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out of luck (photo: Dank Depot)
In a four-paragraph news release, Chafee said it “has been a difficult decision,” but he said he felt that issuing the licenses would be placing the owners of the dispensaries and anyone affiliated with their operation at risk of arrest and federal prosecution.
“I cannot implement a state marijuana cultivation and distribution system which is illegal under federal law, and which will become a target of federal law-enforcement efforts,” said Chafee in his statement. “Federal injunctions, seizures, forfeitures, arrests and prosecutions will only hurt the patients and caregivers that our law was designed to protect.”
In 2009, Rhode Island’s medical marijuana law was amended to allow for the creation of three state-licensed non-profit medical marijuana dispensaries. These three compassion centers would help very sick individuals legally acquire medical marijuana. Growing one’s own medical marijuana can take too long and be too difficult for individuals who are immediately suffering from debilitating medical conditions.
The creation of these three dispensaries was previously put on hold in May after President Obama’s Department of Justice sent the governor a letter threatening to prosecute those running the compassion centers under federal law.
The decision by Chafee is disappointing given that recently New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (R) faced a similar dilemma but in the end decided to allow his state to license the dispensaries.
The blame for why some very sick people in Rhode Island may not get the medical marijuana they need rests partially with Gov. Chafee for not implementing a law passed overwhelming by the state legislature, and more importantly with the Obama administration, which has repeatedly broken Obama’s campaign promise to respect state’s medical marijuana laws.
21 Comments
obama is a complete asshole, no other way to say it
when even chris chris is more progressive than you are, you are royally fucked up
i’ve mentioned before that is was obama’s smarmy dismissal of marijuana legalization that first raised my hackles but i let it slide bc i still believed in him
well, i don’t beleive in him and i won’t let it slide
if obama weren’t such an asshole the federal law against marijuana would be repealed and states would be free, as they should, to regulate pot ad they see fit
obama is more a drug warrior than the goddamn republicans and i am fucking sick of it and him
Well, the state is being very coy.
According to the press release (?) RI could simply take a neutral hands-off approach, somewhat as many states do with immigration. It would be akin to passive resistance, which it’s my hunch isn’t the state’s real intent regarding drugs.
So suppose RI would issue an advisory that it does not license or condone dispensaries; licensing is not available at the state level nor is there a specific state penalty for lack of such a license per se; RI will neither participate in nor obstruct Fed enforcement efforts which may still apply.
Instead the state HAS recognized there are problems with such dispensaries, but does not want heat from dispensary proponents. So the state says it will “protect” the locals from DOJ by simply not issuing dispensary licences. What sense does that make?
It would be more honest for RI to simply beef up the drug laws a notch to remind everyone what the stance really is, and add dispensaries to the list of all the other drug paraphernalia which have long been banned.
Then let it become an election issue going forward and let the chips fall where they may.
Imagine how much better our country would be if the DoJ was as diligent in prosecuting Republican war criminals as it is in prosecuting marijuana.
wbgonne;
I understand your frustration with President Obama’s insistence on siccing the DOJ on marijuana dispensaries and growers within states that have voted to allow medical marijuana. However your blaming the president for not repealing a federal law is totally misplaced – that’s the congress’s job. If you don’t like the federal law (and I don’t either), talk to your representatives in congress – they’re the ones responsible for keeping the law in place.
Obama is a tool of big pharma as well and big pharma will never allow legalization because they can’t patent marijuana and therefore cannot profit from it.
Besides there is evidence marijuana provides more effective treatments (possibly even curative) for many illnesses and conditions big pharma makes a fortune treating so forget it.
Sick people = good for big pharma
Cured people= bad for big pharma
who do you think wins this?
He can be blamed for (a) NOT KEEPING HIS PROMISE TO NOT PROSECUTE/RAID/GO AFTER DISPENSARIES.
He can also be blamed for being a sap.
He can also be blamed for being a tool for big EVERYTHING including pharma.
And that’s a very very very short list of the big piles of shit Obama can be blamed for.
Right ON!
Not to mention prosecuting Democratic war criminals.
The DOJ could agree not to interfere with state medicinal marijuana laws. This does not take an act of Congress. And, this is what President Peace Laureate promised to do when he ran for office. (See, for example, http://tinyurl.com/5salrue) But, of course, President Peace was lying. Just as he lied about most everything else he promised to do once he was elected.
Weed was one of the few things that helped my brother with his pain after a brainstem infection nearly killed him and left him with permanent nerve damage. It was more effective than his wretched meds and no worry about addiction.
