Providence ( AP) - State lawmakers this week will review legislation to legalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana and other proposals that would crack down on some lesser known substances. The legalization bill would allow those 21 and older to possess up to an ounce of marijuana, and would impose alcohol-style regulations and taxes on the sale of the drug. The bill's sponsor, state Rep. Edith Ajello, D- Providence, argues that society's views on recreational marijuana use are changing and that prohibition has failed to keep the drug out of the hands of minors. [continues 141 words]
When state legislators convene after the first of the year, they will again face a bill to legalize organic marijuana and a new measure to ban its synthetic counterpart. Representative Edith Ajello (D-Dist. 3, Providence) is the sponsor of legislation for the third session in a row that would legalize pot in Rhode Island, while Rep. Joseph McNamara (D-Dist. 19, Warwick, Cranston) is drafting legislation to ban the sale of synthetic marijuana and bath salts. Ajello's bill, which would make marijuana legal and impose restrictions on the sale of the drug similar to those for alcohol, was heard last year in committee but was never voted on. Ajello said she's unsure if it will make it to a vote this session either. [continues 946 words]
PROVIDENCE, R. I. (AP) - Recent campaigns that made Colorado and Washington the first states in the U.S. to legalize recreational marijuana are energizing efforts to do the same in New England, with lawmakers in Rhode Island and Maine vowing to push legislation next year to impose alcohol style regulations and taxes on the drug. Rhode Island Rep. Edith Ajello, D- Providence, said yesterday that the passage of legalization referendums in the two Western states are the latest indication that American attitudes toward marijuana are softening. [continues 418 words]
Students at the University of Rhode Island are attempting to end the war on drugs. Students for a Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP), is an international grassroots network of students who are concerned about the impact drug abuse has on our communities. The organization has over 100 chapters at universities on five different continents. This year, the URI chapter of SSDP was ranked the 9th best SSDP chapter in the country by High Times Magazine. The mission of the organization is to improve illicit drug regulations on three different level; campus, state and federal. SSDP aims to make sure that students on-campus are not losing their opportunity for a prosperous future due to a substance problem or wrong decision. [continues 833 words]
PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Once consigned to the political fringe, marijuana policy is appearing on legislative agendas around the country thanks to an energized base of supporters and an increasingly openminded public. Lawmakers from Rhode Island to Colorado are mulling medical marijuana programs, pot dispensaries, decriminalization and even legalization. Rhode Island is poised to become the 15th state to decriminalize marijuana possession. The state's General Assembly passed legislation last week that would eliminate the threat of big fines or even jail time for the possession of an ounce or less of pot. Instead, adults caught with small amounts of marijuana would face a $150 civil fine. Police would confiscate the marijuana, but the incident would not appear on a person's criminal record. [end]
PROVIDENCE, R.I. Catharine Leach is married and has two boys, age 2 and 8. She has a good job with a federal contractor and smokes pot most every day. While she worries that her public support for marijuana decriminalization and legalization could cost her a job or bring the police to her door, the 30-year-old Warwick resident said she was tired of feeling like a criminal. Like others around the nation working to relax penalties for possession of pot, she decided to stop hiding and speak out. [continues 295 words]
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) -- Catharine Leach is married and has two boys, age 2 and 8. She has a good job with a federal contractor and smokes pot most every day. While she worries that her public support for marijuana decriminalization and legalization could cost her a job or bring the police to her door, the 30-year-old Warwick resident said she was tired of feeling like a criminal for using a drug that she said is far less harmful than the glass of wine or can of beer enjoyed by so many others after a long day's work. Like others around the nation working to relax penalties for possession of pot, she decided to stop hiding and speak out. [continues 319 words]
WOONSOCKET -- Sometimes painted as the Molly Hatchet of the Rhode Island medical marijuana movement, putting the axe to the state's three proposed compassion centers before they had a chance to open, U.S. Attorney Peter Neronha says he just wants to make sure everyone knows where his office stands on the issue so there will be "no surprises" when, and if, a dispensary opens up. Gov. Lincoln Chafee put the licensing of three compassion centers that had gone through two lengthy Department of Health application processes on hold after receiving a letter from Neronha saying the centers could be subject to raids and their employees subject to prosecution. [continues 1053 words]
