Pubdate: Sun, 08 May 2011
Source: Providence Journal, The (RI)
Copyright: 2011 The Providence Journal Company
Contact:  http://www.projo.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/352
Author: Edward Fitzpatrick
Bookmark: http://mapinc.org/topic/Dispensaries

FEDS MIGHT SNUFF OUT DISPENSARIES

Some say Rhode Island is looking in the wrong places for new jobs and 
suspect state officials are pursuing a frat-based economy centered on 
video games, gambling and marijuana.

But you don't have to be former House Minority Leader Bob Watson to 
see that the drive to open three medical-marijuana dispensaries in 
Rhode Island has merit.

And the federal government doesn't need Navy SEAL Team 6 to hunt down 
the fact that Rhode Island has been planning to open those 
dispensaries for a couple of years now.

Yet on April 29, U.S. Attorney Peter F. Neronha sent Governor Chafee 
a letter threatening to prosecute civilly and/or criminally those 
involved in the three planned medical-marijuana dispensaries. After 
receiving the letter, Chafee "placed a hold" on the dispensary program.

At this point, Neronha's letter seems more than a bit tardy.

The letter comes after more than 150 people turned out for a daylong 
public hearing in February, voicing both support and opposition to 18 
applications under consideration by the Health Department.

The letter comes after the dispensary application process attracted 
big money and big names, including those of former URI and NBA 
basketball player Cuttino Mobley and former state Democratic Chairman 
William J. Lynch.

And the letter comes after Chafee factored $1.35 million in 
medical-marijuana revenue into his fiscal year 2012 budget proposal, 
including $802,659 from a 6-percent sales tax and $556,092 from a 
4-percent surcharge on gross monthly dispensary sales.

So why is the state only now getting a "heads up" from the U.S. 
Attorney's Office?

Spokesman Jim Martin said the state didn't announce its dispensary 
selections until March 15, and the U.S. Attorney's Office then needed 
time to review the applications and consult with Department of 
Justice officials in Washington, D.C.

"Until we had opportunity to know specifically the scale and scope of 
these tentatively approved grows, it would have been difficult for us 
to provide any information," he said. He noted Neronha did send the 
letter before the state issued certificates of registration to the 
dispensaries.

But isn't Neronha's message a departure from - or an outright 
reversal of - the message the Department of Justice delivered in 2009?

In a 2009 memo, Deputy Attorney General David W. Ogden said 
prosecutors should continue pursuing "significant traffickers of 
illegal drugs, including marijuana," but as a general rule, they 
shouldn't focus scarce federal resources "on individuals whose 
actions are in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state 
laws providing for the medical use of marijuana," such as those "with 
cancer or other serious illnesses."

The memo goes on to say that "this guidance regarding resource 
allocation does not 'legalize' marijuana" and complying with a state 
law doesn't provide a legal defense for violating a federal drug law. 
But at the time, Attorney General Eric Holder told the Associated 
Press: "The policy is to go after those people who violate both 
federal and state law."

Well, the proposed Rhode Island dispensaries would provide a 
centralized, state-regulated way for people with cancer and other 
serious illnesses to get marijuana, consistent with state law.

Steven Brown, executive director of the Rhode Island Affiliate of the 
American Civil Liberties Union, said, "One can't read the Ogden memo 
without coming to the conclusion that these dispensaries fit right 
within the protection that the memo provides."

But Martin said the federal government is not changing its tune.

"The DOJ [Department of Justice] position has been clear and 
consistent that we will not focus our resources on individual 
patients that have cancer, serious diseases, debilitating diseases. 
That's not what this office does," he said. "It's been very clearly 
articulated that the serious drug traffickers are the ones we have 
problems with, and when we looked at the scale and scope of these 
operations and the tentatively approved grows, that's where the 
concerns began to arise."

He acknowledged the dispensaries would be nonprofits, but he said 
they expect to take in substantial amounts of money within a short 
amount of time: For instance, one expects to net $16.5 million by its 
third year of operation.

At a State House rally, Dr. Seth Bock, chief executive officer of the 
proposed Greenleaf Compassionate Care Center, in Portsmouth, said, 
"We are not drug cartels hiding behind a veil of state law."

The ACLU's Brown said, "These dispensaries have gone through a 
lengthy, thorough and detailed vetting process by the state 
Department of Health, and the suggestion that Health Department is 
assisting drug traffickers by approving these dispensaries is absurd."

Vanderbilt Law School Prof. Robert A. Mikos, who studies federalism 
and drug law policy, said the "non-enforcement policy" announced in 
2009 was very limited, but the Obama administration "invited people 
to praise the change" and now it might be backing away from that 
change to head off full-scale legalization efforts. U.S. attorneys 
have written letters similar to Neronha's in California, Colorado and Montana.

JoAnne Leppanen, executive director of the Rhode Island Patient 
Advocacy Coalition, said Rhode Island wouldn't be like "the Wild 
West," where some states impose loose regulations and seem to have as 
many marijuana dispensaries as Starbucks shops. She said Rhode Island 
would have a limited, accountable system to serve people who in 
previous years might have lectured their children about marijuana but 
now find it's the only thing that helps them deal with afflictions 
like cancer, AIDS or Crohn's disease.

"We just want to work this out," Leppanen said. Let's hope there's a way.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom