest and jail. [continues 180 words]
The Rhode Island General Assembly is one step away from making the Ocean State the eleventh U.S. state to legalize the medical use of marijuana by the chronically ill. After the House voted 52-10 in favor of the bill on June 22, Republican Gov. Donald Carcieri '65 vetoed the legislation, prompting a Senate override vote of 28-6 only four days later. The bill now awaits a House override vote in September before being made law. Carcieri's veto was expected and presented no serious challenges to the success of the legislation, said the bill's lead House sponsor, Rep. Tom Slater, D-Providence. [continues 659 words]
SILVER SPRING, Md. -- I REMEMBER when illegal-drug horror stories, such as those that follow, were unheard of, or reported only in scandal-sheet papers at the checkout counter. Today, they're on the front page of our hometown newspapers. I think much of the blame belongs to uninformed or paid-off legislators, who have allowed public opinion to be twisted into forgetting what really happens when we let our guard down and don't teach disdain for illicit-drug use. [continues 683 words]
'Criminalizing Sick' Is Wrong, Says McHugh Rhode Island is one step closer to the legalization of medical marijuana, after the Senate overrode Gov. Donald L. Carcieri's veto of the bill that would decriminalize marijuana for medical purposes. Ten states -- Maine, Vermont, Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Montana, Nevada, Oregon and Washington -- have laws allowing medical use of marijuana. A recent Zogby poll indicated that 69 percent of Rhode Islanders favor the measure. Both the House and Senate submitted versions of the bill, and both were vetoed by Carcieri. The Senate overrode the veto on its own bill last month. At the time of this writing, the House had not yet met to override the veto of either version, but that action was expected. [continues 434 words]
The pain and vast waste of the endless U.S. battle against the Latin American drug trade continues. Although the U.S. has spent at least $5.4 billion on its Andean Antidrug Initiative since 2000, the supply of cocaine and heroin on U.S. streets remains plentiful and prices low. Meanwhile, we continue to poison poor peasants' countryside with herbicides, and civil war continues in Colombia, the heart of our theological and unwinnable foreign "war on drugs." While U.S. and Colombian officials assert that violence related to drug trafficking has fallen sharply in Colombia, cocaine output has soared in Peru and Bolivia, as peasants there try to survive by growing coca -- their one reliable cash crop. [continues 276 words]
ON JUNE 6, the Supreme Court ruled that the federal government may continue arresting patients for using medical marijuana in compliance with state medical-marijuana laws. But the court did not overturn state medical-marijuana laws or in any way interfere with their continued operation. In its ruling, the Supreme Court indicated that Congress -- not the court -- must be the institution to change federal law to protect AIDS, cancer and other medical-marijuana patients from arrest. Last month, Congress got the chance, but decided not to change policy. [continues 626 words]
PROVIDENCE -- Rhode Islanders sympathize with seriously ill people who want to use marijuana to ease their symptoms, but not child-care providers who are seeking to unionize. Those are some of the results of a recent poll by Brown University Professor Darrell West, who also found a tight early race for U.S. Senate between incumbent Republican Lincoln Chafee and Democratic challenger Sheldon Whitehouse. He also found Republican Gov. Donald Carcieri maintaining a comfortable lead in his re-election bid over Democratic Lt. Gov. Charles Fogarty. [continues 652 words]
PROVIDENCE -- Rhode Islanders sympathize with seriously ill people who want to use marijuana to ease their symptoms, but not child-care providers who are seeking to unionize. Those are some of the results of a recent poll by Brown University Professor Darrell West, who also found a tight early race for U.S. Senate between incumbent Republican Lincoln Chafee and Democratic challenger Sheldon Whitehouse with Republican Gov. Donald Carcieri maintaining a comfortable lead in his re-election bid over Democratic Lt. Gov. Charles Fogarty. [continues 780 words]
Despite resounding House and Senate votes in favor of legalizing medical marijuana, a spokesman for Governor Donald L. Carcieri maintains that the governor will veto the legislation. Some observers, though, citing the widespread support, question whether Carcieri may quietly let the measure become law. For his part, the governor has been somewhat ambiguous in comments to the press, professing a "wait and see" approach. The breadth of support for medical marijuana in Rhode Island can be seen in the large number of legislative cosponsors, including House Minority Leader Robert Watson (R-East Greenwich), a Republican stalwart, and backing from such groups as the Rhode Island Medical Society and the Rhode Island State Nurses Association. "The support is all over the state right now," says state Representative Thomas Slater (D-Providence), the bill's chief House backer. "There's great concern about the compassion for those people who are elderly and those people who are on their last legs, so to say." Similarly, Watson says testimony from patients and their family members led many more people to support the bill than in the past. [continues 247 words]
If the state House of Representatives joins the state Senate and overturns the governor's veto of medical marijuana legislation it will represent a triumph of compassion and reason over indifference and ignorance. When Gov. Donald L. Carceiri vetoed the measure - overwhelmingly approved in both legislative chambers - he cited a host of reasons, including the following, some of which left people scratching their heads. - - "Marijuana is an addictive narcotic." C'mon, that sounds like something out of the 1960s, when ignorance of marijuana had paranoid people comparing it to heroin. That ludicrous idea sent those smoking pot into gales of laughter and had the side effect of negating those spouting such tripe of any shred of credibility. I have never known anyone - and I've known plenty of people who smoked pot regularly for years - who became "addicted" to marijuana. Most of those I knew from my younger days have long since moved on to legal - and probably more addictive - highs of liquor. [continues 713 words]
The regular session is over. But the General Assembly could be called back to vote on several gambling matters. PROVIDENCE -- The General Assembly headed into the start of a summer recess just before 1:30 a.m. yesterday, finishing a session that may well be known as the year officials agreed to overhaul the state's public-employee pension system. Other notable votes this year by lawmakers included the approval of medical marijuana, new regulations to oversee the finances of nursing homes, and the resurrection of a planned phase-out of the state's much-hated car tax. [continues 1814 words]
PROVIDENCE - The Senate voted Thursday to override the governor's veto of a bill allowing the seriously ill to use marijuana. If the House overrides the veto as well, Rhode Island would become the 11th state to permit medical marijuana use. The proposed legislation protects from prosecution those advised by a doctor that marijuana could help them with chronic pain or other medical problems. Patients licensed by the state would be permitted to have up to 12 marijuana plants or 2 1/2 ounces of usable marijuana. [continues 131 words]
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- A bill that would allow patients with serious diseases to smoke and grow marijuana continued its advance through the General Assembly, winning overwhelming support from House lawmakers last week. Qualifying patients suffering from diseases like cancer, AIDS and Hepatitis C would be shielded from arrest and prosecution under the bill, which passed 52-10. Their doctors and physicians also would be protected. Rhode Island would become the 11th state to authorize the medical use of marijuana, according to the legislation. If approved, the bill could put the state at odds with the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled earlier this month that medical marijuana users can be prosecuted under federal law even if their home states allow use of the drug. Under the bill, patients would be able to possess up to 12 marijuana plants or 2 1/2 ounces of usable marijuana under the legislation. [end]
Inside Rhode Island