Providence (AP)- Legislation to legalize the recreational use of marijuana in Rhode Island is heading to a hearing in the state Senate. The Senate Judiciary Committee plans to hear from both sides of the legalization debate Tuesday at the Statehouse. The proposal would lift the ban on possessing marijuana for anyone over the age of 21 and impose taxes and fees on the production and sale of marijuana. The committee also plans to review legislation to decriminalize marijuana. That proposal would replace criminal penalties for the possession of one ounce or less of marijuana with a $150 fine. Similar legislation is pending in the House. The proposals were also introduced last year but did not receive a vote. [end]
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]
House Speaker Says He'll Petition Federal Government to See What State Needs to Do PROVIDENCE ---- House Speaker Gordon D. Fox says he'll personally petition the U.S. Department of Justice to seek a way for Rhode Island to open the medical marijuana dispensaries that advocates have long sought. "I plan on going to the federal government to ask them: what do you need it to look like?" the Providence Democrat said Tuesday. "Because I think it's been too long and there have been too many people waiting. ... I hear so many stories of people waiting for relief and they are not being addressed. They deserve better than that." [continues 345 words]
A movement to legalize narcotics found local supporters during an Oct. 13 presentation at the Jamestown Philomenian Library. Some 30 islanders turned out to hear Jack Cole, a retired Garden State detective, deplore the failures of the U.S. war on drugs and his own role in a policy he eventually realized was disastrous. As an undercover detective, Cole devoted 14 years to throwing drug dealers and users in jail, he said, but now thinks the effort did more harm than good. With four other retired police officers, he has started a grass roots movement to change the U.S. drug policy. The nonprofit organization, dubbed Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, boasts 50,000 members, Cole said. [continues 799 words]
PROVIDENCE -- The Rhode Island Medical Society, an early supporter of the state's medical-marijuana program, is urging Governor Chafee to issue operating licenses to the three marijuana dispensaries that the Health Department selected in the spring. Dr. Gary Bubly, society president, sent the four-paragraph letter to Chafee and Michael Fine, director of the state Health Department, and said that the establishment of dispensaries, also known as compassion centers, is critical to providing "a source of mechanism for patients to obtain their marijuana in a safe and legal manner." [continues 513 words]
Chris Christie, the governor of New Jersey, gave approval last week for the opening of six marijuana dispensaries. Christie, a former U.S. Attorney, said he made the decision despite never receiving assurances from the Justice Department that those working in the dispensaries would be exempt from prosecution. Christie said that opening the dispensaries is a risk he is taking as governor. He said the need to provide compassionate pain relief to citizens of the state outweighs the risk. Imagine that - compassion over caution. [continues 465 words]
PROVIDENCE -- Advocates of the state's medical-marijuana program are hoping that Governor Chafee is paying close attention to New Jersey. On Tuesday, New Jersey Gov. Christopher J. Christie gave the green light to open six marijuana dispensaries to licensed patients suffering from ailments such as cancer, chronic pain, muscular dystrophy and multiple sclerosis. The surprise announcement came after months of delays over concerns that federal authorities might prosecute state employees affiliated with the medical-marijuana program for drug violations. Christie, a Republican, who served as U.S. Attorney for New Jersey from 2002 through 2008, said he sought, but never received assurances from the Justice Department that those working in the marijuana programs would be exempt from federal prosecution. [continues 698 words]
PROVIDENCE -- The head of the state's largest medical-marijuana advocacy group remains optimistic that someday, in the not too distant future, a cannabis dispensary will open its doors to licensed patients suffering from myriad illnesses such as cancer, glaucoma and chronic pain. JoAnne Lepannen, executive director of the Rhode Island Patient Advocacy Coalition, said on Tuesday that she has carefully reviewed the two-page memo that the Justice Department issued last week, "Seeking to Authorize Marijuana for Medical Use." In it, she sees a silver lining because there is no specific threat by federal authorities to prosecute state employees who have anything to do with the licensing or oversight of marijuana dispensaries. [continues 996 words]
Legislation to authorize the Correction Department to reduce sentences for prisoners who complete self-improvement programs is agitating minority Republicans as it gets rubber-stamping from the Democratic majority in the General Assembly. Republicans say that while the bill is dressed up as a public-safety measure, it is meant only to save money by reducing the prison population and will increase crime by parolees. Some prisoners convicted of violence, the Republicans note, might qualify for the rehabilitative programs and then earlier release. [continues 662 words]
PROVIDENCE -- Former House Minority Leader Robert A. Watson's urine tested positive for cocaine and THC, a chemical compound in marijuana, after Connecticut police stopped him at a sobriety checkpoint in late April, according to East Haven Deputy Police Chief John Mannion. "On its face, if it's in your body, you're under the influence," Mannion said. "It's illegal to possess drugs; it's illegal to consume drugs. Therefore, you're under the influence," Mannion said. Watson, who admitted to smoking marijuana to treat bouts of pancreatitis, on Friday denied using cocaine. [continues 701 words]