Damn Obama and his toady Justice Department to hell.
i disagree
when obama got elected he ran a series of online polls gauging issues of interest
again and again, marijuana legalization won overwhelmingly
and obama ignored the results over and over until he finally deigned to utter some supercilious aside dismissing the whole idea
then he appointed a drug warrior, killed mexico’s plan to legalize and generally contiuned the war on drugs like he was george w bush
fact is, there was solid support for marijuana reform at the start of obama’s term from liberals like blue dogs like
(cont’d) blue dogs like webb to libertarians like paul to liberals like frank (who annually sponsors a mar legalization bill)
if obama had wanted marijuana legalized and had moved to do it before everyone knew what a doofus he is, then the federal law against marijuana would be gone
Little by little, as States attempt to enact Single Payer and liberalize marijuana laws, liberals will come to value the idea of secession.
When I read this:
I suddenly had a flashback to our early days in Iraq. Anyone remember the sketches of the container trucks that were devising and building the WMD??
Then I imagined some
Keystone CopsATF Officers chasing Chaffee’s WMD trucks around the state to the theme song for Benny Hill… haha…Seriously… how ridiculous is it that a state passes a law and The Divine One prohibits it? But then, 007 can do whatever He wants!
The Rule of Law does not matter.
He has spoken.
One more reason to hate Obama. There are so many.
Yep, hopefully I will still be alive by then…
Obama has, and will continue to be, the death of what little is left of the Democratic Party. One can easly ascribe the growth of the ultra right recently directly to him.
we are under no obligation to obey their law, it is not our law…the peoples law. We are continually harassed by laws that have no bearing on our welfare. When they take the oath of office, they swear to uphold the public trust…they have repeatedly broken that trust. So, why do we obey? that would be the question to ask, when they, so obviously use the law, and that broken trust, against us and our desires.
my lizard brain would say fuck them, the higher functions say use wise council..so after this little private conference we came to the conclusion to say fuck you softly. heh
I salute you with spliff raised, in joy and ecsatsy, our proper birth right.
The rule of law
Is stated thus
All men are created equal..The part now trashed…under the law. and that depends on how much sovereign right we are willing to bestow on others, as we are born free in the total sense of the word, no matter location, or government aegis which is defined at wicki thusly;
An aegis (play /ˈiːdʒɨs/; from Greek αιγίς) is a large collar or cape worn in ancient times to display the protection provided by a high religious authority or the holder of a protective shield signifying the same, such as a bag-like garment that contained a shield. Sometimes the garment and the shield are merged, with a small version of the shield appearing on the garment. It originally was derived from the protective shield associated with a religious figure when related in myths and images. The wearing of the aegis and its contents show sponsorship, protection, or authority derived from yet a higher source or deity. The name has been extended to many other entities, and the concept of a protective shield is found in other mythologies, while its form varies across sources.
Now, the more modern concept of doing something “under someone’s aegis” means doing something under the protection of a powerful, knowledgeable, or benevolent source. The word aegis is identified with protection by a strong force with its roots in Greek mythology and adopted by the Romans; there are parallels in Norse mythology and in Egyptian mythology as well, where the Greek word aegis is applied by extension.
Broken trust leaves us no alternative but to ignore them and their law.
It’s just reefer man……….we are truly in a world totally lacking in beauty, subtle energy, substantial culture, ruled by beasts.
Break free/ full stop on this bleak death.*
As I said below, fuck them
I am old but still a precursor of what our future generations will take as common sense, individual right.
Obama had the choice of Michelle Leonhart as chief of the DEA, a career marijuana witch hunter.
He can also issue statements and apply leverage to key members of congress. He’s not entirely at fault, just completely useless on this issue.
The same thing happened in Washington state. We had about ten dispensaries in my town. ONe week of crack downs and they all were closed down. Signs all still up over empty buildings. They’ve been gone about 10 months now, maybe a year. The thing that makes me the maddest is the people want access. This country is suppose to be a democracy and something of this small scale and the great need shows the extent to which our leaders are going to deny the democratic method with no explanation or justification.
The thing that makes all of this so sick is Med MJ is far safer than all of the drugs people replace it with and cheaper. So we are being forced against the people’s will, in what is suppose to be a democratic country, to take inferior meds with life threatening side effects that cost a fortune so those in power can play their little for-profit incarceration game and slave labor creation, give more money to the pharmaceutical companies that are richer than God. Destroy lives, use deadly chemicals that could be replaced by hemp, save forests, make a cheap and affordable fiber for industry. ON and on and on. It plain sick,