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JnEverett

Marijuana petition aimed at referendum
11-15-06 l Maine Coast Now l Jane Andrews

A group of people promoting marijuana for medical purposes wants to put the issue before voters again to set up a way to dispense the drug to patients and clarify the existing law.

By election day, proponents had collected signatures on a petition in Belfast and other communities totaling more than 21,000 in hopes that they will have more than the number needed to put the issue on the ballot.

Lynn Rayburn of Belfast said the proposal would require the legislature to designate at least one marijuana outlet store or buyers’ club per county and one in each municipality that has more than 25,000 residents.

The outlet stores and clubs must be run by patients and designated marijuana providers and overseen by the Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Resources, Rayburn said.

A Department of Agriculture spokesman hadn’t seen the petition or been asked to review it and said he would have to consult with his colleagues at the departments of public safety and public health and the governor’s office.

“At current staff levels, we are ill equipped to do that,” said Ned Porter, deputy commissioner. “Other than that, I don’t know because I haven’t seen the proposal.”

State public health director Dora Anne Mills said there appears to be a medical place for the chemicals in marijuana, but there are problems with a delivery system that consists of inhaling smoke from marijuana cigarettes.

“You can’t dose it properly, there are often contaminants and the smoke is an issue,” said Mills, who is a doctor. “You need to work on an alternative delivery system.”

Don Christie, founder of Maine Vocals, drafted the petition and submitted it to the Secretary of State’s office. He hopes to have the 51,000 to 53,000 signatures needed to put the issue before voters in 2007 or 2008.

“It would be the best marijuana law in the U.S. if it passes,” said Christie. “It would be placed under the Department of Agriculture.”

Vocals is a group dedicated to legalizing marijuana for people over the age of 18, but Christie said at the moment, the organization is just advocating its use for medical purposes.

Vocals and NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) say marijuana helps people with epilepsy and glaucoma, cancer, AIDS, neurological seizures and severe muscle spasticity.

Rayburn had worked on referendum issues in other states she has lived in and said when a friend asked her to help in Belfast, where she now lives, she agreed to do it.

“The side effects of chemotherapy are ghastly and there’s no synthetic drug to alleviate them,” she said, referring to another medical use.

Voters passed the Maine Medical Marijuana Act in 1999 to increase the treatment options for seriously or terminally ill patients, protect doctors from criminal or professional sanctions if they recommend it and provide patients with a legal defense if they are arrested for using medical marijuana recommended by a physician.

More than 61 percent of the voters approved the referendum question while 38.6 percent voted “no.”

The current petition attempts to clarify portions of that law.

It defines “patient” as a person who has the written or oral recommendation of a physician for the use of marijuana or who has been diagnosed with an illness for which marijuana may provide relief.

“Patient” also includes a person who has a family history of an illness for which marijuana is a preventative medicine including, but not limited to, epilepsy and glaucoma.

It defines “designated marijuana provider” as a person who is designated by a patient to assume the responsibility for growing or providing marijuana for that patient. That person must be at least 18 or a family member of the patient. It limits the amount the patient or provider may possess.

The state would have to establish an education campaign to inform the public about the medical uses of marijuana.

Currently, anyone convicted of possession of marijuana who isn’t exempt under the medical marijuana act faces a fine of $350 to $600, according to NORML’s Web site.

Those caught cultivating it face a jail sentence of six months to 10 years and fine of $1,000 to $2,000. Sale of marijuana may bring a jail sentence of one year to 10 years and fine of $2,000 to $20,000.

 

BillieBudd

Well, I would reckon that vaporizing the medicine would solve the problem of the "alternate delivery system", there, Doctor Mills.
Snce this imy home state, I will get involved, but the Maine Vocals have in the past tended to get overly ambitious, and I see the business of "family history" as being a weak point in the concept. That is to say an area ripe for attack by opponents...Forward we go!!!