WOONSOCKET -- Sometimes painted as the Molly Hatchet of the Rhode Island medical marijuana movement, putting the axe to the state's three proposed compassion centers before they had a chance to open, U.S. Attorney Peter Neronha says he just wants to make sure everyone knows where his office stands on the issue so there will be "no surprises" when, and if, a dispensary opens up. Gov. Lincoln Chafee put the licensing of three compassion centers that had gone through two lengthy Department of Health application processes on hold after receiving a letter from Neronha saying the centers could be subject to raids and their employees subject to prosecution. [continues 1053 words]
PROVIDENCE - While a special Senate commission continues studying the prohibition of marijuana and perhaps a Massachusetts-style decriminalization of the drug, two House members have submitted legislation to tighten up the state's medical marijuana law. The Senate commission, chaired by Sen. Joshua Miller, will meet Wednesday at 5 p.m. to hear from Rhode Island Public Defender John J. Hardiman, Esq.; Jack Cole of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition; a representative of the Massachusetts Police Chiefs Association; and commission member Joe Osediacz, a retired state trooper. Osediacz will discuss state laws concerning the taxation of marijuana. [continues 678 words]
PROVIDENCE - Following the lead of the Senate, the House of Representatives Wednesday approved by a lopsided majority a bill approving the establishment of a non-profit "compassion center" to distribute medical marijuana to authorized patients. After just over 10 minutes of debate the House voted 63-5 to pass the bill introduced by Providence Rep. Thomas Slater. A companion bill passed in the Senate last month on a 35-2 vote. Before the measure can become law, the House must pass the Senate version of the bill and/or the Senate must pass the House version of the bill and send it to Gov. Donald Carcieri who, according to his spokeswoman, is "expected to veto it." [continues 636 words]
PROVIDENCE - Without committing to bringing the bill out of the House Health Education and Welfare Committee that he chairs, Warwick Rep. Joseph McNamara said he looks more kindly this year toward a bill that would establish state-authorized dispensaries to distribute medical marijuana. The Senate passed legislation last year to create the "compassion centers," but the House HEW committee, upon McNamara's recommendation, amended the bill to establish a commission to study the issue. The amended bill passed the House and Senate but was vetoed by Gov. Donald Carcieri. [continues 934 words]
PROVIDENCE -- The General Assembly's rush to adjournment took a pause, as legislators in both the Senate and House of Representatives called it a night on Friday and took the unusual step of reconvening on Saturday morning to wrap-up the legislative session. Here are some of the highlights of the end-of-session lawmaking blitz: Efforts to establish "compassion centers" where registered medical marijuana users could obtain the drug without dealing on the sometimes dangerous black market failed, but a joint House and Senate resolution was passed to create a study commission that will spend the legislative off-season evaluating the idea. [continues 276 words]
PROVIDENCE - A bill to create "compassion centers" to dispense medical marijuana that appeared headed for passage in the Senate was derailed at the last minute by an amendment that would have forbidden smoking the drug in cars or where children are present. When the oral amendment offered by Sen. Leo Blais passed on a vote of 18-16, the sponsor of the original bill, Sen. Rhoda Perry, moved to have the measure sent back to the committee she chairs for a second try at having the bill pass without the amendment. [continues 815 words]
PROVIDENCE - Standing firm on his veto threat despite an almost certain override in both chambers of the General Assembly, Gov. Donald Carcieri Monday rejected legislation to make Rhode Island's medical marijuana law permanent. In identical veto messages to House Speaker William Murphy and Senate President Joseph Montalbano, Carcieri said: "If enacted, this legislation will enable qualified persons to acquire, possess, cultivate, manufacture, use, deliver, transfer or transport marijuana or paraphernalia relating to the consumption of marijuana" for problems ranging from cancer to unspecified pain. [continues 538 words]
PROVIDENCE - Following in the footsteps of Wednesday's House vote, the Senate approved legislation Thursday to make the state's medical marijuana law permanent. The vote was 28-5, far exceeding the three-fifths vote required to survive the veto Gov. Donald Carcieri says is likely to come. The law that protects from arrest or prosecution patients who suffer from a debilitating medical condition as certified by a physician and one or two "caregivers" who help them procure, grow or use the drug, was passed over the governor's veto in January, 2006, it is set to expire on June 30 unless a so-called "sunset clause" is eliminated. The now-identical measures that passed the House and Senate this week do just that. Under General Assembly procedure, the House bill will now go to the Senate for passage and the Senate bill will go to the House. [continues 765 words]
PROVIDENCE - By a vote of 49-12, more than enough to override an expected veto, the House of Representatives Wednesday approved making Rhode Island's medical marijuana law permanent, with a few minor amendments. The Senate is scheduled to take up an identical bill today and leaders say it is expected to pass easily in that chamber as well. At a Statehouse news conference Wednesday, Gov. Donald Carcieri, who vetoed the original legislation two years ago, repeated his opposition and suggested another veto is likely. "It's illegal," Carcieri said in response to a question, "the Supreme Court has ruled it is illegal. [continues 442 words]
PROVIDENCE - Leaders of both the House and Senate say bills to extend the life of Rhode Island's medical marijuana law will likely pass this week, probably with enough votes to withstand a veto by Gov. Donald Carcieri. It could come to that, as the Carcieri administration has signaled it would veto the measure if it passes in its current form. Rhode Island became the 11th state to permit the possession of small amounts of marijuana for medical purposes by people with debilitating, chronic medical conditions such as cancer, AIDS and multiple sclerosis that have been certified by a physician when the House passed a bill over the governor's veto in the first days of 2006. The Senate had voted to override the veto several months earlier. [continues 782 words]
PROVIDENCE - It might be time for America, and perhaps the rest of the world, to assess its drug laws to see if they are working, former Sen. Lincoln Chafee told a regional drug policy conference at Brown University Friday. With elected leaders of some South American nations talking about legitimizing the sale of their countries' coca crops and the cultivation of opium-producing poppies "exploding" in places like Afghanistan, generating money that is funneled to terrorism and prompting poppy growers to assemble their own private militias, Chafee said at the end of his presentation it may be time for a United Nations summit on the issue. [continues 590 words]
PROVIDENCE -- "The sky has definitely not fallen" as a result of Rhode Island's law permitting the use of medical marijuana by gravely ill patients, said Sen. Rhoda Perry. "It's gone exactly as we expected," she said. "A relatively small number of people, for whom more traditional pain treatment hasn't been effective, have been referred by their physician and have used the program successfully to relieve their pain. It has worked virtually without incident and has proven to be an effective program that doesn't promote abuse. [continues 516 words]
Confessing that he has no memory of an early-morning car crash on Thursday or its controversial aftermath, Rep. Patrick Kennedy announced Friday that he is returning to Minnesota's Mayo Clinic for treatment of a prescription drug addiction. "I've been fighting this chronic disease since I was a young man," Kennedy acknowledged Friday, reading a prepared statement in the House Radio and Television Office. "I struggle every day with this disease, as do millions of Americans." Kennedy acknowledged publicly for the first time that last Christmas he had checked in to the Mayo Clinic for treatment of addiction to prescription pain medication and stayed there through the congressional recess. [continues 1004 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 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 -- 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]
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]
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]
PROVIDENCE -- Saying he believes it will encourage more marijuana use, Gov. Donald Carcieri made good Wednesday on his threat to veto the medical marijuana bill. At the same time, Carcieri also struck down a bill that would have increased the state's minimum wage by just under 10 percent in two years. "This bill will make marijuana more available to children in Rhode Island," the governor said in a three-page veto message. "The amount of marijuana this bill authorizes is staggering." [continues 908 words]
