January 9th, 2009 – (BANGOR, Maine) – Maine citizens recently voted on the issue of medical marijuana and by over 100,000 ballots cast, approved a medical marijuana initiative. Now two groups; Maine Citizens for Medical Marijuana and Maine Vocals, are trying to help bring clarity to existing laws.

“The people obviously wanted to improve our current law for medical marijuana, but not many really read or understood the language in the ballot initiative.”

They point to several issues with the new law that are a real problem, and will make the law worse than it was, although the old law did need some fixing.

They say the first Issue is that, “The new law is written for big brother with their authority and regulations, and run by those who do not want this law to work or succeed, contrary to the will of the People.”

The groups say the second issue is, who is going to oversee the medical marijuana law and the dispensaries, which is the Dept. of Health and Human Services. “This is a conflict of interest and recipe for failure for several reasons,” they added.

They describe the third issue as the way the Dispensaries are being set up and run with a $5,000.00 state permit fee, with more likely than not, county and local fees, plus regulations.

The fourth issue that’s a matter of concern according to these activists, is the I.D. Card System that supplies the state with a list of names of all medical marijuana patients and also gives special privileges to patients who possess a valid State I.D. Card. “Those who only possess the Doctor’s authorization in writing will not be treated the same, and will have to dance to a different drummer.”

There are several more issues with the new law that groups say have to be dealt with, “along with the fact that the Marijuana Policy Project, from Washington D.C., who wrote this law, left out the most important issues Maine Citizens needed to be changed with the prior law.”

Not many doctors are cooperating with patients who want to use marijuana in their therapy, so adding to the way a patient qualifies for use of marijuana by allowing for a diagnosis of an illness for which marijuana may provide relief will solve that. Patients then will be able to decide for themselves, and doctors will have to work with them.

That the amount of plants that can be grown needs to be upgraded from 6 Plants to 12 plants in order to grow enough for the year and maintain plants for future use.

It is important that the state upgrade the amount of medical marijuana a patient can possess, from 2 ½ ounces up to 3 lbs. “The amount a plant grows varies, but it is possible to yield ½ lb to 1 lb of marijuana per plant if the plants do really good. It is impossible to harvest even one plant under the current law or prior law, so these are some of the things that absolutely need to be fixed, along with a few other issues to make our medical marijuana law work for Maine. This along with actually making it legal, instead of an affirmative defense, which has been a problem and makes this law a unique, one-of-a- kind law, but shouldn’t be any different than any other law.”

The Department that is in control of the legislative regulations would change from the DHS to the Dept. of Agriculture with a committee of designated members to oversee the program which will include patients, caregivers, and doctors as well as legislators and others. It also sets in place certain guidelines for the committee and legislators to go by, not leaving it open for “anything goes”.

Another aspect missing is a definition of a “Public Place” which needs to be included.

The two groups say Maine also needs to develop a system for how a dispensary is to be run, and to make it legal for privately operated dispensaries as well as the appointed state locations.

Maine Vocals and Maine Citizens for Medical Marijuana will be circulating an initiative to fix this law to actually work for the citizens of Maine who need marijuana for their medicine for 2010. The language proposed is up on mainevocals.net or mcfmm.com so go to it and read it yourself to know exactly what we are proposing. It will include the repeal of the 2009 vote, and a few changes that will be posted soon.

“Maine Vocals will also be circulating a full legalization initiative to run alongside the medical initiative, as the public has shown great interest in and support for the “just legalize it” attitude, which is what we have been told by young and old alike during our mission of educating the public statewide, while we have been patiently getting our initiative ready to move forward.”

The team will need help from many volunteers to get this done. They are seeking volunteers, and can be reached at:
Maine Vocals
65 Shusta Rd.,
Madison,
Maine
04950
mainevocals@msn.com

Source.

Attorney General Seeks To Avoid ‘Wild West’ In Maine

December 15, 2009 – AUGUSTA, Maine — The governor’s panel tasked with determining how, when and where medical marijuana will be distributed in Maine heard from Californians at a hearing Tuesday in Augusta to learn from their precedent.

In November, Gov. John Baldacci ordered the creation of the task force after voters approved a new law to allow licensed dispensaries at nonprofit groups that will provide medical marijuana to qualified patients.

The panel, made up of legislators, patient advocates and the attorney general, heard Tuesday from a woman who heads a medical marijuana program in Berkeley, Calif., where a law allowing for the distribution of marijuana to patients has been in effect for 10 years.

“This should not have a negative connotation. This is a medicine. This is essentially a pharmacy with a community center component in our model,” said Becky DeKeuster, of the Berkeley Patients Group.

The Maine panelists are tasked with figuring out how many medical marijuana patients there are in Maine and how many distribution clinics or dispensaries are needed to serve them. At least one member of the panel said he’s not sure if the state needs one, 10 or 50.

Berkeley’s marijuana clinic serves 200 to 250 people a day with only one dispensary in the city.

“I think there is a need. How big a need that is, I don’t know,” said Brunswick Sen. Stan Gerzofsky, D-District 10.

The 14-member task force will set rules that will take effect within 120 days, and members are taking every single detail into account.

“It’s clear that that’s our job here to make sure that we are addressing what the voters really voted on — which is to be sure that we are overseeing the development and then the operations of these dispensaries in a way that gets medicine to people but still protects public safety,” said Brenda Harvey, commissioner of the Maine Department of Health and Human Services.

“This task force is not going to be able to accomplish the dotting of every I and the crossing of every T, but addressing the issues ahead of time is crucial so that you don’t end up with a wild-west situation,” DeKeuster said.

That “wild west” mentality is exactly what Maine Attorney General Janet Mills seeks to avoid. She asked the group from California to provide names and numbers of law enforcement officials so she can check for herself the impact this law has had.

Town Leaders OK Moratorium On Dispensaries

City Council members in Brewer voted unanimously Tuesday to approve a six-month moratorium on medical marijuana dispensaries.

During an emergency meeting, some council members said their concerns are not related to the medical marijuana dispensaries themselves since voters in the state supported broadening the laws, but Brewer police said they would like more time to address where the dispensaries would be located and how the marijuana would be cultivated, distributed and transported.

Council members said no one has approached the city about opening a medical marijuana dispensary, but they want to get ahead of the issue. Source.