When the Rhode Island Legislature enacted the 2006 Edward O. Hawkins and Thomas C. Slater Medical Marijuana Act — in large part thanks to the work of Jesse Stout '06 — many celebrated the achievement as a victory for patients' rights. The act created a legal path for people who suffered from extremely debilitating conditions to obtain a license that would allow them to grow marijuana plants, or alternately, to select a caregiver to grow for them.
Those who supported the bill knew that the caregiver system — though certainly better than nothing — would ultimately be problematic. Disputes about pricing, quality and consistency can easily sour the partnership between caregiver and patient, leaving the patient either without medicine or in an abusive relationship. In an attempt to remedy this problem three years after the original act became law, the caregiver system was augmented by another bill that provided for the establishment of several marijuana dispensaries — called "compassion centers" — that could legally sell marijuana to licensed patients.
The Compassion Center Bill was ratified in June 2009 after a nearly unanimous vote in both houses to override the veto of former governor Donald Carcieri '65. Most of those in the Rhode Island patient community considered this the culmination of a long journey to secure their right to legally access marijuana for the treatment of serious illnesses. But more than two years after the passage of the dispensary bill and almost six years after the enactment of the original Medical Marijuana Act, there are still no compassion centers in Rhode Island.
In the fall of 2010, a state commission appointed to distribute licenses for three compassion centers rejected all 15 applications submitted to them. Annemarie Beardsworth, public information officer for the Rhode Island Department of Health, told The Herald, the applications "either exceeded the 25-page limit or the applicant was a for-profit entity" ("After failed first round, state seeks applicants for pot centers," Oct. 26).
The rejection of all 15 applications was a setback for the medical marijuana community, which had been counting on compassion centers to ensure a steady supply of medicine for their expanding program. But the commission recommenced near the end of 2010, and by February 2011, there were 18 submitted applications ("Alums apply to open pot center," Feb. 17). After another round of deliberations in March, three centers were chosen by the commission and were expected to be up and running by June of this year.
Last Thursday, another chapter unfolded. Yet again, the patient community had its hopes deflated. Though the commission chose three compassion centers, Gov. Lincoln Chafee '75 P'14 released a public statement saying he cannot allow the compassion centers to open, citing threats of federal prosecution ("Chafee '75 will not license pot centers," Sept. 30). According to the Providence Journal, Chafee put the program "on hold" in response to a letter delivered April 29 by United States Attorney Peter Neronha. The letter threatens federal prosecution of the owners, landlords, financiers and other "facilitators" of the three proposed compassion centers, citing federal law which categorically prohibits the sale and distribution of marijuana — despite comments from President Obama and other officials that the Drug Enforcement Administration would not use resources to prosecute medical marijuana programs obeying state laws. And so, the patient community continues to endure the brutal insensitivity of the iron cage.
According to Bill Cotton, a member of the Rhode Island Patient Advocacy Coalition who suffers from multiple sclerosis, high moisture levels in the area have contributed to a number of recent crop failures as a result of mold, leaving hundreds of patients without medicine. He said this crisis could have been avoided if the compassion centers were operational.
I have met many medical marijuana patients in person, and they cannot get out of bed without the pain relief that marijuana affords them. Besides my profound sympathy for these patients without medicine, I feel more baffled by the situation than anything. How is it possible that our federal and state government can so blatantly disrespect the plight of such seriously ill citizens?
I would like to hope that Chafee will grow a spine, change his mind and go ahead with the compassion centers. If federal prosecutors make good on their threat, Chafee should protect the dispensaries with every legal weapon in his arsenal. Rhode Island attorneys could make a strong case that the federal government's conflict with Rhode Island law regarding medical marijuana violates the 10th Amendment, which states that, "the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, and not prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." Some might be less optimistic about this strategy, but there is some precedent — like the federal government's large-scale marijuana farm at the University of Mississippi that mails some 2,100 marijuana cigarettes every month to seven patients enrolled in its own archaic medical marijuana program .
This sort of glaring hypocrisy and disregard for the will of the people — 75 percent of Americans supported medical marijuana in 2003 — makes it no wonder that public confidence in our political institutions is below sea level. Chafee, you may not deserve all the blame, but you are the closest politician Rhode Islanders can hold accountable, and you will not survive this ordeal unscathed.
Jared Moffat '13 doesn't do Tea Parties but will be at the next Constitutional Convention. He can be contacted at jared_moffat@brown.edu.
