RI Senate sends medical marijuana bill back to committee
Eyewitness News WPRI / FOX Providence - Providence, Rhode Island News, Weather, Traffic and Sports | Senate sends medical marijuana bill back to committee
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - A bill expanding Rhode Island’s medical marijuana program hits a roadblock in the General Assembly.The Senate voted 33-2 yesterday to send the proposal back to committee. The bill would allow up to three nonprofit stores in the state to sell marijuana to patients enrolled in Rhode Island’s medical marijuana program.
The state allows patients to possess marijuana for pain relief, but the drug is still illegal under federal law.
Senator Rhoda Perry, the bill’s sponsor, asked the Senate to halt the bill after it was amended to ban patients from smoking marijuana in motor vehicles or in front of other people.
Perry says the amendment insults chronically ill patients who use marijuana for pain relief.
Perhaps there is an argument to be made for preventing the use of medical marijuana in a motor vehicle. NORML always cautions against smoking and driving, and even if the patient isn’t the person driving, I can see how it would be important from a law enforcement and public safety perspective to prevent any marijuana smoking in a car.
The offensive part is not being allowed to smoke “in front of other people”. That’s far too broad a wording; here in Oregon, patients aren’t allowed to medicate “in public view”. But “in front of other people” could be the patient’s own friends or family in their own private residence or a hospital or a hospice. It is an insult, because it treats marijuana smoking as if it is a shameful act that must be hidden from other. We don’t require people on Vicodin, Percocet, or OxyContin to swallow their pills without anyone present, why would we require the same of medical cannabis?
Tags: dispensaries, Rhode Island