I once covered Nancy Reagan at an appearance at Bentley University in Waltham, Mass. The petite, fashionable first lady had made drug abuse her number-one issue, and she was waging her own low-key offensive in a war that would never end. There was a naive charm about it, a sense of a well-meaning woman sincerely believing that something as simple as "Just Say No" could undo something as complicated and pervasive and consuming as drug addiction. Mrs. Reagan was not from the "been there, done that" school of drug counseling. [continues 477 words]
PROVIDENCE -- U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder suggested on Thursday that the Justice Department will work with governors and other states to reach a satisfactory resolution to the establishment of dispensaries that sell marijuana to patients in state-sponsored medical-marijuana programs. "We are in the process of working [on] these issues with the U.S. Attorney for Rhode Island and other U.S. Attorneys across the country," he said. "My hope is that sometime in the not too distant future ... it will be addressed." [continues 810 words]
PROVIDENCE - Two state legislators met with Governor Chafee on Tuesday for an update on the state's plans to license three compassion centers to sell marijuana to patients in the state medical-marijuana program. Sen. Rhoda E. Perry and Rep. Scott A. Slater, both Providence Democrats, emerged from Chafee's office following a 15-minute meeting in the State House. They felt that Chafee was supportive of the program to provide medical marijuana to those suffering from chronic pain and other illnesses, but the governor wants to make sure that the state doesn't make a wrong move and subject the dispensary owners and investors to federal prosecution. [continues 599 words]
Perhaps it is a sign of the weakness of the local economy, but businesspeople young and old are eyeing the Rhode Island marijuana business as potentially very lucrative perhaps more so than, say, liquor stores! But the rush to open these "compassion centers," at least officially to be marketed to sick people who seek the pain-relieving qualities of marijuana, has been considerably faster than federal officials' acceptance. The latest sign of their skepticism came a couple of weeks ago, when U.S. Atty. Peter Neronha said rather ominously that he considered that the three pot dispensaries so far tentatively approved by the Rhode Island Health Department would be large-scale, for-profit pot production centers in violation of federal law. One of them, Summit Medical Compassion Center, in Warwick, plans to be serving 8,000 patients and taking in $25 million in revenue by 2013. [continues 175 words]
PROVIDENCE - A recent Cranston case that tested the state's medical-marijuana law raises a question about whether people with the right to grow or possess marijuana to treat illnesses risk being jailed for owning a gun, even if they own it lawfully. The issue grew from Dean Derobbio's arrest in January 2010 for allegedly conspiring with his roommate to possess marijuana with the intent to sell it. He was also charged with carrying a dangerous weapon while committing a crime of violence. The crime of violence was growing marijuana, according to prosecutors and the police, and the charge carries a mandatory three years in prison for a defendant convicted of a first offense. [continues 737 words]
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. [continues 856 words]
PROVIDENCE - U.S. Attorney Peter F. Neronha said Sunday that he hopes that Rhode Island's three state-approved medical-marijuana dispensaries don't open and that if they do, "I might have to take some action" against them in court to prevent cultivation and distribution of the cannabis. "I don't think it would be a wise move" for them to start cultivating large amounts of marijuana, or selling it, Neronha said in a telephone interview. Asked if he was going to stage raids on the dispensaries if they opened their doors, Neronha said, "I can't answer that. We'll take each day as it comes. I hope that wiser heads prevail." [continues 680 words]
PROVIDENCE - U.S. Attorney Peter F. Neronha Friday threatened to prosecute civilly and/or criminally those involved in Rhode Island's three planned medical marijuana dispensaries - from the organizations that would run them to the landlords who rent them floor space. The threat was contained in a letter hand-delivered to Governor Chafee's office in the morning and also sent Friday to the would-be proprietors of the dispensaries. Jim Martin, Neronha's spokesman, said the letter is "a reminder" of what he said state officials and the proprietors already know, that it is the policy of the U.S. Department of Justice to prosecute significant growers and distributors of marijuana. [continues 1075 words]
PROVIDENCE - In a televised speech on the House floor about his arrest in Connecticut last Friday on driving-under-the-influence and marijuana-possession charges, House Minority Leader Robert A. Watson admitted to using marijuana to treat flare-ups of the pancreatitis that landed him in the hospital last November. Watson, R-East Greenwich, said he took a small amount of the drug with him when he went to Connecticut that day to help a friend move because he had had a pancreatic attack the day before, and wanted the drug handy if he had another severe one. [continues 1184 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]
