Legalization Bill Would Allocate Millions In Tax Revenue To Narcotic Abuse Prevention The House Judiciary Committee last week heard testimony on several bills proposing to legalize marijuana in Rhode Island and to improve current regulations on the sale and distribution of medical marijuana. While marijuana legalization has gained momentum in the state recently, there remain concerns for some about regulation and legalization's effects. Legalizing marijuana The first bill - introduced Feb. 13 by Rep. Edith Ajello, D-Providence - would legalize the possession and cultivation of small amounts of marijuana for personal use for adults over 21 years old, a policy supported by 47.6 percent of respondents in an April 10 poll from the Taubman Center for Public Policy and American Institutions. The committee heard testimony on the bill Wednesday. [continues 1396 words]
In April, possession of small amounts of marijuana was decriminalized in Rhode Island. Some might wonder what motivated the state government to loosen restrictions on a substance that causes such apparent mental impairment. How could this possibly benefit the state? At the start of any given weekend on College Hill, many students prepare to drink, smoke, roll, trip and partake in other illegal drug-related activities. A Herald poll conducted last semester found that during the previous year, 85 percent of students had consumed alcohol, 49 percent had used marijuana, 9 percent had used ecstasy - also known as MDMA - and at least 7 percent had used some psychedelic agent ("Poll: White, older students more likely to use substances," Apr. 17). Many would say that, for the most part, the University turns a blind eye to this debauchery - a policy generally supported by the student body. [continues 730 words]
The feeling is all too common -- an overwhelming sense of dizziness, compounded by an inability to place one foot in front of the other without stumbling. While this experience is typically induced by heavy drinking, students could mimic the effects of high blood alcohol content using special "beer goggles" at an event Friday sponsored by Students for a Sensible Drug Policy, Health Services and the Greek Council. On a given day, the 15 to 20 members of Brown's chapter of SSDP may be found on the Main Green passing out flyers about the negative effects of government anti-drug efforts, at the Rhode Island State House protesting decisions they believe unfairly discriminate against drug users or in the basement of the Stephen Robert '62 Campus Center educating students on the dangers of alcohol abuse. [continues 991 words]
To the Editor: I celebrate Sofia Ortiz-Hinojosa's '11 thoughtful column on the War on Drugs and agree with her on many points. Like her, I think that marijuana should be legalized and know that it is less harmful than alcohol or tobacco. I also share the view that Brown students - and Americans in general - should be more mindful of their role as consumers in a trade that is responsible for tens of thousands of deaths a year, concentrated in countries like Mexico and my native Colombia. Why do we make such a fuss about, say, blood diamonds, when illegal drugs are much more common on campus than precious stones from Liberia or the Congo? [continues 338 words]
To the Editor: In an April 14 front-page story ("Hold the foam: passing on Spring Weekend," April 14), an event sponsored by Students for Sensible Drug Policy was used as evidence that campus gets wild and crazy during Spring Weekend. The following is a clarification of our mission, because the representation of our group was far from positive. I want to clarify on behalf of Students for Sensible Drug Policy that we in no way endorse or romanticize drug use. Our mission as a grassroots student organization is to change the wrongheaded drug policies, as well as the culture of abuse, that permeate our society. The Herald article attempted to use an SSDP-sponsored event - the lending out of an ecstasy testing chemical kit - as evidence of how crazy things get at Brown during Spring Weekend. [continues 152 words]
Though medical marijuana is now legal in Rhode Island, administrators maintain that under both state and federal law, the University cannot allow smoking of marijuana on school grounds. Medical marijuana was legalized in Rhode Island June 16, 2009 after state legislators voted to override a veto by then-Gov. Donald Carcieri '65. Three new dispensaries for medical marijuana will open in Rhode Island this summer. Despite the state's legalization of medical marijuana and imminent opening of dispensaries, the University released a statement saying it would not permit smoking on campus because Rhode Island and federal law "prohibit smoking marijuana on any school grounds, including college campuses." [continues 197 words]
The coming weeks could bring big changes to Rhode Island's marijuana policy. Not only are state Sen. Joshua Miller, D-Cranston, and Rep. John Edwards, D-Tiverton and Portsmouth, pushing to decriminalize possession of up to one ounce of pot, but the state Department of Health will soon select up to three applicants to open medical marijuana dispensaries. This announcement will begin the state's transition to a medical marijuana system more like California's. We supported decriminalization efforts last spring, and we encourage lawmakers to pass Miller's and Edwards' bills. As we wrote last year, decriminalization will reduce expenditures on enforcement -- Edwards estimates $1 to $4 million in savings, while Harvard economist Jeffrey Miron predicts savings could exceed $10 million -- and also allow the criminal justice system to spend more time dealing with greater threats to public safety than someone lighting up a joint. [continues 407 words]
Rhode Island's medical marijuana situation is in a bit of a haze. After denying every license in a first round of applications last month, the state's health department is once again soliciting compassion center applications. There are currently about 2,500 patients and 1,800 caregivers in the state, said Katherine Reardon '12, president of Students for Sensible Drug Policy. Caregivers are private citizens with the legal right to grow marijuana for up to five other patients. According to Reardon, the problem with the system is a lack of regulation. [continues 390 words]
When medical marijuana became legal in Rhode Island in June 2007, Luis Hernandez figured it would only be a matter of time until a school teaching proper growing techniques sprang up. As he watched years go by, nobody took action, and he decided to take matters into his own hands. His school, the New England School of Alternative Horticultural Studies, will conduct its first class Sept. 25 in Barrington. "There's a right way to do it, and there's a wrong way to do it," Hernandez said of the process. "Here's how you do it safely without electrocuting yourself, without burning the house down - and if you really want to get good results." [continues 813 words]
