home>>>

House Votes to Make Medical Marijuana Law Permanent, 50-12

mpp.org

Providence, RI May 3, 2007 -- Rhode Island's House of Representatives voted today to make the Edward O. Hawkins and Thomas C. Slater Medical Marijuana Act permanent, by a vote of 50 to 12. The vote comes in the wake of several favorable studies on medical marijuana and the signing of legislation making New Mexico the 12th medical marijuana state earlier this month.

"I am grateful that the House has done the right thing," said Craig Paquette of Richmond, who suffers severe pain from spinal injuries received in a 1992 accident and endured serious side effects from narcotic painkillers. "Because of the medical marijuana law, I have a quality of life I would never have had without it, and I hope the Senate and the governor will quickly agree that the law should be made permanent."

"This overwhelming vote shows how completely non-controversial medical marijuana has become," said Ray Warren, director of state policies for the Marijuana Policy Project in Washington, D.C. "The scientific evidence for medical marijuana is overwhelming, and Rhode Island's real-world experience has shown that this is a good law that has protected suffering patients, with remarkably few problems."

At present, effective medical marijuana laws are on the books in Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington. Rhode Island's medical marijuana law was passed with a one-year sunset clause, meaning that it will expire on June 30 if the legislature fails to act. A Senate vote on the measure to make the law permanent is expected tomorrow.

Recent studies have demonstrated that marijuana relieves a type of debilitating nerve pain that commonly afflicts AIDS patients, and that medical marijuana use is associated with improved treatment adherence and increased cure rates for hepatitis C. Two studies published this month, in Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics and the Harm Reduction Journal, demonstrated the value of vaporization as a safe, smoke-free way to administer medical marijuana.