PROVIDENCE -- Two committees of the state House of Representatives took up a host of proposals on Wednesday seeking to regulate marijuana, bringing out medical-marijuana patients, university students and former and current law-enforcement officers. Supporters of a bill to legalize and tax the drug, including a handful of former and retired police officers, argued that the proposed law would make the state safer by allowing the police to focus on major crimes rather than marijuana offenses, while also helping the state dig out of its financial troubles by providing additional tax revenue. [continues 509 words]
PROVIDENCE - The long-awaited decision on medical marijuana dispensaries was announced Tuesday afternoon with the Department of Health selecting three applicants, the maximum permitted under state law. They are: Summit Medical Compassion Center in Warwick, The Thomas C. Slater Compassion Center in Providence, and Greenleaf Compassionate Care Center in Portsmouth. Rhode Island is one of four states that has authorized state-regulated marijuana dispensaries. The selections Tuesday were made from among 18 applicants who proposed dispensary operations of various sizes, mostly in the metropolitan area, to serve the state's growing number of state-licensed medical marijuana users who now must either grow the marijuana themselves or connect with a licensed individual grower or caregiver. [continues 855 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]
PROVIDENCE -- Twenty-one candidates have filed applications to open medical-marijuana compassion centers in Rhode Island. The deadline for the new round of applications was noon Friday. Annemarie Beardsworth, spokeswoman for the state Health Department, said she did not know whether the 15 former applicants who were previously rejected had refiled. She said that it will take "a matter of weeks" for the department to review the new applications for completeness "to make sure everything we asked for was included in the application." Once an application is deemed complete, she said, it will be posted online for public inspection on the Department of Health's website. [continues 446 words]
PROVIDENCE -- The director of a proposed medical-marijuana distribution center has filed a petition with the state Health Department seeking a judgment on whether health-care practitioners can be affiliated with the operation of the drug-selling businesses. David C. Hughes, the point man behind Community Care Health and Wellness Inc., a would-be compassion center in Coventry or West Warwick, submitted the three-page petition on Sept. 27, with Dr. David Gifford, the state's health director. In part, Hughes said he wonders whether a physician, nurse practitioner or physician's assistant would face disciplinary action by the Health Department's professional licensing board for owning or working for a compassion center that sells medical marijuana. [continues 404 words]
It seems that cannabis (marijuana) prohibition is a government-subsidized jobs program ("Splendor in the Grass?" Nov. 8 editorial) for greedy police and their unions. When cannabis is completely relegalized, police will never spend time confronting responsible adults for using the relatively safe, God-given plant cannabis. That means that citizens will be safer since police will spend more time actually protecting citizens. That reality extends toward DARE, too, which causes increased hard-drug addiction rates. How many people tried cannabis and realized it's not nearly as harmful as DARE claimed and think that other substances must not be so bad either, only to become addicted to hard drugs? A sane or moral argument to continue cannabis prohibition and extermination doesn't exist. Stan White Dillon, Colo. [end]
More states, such as Rhode Island, now allow cultivation of marijuana plants for what are supposed to be medicinal purposes. But law-enforcement and other officials are expressing increasing concern about how much of this stuff is being misused ---- sold to people who simply want to get high, and not for treating any ailment, except perhaps boredom. And in fact, because these plants are so easy to grow, probably a lot will be misused. But concern about the expanded sale of pot could tie up police when they should be thinking about other things. Better for them not to worry too much about it, or at least no more than they do about much more serious substance-abuse problems. [continues 259 words]
Substance Abuse Task Force Leaders Concerned With Marijuana Usage Among Barrington Teens BARRINGTON -- Forty four. It's just a number, but to Kathy Sullivan and Dr. Kristen Westmoreland it's also an alarming statistic relating to marijuana use among students at Barrington High School. In a 2009 survey administered to local middle school and high school students, 44 percent of seniors reported using marijuana within the last 30 days. That figure is more than double the national average of 21 percent. [continues 1006 words]
WARWICK -- The crowd gathered in the grand ballroom at the Crowne Plaza Hotel Saturday envisioned a world in which tests could be done in Rhode Island to determine the potency of marijuana and whether it was grown organically. It pictured businesses popping up to help growers yield fruitful crops, and consumers buying their product without fear of arrest or being stigmatized. About 45 marijuana growers, users and other interested people gathered at the hotel for the first-ever grow clinic sponsored by High Times, a magazine devoted to marijuana, and its legalization. In a room permeated by the sweet scent of the leafy drug, the crowd devoured tips about cultivation, cooking and consumption. The mission: to learn how to grow the best and biggest plants. [continues 809 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]
