R.I. Senate Approves Commission to Study Marijuana Law

[Ganjarden]

Backers of the successful drive to legalize the sale of marijuana for medicinal purposes have now won Senate support for a study of what, if anything, is being accomplished by criminalizing use of the plant for any other purpose?

During the General Assembly's aborted rush to adjournment Friday, the Senate approved a resolution - introduced earlier the same day - to create a nine-member special commission to study a swath of issues surrounding marijuana. Among them: "The experience of individuals and families sentenced for violating marijuana laws...The experience of states and European countries, such as California, Massachusetts and the Netherlands, which have decriminalized the sale and use of marijuana.''

The sponsors of the eleventh-hour legislation include Sens. Joshua Miller, D-Cranston; Leo Blais, R-Coventry; Rhoda Perry, D-Providence; Charles Levesque, D-Portsmouth, and Susan Sosnowski, D-South Kingstown.

In a brief interview Wednesday, Miller said the legislation was sparked by the referendum-driven move to decriminalize marijuana in Massachusetts, and what he perceives as "a national trend towards decriminalization.''

Asked why he waited until what was to be the last day of the session to introduce the measure, Miller said he and his fellow sponsors felt it was "very important'' for this study to be "defined as an issue'' completely separate and apart from the passage - over Governor Carcieri's veto - of legislation allowing the creation of state-regulated dispensaries to sell marijuana for medicinal use.

Miller said it also "took that long for it to be taken seriously.''

The resolution would create a Special Senate Commission to study the prohibition of marijuana "made up of "elected members of the Rhode Island Senate, local law enforcement officials, physicians, nurses, social workers, academic leaders in the field of addiction studies, advocates or patients in the state's medical marijuana program, advocates working in the field of prisoner re-entry, economists, and members of the general public.''

The bill poses a number of specific questions for study, among them:
"Whether and to what extent Rhode Island youth have access to marijuana despite current laws prohibiting its use...Whether adults' use of marijuana has decreased since marijuana became illegal in Rhode Island in 1918...Whether the current system of marijuana prohibition has created violence in the state of Rhode Island against users or among those who sell marijuana...Whether the proceeds from the sales of marijuana are funding organized crime, including drug cartels...Whether those who sell marijuana on the criminal market may also sell other drugs, thus increasing the chances that youth will use other illegal substances?''

The legislation also questions the "dangers associated with marijuana resulting from it being sold on the criminal market, including if it is ever contaminated or laced with other drugs.''

The panel has until January 31, 2010 to report its findings and recommendations to the Senate, though it would stay alive through January 31, 2014.

A bar owner who says he does not use illegal drugs or even drink liquor more than a few times a year, Miller said he is not hoping or expecting any specific outcome. "I am more open-minded that that,'' he said. "I am hoping to react to the best research and data we can get out of looking at it.''

A year ago, Republican Governor Carcieri vetoed a joint House and Senate call for a study of the wisdom of creating state-regulated marijuana dispensaries. But "since this was only a Senate resolution, it does not come to the governor for his approval,'' Carcieri spokeswoman Amy Kempe said.

In February, one of the co-sponsors, pharmacist Leo Blais, proposed a bill titled - "The Sensible State Marijuana Policy Act'' - that would have decriminalized the possession of an ounce of less of marijuana, reducing it to a civil offense for which anyone age 18 or older would face a $100 fine and forfeiture of the marijuana. The bill never made it out of the senate Judiciary Committee.

As of Wednesday, no person or group had formally applied for the license to run the first of the three marijuana dispensaries allowed by the so-called "compassion centers'' bill.

Both the House and Senate have each passed, for the second year in a row, their own versions (S39 and H5007) of a bill to eliminate mandatory minimum sentences for certain drug crimes. But no one version of the measure has yet cleared both chambers, in this year when the House and Senate went on hiatus, with no certain return date, and no final action on a bevy of high-profile bills.



News Hawk- Ganjarden http://www.420Magazine.com
Source: The Providence Journal
Author: Katherine Gregg
Contact: The Providence Journal
Copyright: 2009 The Providence Journal Co.,
Website: R.I. Senate Approves Commission to Study Marijuana Law