HOUSE OVERRIDE MAKES R.I. 11TH STATE TO LEGALIZE MEDICAL MARIJUANA

PROVIDENCE - Rhode Island has become the 11th state to legalize
medical marijuana and the first since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in
June that patients who use the drug can still be prosecuted under
federal law.

House lawmakers voted 59-13 Tuesday to override a veto by Gov. Don
Carcieri, allowing people with illnesses such as cancer and AIDS to
grow up to 12 marijuana plants or buy 2.5 ounces of marijuana to
relieve their symptoms. The law, which also drew override approval
from the Senate last year, requires them to register with the state
and get a photo identification card.

Federal law prohibits any use of marijuana, but Maine, Vermont,
Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Montana, Nevada, Oregon and
Washington allow it to be grown and used for medicinal purposes.

The U.S. high court ruled on June 6 that people who smoke marijuana
because their doctors recommend it can still be prosecuted under
federal drug laws.

Federal authorities conceded they were unlikely to prosecute many
medicinal users, and Rhode Island lawmakers pressed on, passing their
medical marijuana bill on June 7.

Carcieri vetoed it, and the state Senate voted the next day to
override his veto, but the House recessed before following suit.
Tuesday's House vote came just before the start of the 2006 session,
allowing the law to take effect immediately.

Rep. Thomas Slater, D-Providence, and Sen. Rhoda E. Perry,
D-Providence, introduced the legislation last year after watching
family members suffer from terminal illnesses.

Perry's nephew died two years ago of AIDS. Although marijuana may have
relieved his suffering, he never used it because it was illegal, she
said.

Perry said after the vote that she was "very grateful on behalf of my
family and my nephew."

Slater has cancer and several of his family members have died from it.
He said he doesn't need marijuana now, but it could be part of his
treatment in the future.

"I'm sure everybody in this room knows at least one person who would
have benefited from medical marijuana," he said before the vote.

South County lawmakers supported Tuesday's override in the House,
though Republican senators Dennis Algiere, R-Westerly, and Kevin
Breene, R-West Greenwich, had previously voted to uphold the
governor's veto.

"The bill is about compassion and that's why it received my support,"
said state Rep. Peter Lewiss, D-Westerly. "The phone calls I received
regarding this bill from my constituency were strongly in favor of
seeing it passed; I got the message loud and clear. But this has been
my position from the beginning."

Algiere, however, said this morning that he initially supported the
bill, noting that he voted only to back Carcieri's veto once it had
taken place.

Algiere added, however, that while he supports the concept of
providing needed pain mediation to people suffering from cancer and
other diseases, he thinks the legislation "needs work."

"It's not so much that I don't understand the need, or recognize that
people deserve to have prescriptions that control their pain," Algiere
said. "But where do people go to fill these subscriptions? It would be
different if we knew these would be narcotics prescribed by a
physician and obtained through a pharmacy. But I think it's understood
that people would be getting these narcotics from a drug dealer.
That's against the law.

"I think this legislation sends a very mixed message, and it raises an
awful lot of questions," Algiere said.

Carcieri reiterated his opposition to the bill, saying he, too,
believes it fails to provide ways for users to buy marijuana legally
and would leave Rhode Islanders open to federal prosecution.

"Users will be forced to purchase marijuana in the illegal street
market, putting them at risk and complicating the difficult jobs that
our law enforcement personnel must do every day," Carcieri said.

Warren Dolbashian, 34, of Cranston, said he has used marijuana to
relieve symptoms of Tourette's syndrome since he was 17. Marijuana
allows him to reduce the amount of other drugs he uses, which helps
because those drugs cause fluid to build up around his heart, he said.

Tom Riley, a spokesman for the White House Office of National Drug
Control Policy, called the vote "largely symbolic" because of the
existing federal law. He said he thought the vote showed "misguided
and out-of-touch" views on the harms of marijuana.

"There's this notion from the 60s or the 70s that marijuana is a
harmless drug," Riley said. "It's not."

The legislation contains a sunset provision that would cause it to
expire on June 30, 2007 if no further action is taken.