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Following a 1999 citizen initiative referendum that legalized medical marijuana in Maine, the state legislature is looking at ways to implement the new law.
Maine is one of seven states that has legalized medicinal marijuana since California and Arizona began the trend in 1996. Citizen initiatives for medical marijuana have been modeled after California’s Proposition 200; Hawaii is the only state to legalize it by legislative initiative.
Though legal to prescribed patients, the possession and use of marijuana continues to be prohibited under federal drug laws. Under the federal Controlled Substances Act, marijuana is listed as a Schedule I drug. Drugs labeled as Schedule I, including heroin and LSD, are labeled as having high risk of abuse, high potential for addiction or psychological damage and of no medicinal value.
This conflict between state and federal law makes it difficult for patients to procure, possess and use marijuana to treat a diagnosed condition.
To make marijuana available to patients, a handful of California residents pioneered the concept of a cooperative of marijuana growers and buyers club for patients. There are now between six and eight such organizations in California with thousands of members. As a member, a diagnosed patient is assured access to marijuana of guaranteed purity and potency. The members are relieved of the responsibility of growing their own marijuana or using the black market to acquire it.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the Justice Department sued six California buyers clubs in 1998, halting their operations. The U.S. 9th District Court of Appeals reversed the ruling, allowing the clubs to distribute marijuana to diagnosed patients. The Supreme Court, on behalf of the Justice Department, immediately issued an injunction stopping the operations once more. The Supreme Court heard opening arguments last Thursday in U.S vs. Oakland Cannabis Buyers’ Cooperative. Their ruling will determine the future of private cooperatives.
The Maine Legislature will be watching the ruling as an indicator of the legality of providing an illegal drug to patients with a legal right to have it.
In 1999 Maine voters passed a citizen initiative referendum legalizing the use of marijuana for medical purposes. The Medicinal Marijuana Act of 1998 allowed patients with a specified illness to possess up to six plants and 1.25 ounces of dried marijuana. Patients suffering muscle spasms from muscular dystrophy, seizures, glaucoma and the wasting effects of AIDS or chemotherapy may be eligible to use marijuana. Medical marijuana is used primarily to relax the body, reduce pain and nausea and increase appetite.
After the act’s inception, the Maine Attorney General created a task force to determine how to implement the new law and make marijuana available to patients. The task force released their report late last year. In a summary of that report, Mainers for Medical Rights said “They [the task force] focused on the patient’s need for a consistent, adequate and legal supply of medical marijuana. Mutual areas of concern included the safety and purity of marijuana obtained, the lack of immediately available marijuana for patients with an urgent need, the difficulties of patients growing their own marijuana, particularly in Maine’s short growing season, and the need for a Review Board to approve new conditions if warranted.”
The task force determined that a state-sanctioned distribution program would resolve many of these difficulties. A bill before the legislature, LD 611, An Act to Create a Pilot Project to Fully Implement the Maine Medical Marijuana Act of 1998, would create a nonprofit center to grow and distribute marijuana for diagnosed patients. LD 611, sponsored by Senator Anne M. Rand D-Cumberland County, is before the Senate Health and Human Services Committee.
The distribution centers would function in a manner similar to California’s buyers clubs. According to the Bangor Daily News, a pilot program would set up countywide centers where patients could buy marijuana, receive seeds, growing equipment and advice on growing at home. These centers would be state-sanctioned, rather than a private cooperative such as in California.
Legally, a Supreme Court Ruling on private cooperatives would not effect the possibility of a state-operated center for distribution. But, a judgment against the Oakland Cannabis Buyers’ Cooperative combined with federal objections to medicinal marijuana could put LD 611 on the legislative back burner.
Bangor Daily News