NEWPORT -- A probation violation hearing for a Tiverton man in the state's medical-marijuana program, who was arrested three weeks ago on drug-trafficking charges for the second time in five years, has been continued in Newport County Superior Court for the second consecutive week. Shayne R. Costa, 50, of 698 Windwood Drive, Tiverton, will remain held without bail at the Adult Correctional Institutions for at least another week when he is scheduled to return to court for a possible resolution on the violation charges. In 2006, Costa received a 10-year suspended sentence for growing 28 marijuana plants on his property. [continues 254 words]
PAWTUCKET - The City of Pawtucket has agreed to apologize to one of its employees and to pay her legal fees after she sued over its drug-testing policy. Romana Ramos, a police matron and interpreter for 17 years, contended that she was unlawfully required to submit to a random urine test for drugs and a chemical breath test for alcohol. The penalty for refusal was a 30-day suspension. Both tests proved negative, according to the Rhode Island affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union. [continues 103 words]
PROVIDENCE - In a surprise move, the state Health Department on Friday announced that none of the 15 applicants seeking to open the state's first compassion center for medical-marijuana patients are qualified to open their doors. The announcement came in a four-paragraph e-mail that said all of the applicants "either failed to meet the minimum scoring requirements or they were disqualified from review for failing to comply with the application requirements." The department said it will begin the process of soliciting applications again in October and the current applicants may reapply. [continues 697 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]
It took time, but Congress has finally tightened the egregious sentencing gap between crimes involving crack cocaine and those linked to the powder form. In legislation signed by President Obama Aug. 3 - a disparity that had been 100 to 1 was trimmed to 18 to 1. Under previous law, a person charged in federal court with possessing 5 grams of crack faced a mandatory minimum of five years in jail. But someone with the powder form had to possess 500 grams to incur the same penalty. [continues 331 words]
With the location announcement for Rhode Island's first "compassion center" just weeks away, the Town Council adopted a new ordinance on Tuesday night, making town specific regulations for these medical marijuana facilities. "Under the Medical Marijuana Act it is a requirement of cities and towns that each applicant has to be in compliance with the local zoning board. This will give teeth to the laws," said Town Attorney Timothy Chapman. State regulations for compassion centers require that they be at least 500 feet from a school, have alarm and security measures to deter theft and follow dispense and possession restrictions. [continues 281 words]
JOHNSTON -- The town will allow the distribution of marijuana for medical purposes under a new ordinance approved Tuesday night by the Town Council. The ordinance establishes rules for permitting medical marijuana dispensaries, as well as facilities for cultivating the narcotic, only in Johnston's industrial zoning districts. No one has proposed any such facility, or "compassion center" ---- the term used in the ordinance, say town officials. In the spring of 2009, the General Assembly passed legislation that provided a legal basis for the establishment of such medical marijuana dispensaries. [continues 241 words]
Opposition is mounting in several communities where there are proposals to open the state's first medical-marijuana compassion center for patients licensed to smoke marijuana for a variety of medical maladies. Monday night, the Woonsocket City Council passed a resolution that says, in part, that the largest city in northern Rhode Island "is not conveniently located for patients from throughout" the state, so it is an inappropriate location for a compassion center. Last month, the Coventry Town Council passed a similar, but much more detailed resolution. [continues 626 words]
WOONSOCKET - Never mind that the state Department of Health has yet to grant a single license for a compassion center where medical marijuana would be distributed, local officials are all set to go on record against one that's seeking a permit to set up shop in Park Square. The City Council will consider a resolution on Monday denouncing the proposal, which City Council President John Ward calls "illegal." Ward said the facility is in violation of the state law that allows DOH to license compassion centers on condition they are no closer than 500 feet from the nearest school. [continues 806 words]
With the selection announcement drawing near, municipalities, businesses and neighborhoods are bracing themselves in the event that a compassion center may be coming to the area. Three of the 15 compassion center applicants have proposed sites in Warwick, one of which may be chosen as the first center to sell marijuana to patients in the state's growing medical-marijuana program. "Obviously, the city has concerns about such a business and we have made suggestions that a proposed center should really be part of a larger medical facility and have the requisite amount of medical supervision as well," said Mayor Scott Avedisian. [continues 701 words]
Inside Rhode Island
