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5/21/09 - The Newport Daily News
GENERAL ASSEMBLY
Houses OKs marijuana measure
By Joe Baker
Daily News staff
The House of Representatives on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved legislation to set up state regulated and licensed marijuana distribution centers. Combined with the Senate’s 35-2 vote on identical legislation on April 29, the 63 5 House vote promises to make the bill veto proof if Gov. Donald L. Carcieri vetoes the legislation (H5359 and S185) as expected. The two bills only have been approved in their respective chambers. At least one of the bills must be approved by both chambers before it can be sent to Carcieri. The governor would have one week to veto the bill, sign it into law or let it become law without his signature. The General Assembly can override a veto with a 60 percent vote in each chamber.
Carcieri vetoed the original legislation legalizing marijuana for medical uses, but the legislature overrode it in 2006. Last year, the governor vetoed legislation that would have established a commission to study the idea of setting up marijuana dis tribution centers — dubbed “compassion centers” — but the legislature did not return to override the veto.
While the law allows patients to use marijuana as medicine if prescribed by a doctor, patients who do not grow their own marijuana must obtain their medicine through street dealers.
Rep. Joseph A. Trillo, R-Warwick, who voted against the original legislation legalizing medical marijuana, said patients should have a safe, regulated way to get their medicine.
“People have been assaulted, beat up and robbed and all this is to get their medicine,” Trillo said. “This makes sense. It gives us formal control over the substance.”
Rep. John M. Carnevale, D-Providence, a retired Providence police officer, spoke

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against the bill. Although the bill prohibits anyone with a felony drug conviction from working in a compassion center , it also contains a provision that would allow the state Department of Health to override that prohibition, he said.
“What kind of people are convicted drug dealers?” Carnevale asked. “Do we want to let that fox into the henhouse?”
Also speaking against the bill was Rep. John J. Loughlin Jr., R-Tiverton. Loughlin said federal law still prohibits possessing marijuana.
“This is an issue that cries out for a federal solution,” Loughlin said.
Loughlin voted against the bill. Reps. John G. Edwards, D-Tiverton, Raymond E. Gallison Jr., D-Bristol, J. Russell Jackson, D-Newport, Peter F. Martin, D-Newport, and Amy G. Rice, D-Portsmouth, all voted for the bill.
Jesse Stout, executive director of the Rhode Island Patient Advocacy Coalition, said he was thrilled by the size of the plurality, but noted the battle would not be over until either the governor signed the bill into law or the legislature overrode a veto.
“We would love to see the governor sign this important legislation,” Stout said. “Patients need safe access to medical marijuana right now.”
One spectator gratified by the vote was Ellen Lenox Smith, a retired schoolteacher from North Scituate. Smith has Ehlers Danlos syndrome and sarcoidosis and experiences incredible pain that prevents her from getting the sleep she needs to fight off her incurable diseases. Prescribed drugs did not help.
“Everybody else who has pain gets to go to a pharmacy. I don’t have that option,” Smith, sitting in a wheelchair in a Statehouse corridor, said after the vote. “I was prescribed oxycontin and morphine, but my body can’t tolerate that.”
About 18 months ago, during a visit to a pain clinic, a doctor asked if she tried marijuana to ease her symptoms. She found that it allowed her to eat and sleep better, giving her the necessary rest to battle her conditions.
“I don’t get stoned. I get relief,” Smith said.
The bill’s sponsor , Rep. Thomas C. Slater, D-Providence, has waged a battle against cancer for the past six years.
“At least (with this bill) people will be getting their medicine in a safe environment and not in some back alley,” Slater said. “People just don’t realize how much pain there is with cancer.”
When the Senate passed its version, Senate sponsor Sen. Rhoda E. Perry, D-Providence, said she would push for quick action on Slater’s bill if it reached the Senate to give the legislature enough time to override the veto before it adjourns for this year. After the House vote, Perry vowed to make good on that promise.
“I am delighted with the House passage of this legislation, which will help over 700 Rhode Islanders with chronic diseases, painful treatment modalities, HIV/AIDS, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis and other debilitating illnesses,” Perry said. “I would like to see this measure passed through the Senate as expeditiously as possible.”
Rhode Island is one of 14 states that have legalized marijuana for medicinal use. Only New Mexico has set up a regulated system of medical marijuana distribution centers.
Send reporter Joe Baker e-mail at Baker@NewportRI.com.