Medical Marijuana

From the Providence Journal comes news that Governor Carcieri has vetoed a bill that would have studied the question of whether to establish distribution centers for medical marijuana. In his veto message, Carcieri wrote “This study commission intends to create the roadmap for making the state a party to the manufacture, procession and distribution of a controlled substance.” In other words, even asking whether we ought to create distribution centers is as bad as actually creating the distribution centers.

The General Assembly may well override this particular veto and create a commission to study whether the state should allow the distribution of medical marijuana. If so, then the commission is going to have to deal with the one great problem facing the establishment of such distribution centers: the fact that owning and distributing marijuana is still illegal under federal law. Medical marijuana is legal in California, but the federal government raided several municipal distribution centers last year. Of course, by this time next year the DEA could have new orders from a new administration to look the other way when medical marijuana is distributed to patients, but as long as the laws are still on the books, enforcement will always be at the whim of the federal government.

I personally support the establishment of distribution centers, but it will be up to Rhode Island's Congressional delegation in Washington to change the law at the federal level. Until that happens, any laws passed by the General Assembly will be under a permanent shadow.