Maine voters may get to decide medical marijuana dispensary issue
Friday, April 17th, 2009 at 3:20 pm | By: Radical Russ
AUGUSTA, Maine – Maine’s current law that allows use of marijuana for medical purposes isn’t working, said leaders of a petition effort to allow state-licensed facilities to sell the drug.
“The way it is now is patients have to make their own determination how they are going to access their medicine,” said Jonathan Leavitt of Maine Citizens for Patient Rights, the group that organized the petition drive. “There is essentially no legal way to buy it.” The proposed law would direct the Maine Department of Health and Human Services to issue identification cards to qualifying patients. It would also allow nonprofit dispensaries licensed by the agency to provide marijuana to those patients.
Mainers in 1999 overwhelmingly approved the existing law to allow residents to possess marijuana for medical use with a doctor’s recommendation. Patients are allowed to keep up to 2 1/2 ounces of marijuana and up to six marijuana plants.
“The reality is that patients are not equipped to do that,” Leavitt told the Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee. “And landlords and people that own property are hesitant because of the law enforcement issues to allow that. So essentially, people access it through the black market.”
If lawmakers don’t enact the bill, the proposal automatically goes to a statewide vote because supporters collected more than the 55,087 signatures needed to put it on the November ballot. All told, the proposal’s supporters collected 80,000 signatures, Leavitt said.
Jonathan Leavitt will join us next week on the Stash to discuss this proposal. I’m always amused by legislators who are supportive of medical marijuana but dismissive of dispensaries. We support your right to use medicine, but not to get any. In a sense, every legislator who votes for medical marijuana without supporting a dispensary system for it is essentially voting for subsidies and state endorsement of black market marijuana dealers.
Topics: Augusta, dispensaries, Jonathan Leavitt, Maine
I had a revelation of sorts last night….In a country that has found a medical use for botulism (botox) how can the government continue to claim marijuana has NO medical uses, the whole thing just became even more absurd.