Last chance to act: D.C. medical marijuana law likely to be finalized Tuesday

Marijuana Policy Project Alert

April 28, 2010

 

Last chance to act: D.C. medical marijuana law likely to be finalized Tuesday

Please contact your councilmembers and ask them to offer needed amendments to the bill

Dear friends:

The wait is nearly over. Eleven years after D.C. voters demanded it, medical marijuana is finally coming to the District. And while we’re all excited to see the program finally approved, the bill now being considered includes a few areas of concern for patients who could benefit from medical marijuana and voters who approved a program now being altered by the Council. Please get in touch with your councilmembers and urge them to offer an amendment to address one or more of these potential pitfalls:

• Unlike patients who use more dangerous medicines like Oxycontin, medical marijuana patients will only be allowed to medicate in their homes or approved medical facilities. A simple ban on public smoking would be a better alternative.
• Patients can only use marijuana or paraphernalia obtained from a licensed dispensary. Since no one can predict when, or even if, the program will be able to produce enough medical marijuana to meet demand, patients should not be criminalized for acquiring marijuana through a caregiver or other means. Further, there’s no rational reason to force patients who already own a vaporizer or other working device to purchase a new, unnecessary one from a dispensary.
• Cultivation centers are limited to 95 plants. This limitation has been a proven policy failure in New Mexico, where patients continue to report an inability to procure medicine at a reasonable price, if at all. This limitation will discourage responsible investors while simultaneously creating a need for dozens of cultivation centers in order to meet demand.
• Severe and/or chronic pain is not a qualified medical condition. All but one of the 14 existing and functional medical marijuana laws covers severe and/or chronic pain. The consensus among the scientific community is that marijuana can be effective in pain treatment, so there’s no reason to criminalize patients who need marijuana to treat severe, chronic pain.
• The original "Initiative 59" also allowed patients to cultivate their own medicine, but under this bill home cultivation won’t be allowed until at least 2012, if at all.

It will only take you a minute to use our simple automated program to send a message to your councilmembers, but please don’t stop there. Call their offices and have a conversation – you can even request a meeting to discuss the bill in person. There are only a few days left for you to make a difference, so please take the time to get in touch with your councilmembers. At-large members Kwame Brown, David Catania, Phil Mendelson, Michael Brown, and Chairman Vincent Gray represent all D.C. residents. You can find your ward-specific member here.

We expect the Council to take a final vote on the measure Tuesday, May 4. That means you have less than one week to make a difference. We have to get this right. A medical marijuana program in our nation’s capital will influence the future of medical marijuana around the country. Legislators from all 36 states yet to enact an effective medical marijuana law will likely point to elements of D.C.’s program when considering legislation in their home states.
Thanks for your time and all your support. After you’ve talked with your councilmembers, forward this e-mail to friends in the District and ask them to do the same.

Thanks again,

Dan Riffle
Legislative Analyst
Marijuana Policy Project

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