R.I. lawmakers consider allowing medical marijuana stores

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PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) – Nonprofit businesses would be allowed to sell marijuana to chronically ill patients under proposals Rhode Island lawmakers are expected to consider this week.

The bills would allow so-called “compassion centers” to sell up to 2.5 ounces of the drug every 15 days to a patient or his caregiver if they are enrolled in an existing medical marijuana program overseen by the state Health Department. Rhode Island became the eleventh state in the country in 2006 to legalize marijuana for medical purposes, although the drug remains illegal under federal law.

And the state law contains a major flaw: it never explains how patients can buy marijuana, since dealing it remains a crime in Rhode Island. Opening distribution centers would eliminate the need for patients to meet with violent drug dealers or travel through areas plagued by drug-related crime, said Rep. Thomas Slater, who sponsored the latest measure. His bill would allow a maximum of three distribution sites in the state.

“I think it would be a safe place, an area they could get (marijuana) without a problem,” he said. The House Committee on Health, Education and Welfare was expected to hear testimony on Slater’s bill Tuesday, although a vote was not expected, said Larry Berman, a spokesman for House Speaker William Murphy.

A Senate committee was scheduled to vote on a similar bill Wednesday. The bill is likely to face opposition. Gov. Don Carcieri, a Republican, has repeatedly vetoed bills creating the state’s medical marijuana program because it violates federal law. He would also veto any expansion of the program, Carcieri spokesman Jeff Neal said.

Lawmakers in the Democratic-dominated General Assembly have always overridden Carcieri’s vetoes. Opening marijuana distribution centers in Rhode Island could also attract unwanted attention from federal law enforcement authorities, Slater said. Federal agents have not targeted patients for enrolling in Rhode Island’s medical marijuana program, saying they focus on upper-level drug dealers.

But the Drug Enforcement Administration did raid about two dozen marijuana dispensaries in the Los Angeles area last year. The centers were designed to serve patients seeking marijuana for pain relief. A DEA spokesman in Boston did not immediately return a call seeking comment.