Pubdate: Wed, 17 Oct 2012
Source: Morning Sentinel (Waterville, ME)
Copyright: 2012 MaineToday Media, Inc.
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/tLMIEnz1
Website: http://www.onlinesentinel.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1474
Author: Leslie Bridgers

MAINE STATE HOUSING AUTHORITY COMMISSIONERS LIFT POT BAN FOR 6 MONTHS

Tenants in subsidized housing can continue to use or grow medical 
marijuana in their homes for another six months, the Maine State 
Housing Authority's commissioners decided Tuesday.

The commissioners unanimously voted to put a 180-day moratorium on a 
policy it enacted last month banning the use, possession and 
cultivation of medical marijuana in housing subsidized through its 
Section 8 program.

Despite having decided the issue, which the board had been discussing 
since June, it allowed additional comments about the policy at its 
meeting Tuesday.

State Rep. Deborah Sanderson, R-Chelsea; Alysia Melnick, an attorney 
for the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine, and three 
caregivers, who are licensed to grow medical marijuana for patients, 
addressed the board, said Deborah Turcotte, spokeswoman for the Maine 
State Housing Authority.

She said the board enacted a moratorium in order to work with 
Sanderson and the ACLU of Maine to get more clarity from the U.S. 
Department of Housing and Urban Development about its position on 
medical marijuana users in federally subsidized housing.

While HUD has said applicants for public housing cannot use medical 
marijuana, which is illegal under federal law, the federal agency has 
left local housing authorities to decide what to do about medical 
marijuana users who already get public assistance in the 17 states 
where the drug is legal.

"I think the federal government doesn't want to be the one to kick 
people out of these housing units either, so they leave it up to us," 
said Donald Capoldo, a commissioner from Bath who made the motion to 
enact a moratorium.

"If you're going to push that decision to us, then I will side with 
what our state says," he said.

Melnick said she believes that HUD has been clear about what local 
housing authorities can do, but, she said, some commissioners wanted 
more assurance that allowing medical marijuana use in subsidized 
housing wasn't a violation of federal policy.

Turcotte said MaineHousing wants a document from the federal 
government that says it can have a blanket policy on medical 
marijuana that applies to all current Section 8 voucher recipients 
and makes clear that the agency doesn't have to treat tenants on a 
case-by-case basis, which is how it has interpreted the federal policy.

Without that, she said, "it puts funding at risk."

Sanderson commended the board for listening closely to testimony 
Tuesday and taking it into consideration.

"They want to do the right thing, and they want to make sure, in 
doing the right thing, they're not jeopardizing the whole program," she said.

After the commissioners' vote in September, MaineHousing notified six 
tenants, whom they knew were growing medical marijuana, that they had 
to comply with the new policy within 30 days. If they didn't, the 
process to terminate their assistance would have begun on Nov. 1. 
Now, that's the date the moratorium takes effect.

Turcotte said, when deciding to enact the moratorium, the board took 
into consideration that the policy could have caused people to lose 
their housing during the winter.

That's one way the board's decision Tuesday will have a positive 
effect on Don LaRouche, a Madison man who was told he'd lose his 
housing assistance if he didn't stop growing marijuana, which he 
smokes to alleviate muscle spasms and symptoms of glaucoma and Crohn's disease.

"If they boot me out, at least it's summertime," he said.

LaRouche, who attended the meeting Tuesday, said "six months is 
better than nothing," but he's still worried that, in the end, he 
might be faced with the same situation where he's choosing between 
his medicine and his housing.

Melnick said she's determined to make sure that doesn't happen.

"This threat of eviction is still looming over the heads of sick and 
disabled Mainers," she said. "We plan to continue to fight until they 
can sleep soundly at night."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom