Herb Ninja

Vermonts Medical Marijuana Program Has Few Takers

11-30-2004 | Justin Mason | Brattleboro Reformer

BRATTLEBORO -- As the Supreme Court considers whether to allow states to enact laws governing the usage of federally banned drugs, Vermont officials are still waiting to receive their first application for the permitted use of marijuana.

Last month, the state Department of Public Safety began accepting applications for people suffering from certain serious diseases to be placed on a newly created marijuana registry.

"The state of Vermont took a unique approach in trying to meet everybody's needs," said Francis Aumand III, director of the department's Criminal Justice Services. "They made this a a regulatory function rather than a health department function."

But since that time, Aumand said none of the 43 applications requested have been returned. More could be circulating, he said, because applications are posted on the department's Web site.

"Nobody has finished processing the applications or have mailed them back yet," he said.

In May, the Vermont Legislature joined Maine as the only two states in the Northeast with laws protecting the usage of marijuana by seriously ill patients.

Without the signature of Gov. James Douglas, the Vermont legislation created the registry allowing the use of marijuana among patients in end-of-life care or suffering the effects of cancer and AIDS.

Also eligible for the registry are those patients suffering from cancer, AIDS, multiple sclerosis, or positive status for human immunodeficiency virus, who have debilitating symptoms not relieved by conventional treatment.

In addition to the application, prospective applicants must provide a digital photograph, physician verification of the medical condition suffered and a $100 administration fee. Qualified patients are then given a unique identification number and card, which can easily be verified by any law enforcement agent across the state.

But with the issue being heard Monday in the nation's highest court with a ruling due sometime next year, Aumand said it would be difficult to tell how a ruling banning medical marijuana usage would affect Vermont.

From the department's perspective, he said the marijuana registry would likely be put on hold until legislators could talk with legal counsel.

"It would undoubtedly be addressed by our Legislature," he said.

Max Schlueter, the director of the Vermont Criminal Information Center, speculated that a Supreme Court ruling against states' rights to make laws governing medical marijuana usage wouldn't change much in Vermont.

"When the Legislature passed this law, that was the status quo," he said. "It's not like the Legislature passed this without knowing the federal implications."

Even if Vermonters eventually join the marijuana registry, Schlueter said the state law wouldn't absolve them from federal prosecution. If the government performed raids, he said citizens on the registry would be just as culpable as if they were not.

"They're not exempt under federal law because they're in violation of the federal drug act," he said. "The question is, of course, what is the likelihood that there would be a federal prosecution on this activity."

In Vermont, that likelihood is fairly infinitesimal, said Bruce Mirken, a spokesman for the Washington D.C.-based Marijuana Policy Project which has spent $426,349 lobbying in Vermont since 2002. He said nearly 99 percent of marijuana arrests in the state are made by local and state law enforcement agencies.

"It isn't perfect, but still substantial," he said. "[The law] is still going to be in place no matter what happens."

Mirken said a federal court ruling in favor of medicinal marijuana usage would finally offer complete protection to those Vermonters permitted to use the drug. This change, he said, will likely happen over time, given the increasing support for such uses by the populous.

"But it's not going to happen next week."

__________________
"Truth is treason in an empire of lies." -Ron Paul