Two bills that would end the criminal prohibition of marijuana use came before the Rhode Island House Judiciary Committee last Wednesday. The first bill -- proposed by Rep. Edith Ajello, D-Providence, whose district includes College Hill -- would legalize the drug under certain conditions. The second bill -- introduced by Rep. John G. Edwards, D-Tiverton and Portsmouth -- would decriminalize marijuana consumption and levy a $150 fine for possession. The two bills come on the heels of a March recommendation by a state Senate study commission that the state decriminalize small amounts of the drug. [continues 910 words]
On Oct. 19, the Justice Department circulated a memorandum to federal prosecutors in Rhode Island and the other 13 medical marijuana states instructing them not to prosecute individuals using medical marijuana or those involved in dispensary operations that are "in clear and unambiguous compliance" with state laws. The move was hailed by medical marijuana advocates such as Stephen Gutwillig, California state director of the Drug Policy Alliance, who called it "an extremely welcome rhetorical de-escalation of the federal government's long-standing war on medical marijuana patients." We generally approve of ending wars but, as Americans have learned recently, winning the peace can be just as important. In this context, that would be Rhode Island taking advantage of the unprecedented window of opportunity created by the Justice memo to develop a superior medical marijuana distribution system. [continues 394 words]
Once again, Rhode Island is wading into muddy waters. In May the General Assembly approved a law mandating that the health department establish privately run medical cannabis dispensaries; the first is scheduled to open next year. Rhode Island would be only the third state to enact such a law, and it has a chance to improve on California's wild and unregulated system and New Mexico's tightly constrained delivery-only network. But the new program has some crucial flaws that the Assembly must admit and rectify. [continues 470 words]
For Rhode Islanders suffering from terminal illnesses or chronic pains, medical marijuana can provide badly needed relief. But getting the marijuana in a safe, legal manner can be problematic for these patients - which is why state legislators have introduced a bill allowing for the creation of up to three nonprofit Compassion Centers to grow and distribute the plant. The bill was introduced in the state Senate last week by Sen. Rhoda Perry D-Dist. 3 P'91 and will be introduced in the House of Representatives today by Rep. Tom Slater D-Providence. It is a reincarnation of a 2008 bill which failed to pass the House despite winning a 30-5 vote in the Senate. [continues 728 words]
A wide array of pundits has been referring to the recent election as "historic" because, for the first time, an African-American was elected president. But for Jeff Morris, a sophomore at Suffolk University in Boston, the election was historic for a different reason. Morris, who started a chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws at Suffolk this semester, is celebrating the passage of Massachusetts Ballot Question 2, which decriminalizes the possession of up to one ounce of marijuana, making it a civil offense instead of a criminal one. [continues 939 words]
Libertarian Favors Legalization After growing up with "Just Say No" with television commercials imploring them to be "Above the Influence," today's college students have spent their youths grounded in America's so-called "war on drugs." But on Tuesday night, students filled List Auditorium to hear one man's take on exactly why the whole campaign makes no sense. Jeffrey Miron, Harvard economics professor, outspoken libertarian and staunch advocate of drug legalization, told his audience that since his positions tend to be unpopular, he gets a "weird feeling" when an audience agrees with him. [continues 559 words]
The war on drugs must be re-evaluated "methodically and clinically," from a global perspective, former Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee '75 told a MacMillan 117 audience Friday. The speech kicked off the Students for Sensible Drug Policy Northeast Regional Conference, hosted at Brown this weekend. "We need to ask ourselves, is this working?" Chafee, a visiting fellow at the Watson Institute for International Studies, said of current drug policies. "We have to be honest with ourselves in looking at this worldwide problem." [continues 781 words]
As two bills in support of medical marijuana use approach hearings in the state legislature, sponsors say the current incarnation of the Rhode Island Medical Marijuana Act has garnered greater support than in any previous year. The bill's stated purpose is "to protect patients with debilitating medical conditions, and their physicians and primary caregivers, from arrest and prosecution, criminal and other penalties." Qualifying medical conditions include cancer, multiple sclerosis, AIDS and illnesses that cause severe symptoms alleviated by marijuana use, such as nausea or seizures. Sufferers and their caregivers would be allowed to acquire and cultivate the drug as well as possess relevant paraphernalia. [continues 938 words]
Sick citizens should have access to cannabis. When I read that Rhonda O'Donnell called the bill "compassionate" ("Medical Marijuana Act up for review," Feb. 6), I was reminded of its Biblical implications. "But whoever has the world's goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?" (1 John 3:17). Stan White Dillon, Colo. [end]
Since the implementation of the Medical Marijuana Act last spring, Rhonda O'Donnell, a 44-year-old former registered nurse with multiple sclerosis, has used marijuana to alleviate her pain without fear of breaking the law. O'Donnell, the first person in Rhode Island to apply for the Medical Marijuana Program, praised the therapeutic effects of marijuana. "It's instantaneous cooling of the burning," she said. "I don't need it that often, but when I do, it works for me." [continues 899 words]
Thank you for raising awareness of the Higher Education Act's denial of student loans to youth convicted of drug offenses ("SSDP mobilizes against Higher Education Act," Sept. 13). Instead of empowering at-risk students with a college degree, HEA limits career opportunities and increases the likelihood that those affected will resort to crime. Speaking of crime, convicted rapists and murders are still eligible for federal student loans. Most students outgrow their youthful indiscretions involving drugs. An arrest and criminal record, on the other hand, can be life-shattering. After admitting to smoking pot (but not inhaling), former President Bill Clinton opened himself up to "soft on drugs" criticism. And thousands of Americans have paid the price in the form of shattered lives. More Americans went to prison or jail during the Clinton administration than during any past administration. [continues 87 words]
