Rhode Island Law Enforcement Seeks To Address Safety Issues With Medical Marijuana Program

[bobandtorey]

PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island — Law enforcement officials are pushing to amend Rhode Island's medical marijuana law to address public safety problems they call unintended consequences of the program, but patient advocates say the changes would jeopardize access to medicine.

The attorney general's office and municipal police chiefs say some licensed cardholders are growing excess amounts of marijuana under a program with inadequate oversight and some caregivers and patients have become targets of home invasions.

"People are taking advantage of this program to a level that the General Assembly could never have realized," said Special Assistant Attorney General Joee Lindbeck.

She claims the program has created a "new class of crime victim." Lindbeck and other law enforcement authorities cite a string of break-ins and assaults targeting growers, though no formal statistics were available.

Authorities also say some growers are cultivating in unsafe conditions that don't meet housing codes, resulting in fires.

Legislation introduced by state Rep. Lisa Tomasso, D-Coventry, at the request of Attorney General Peter Kilmartin would substantially reduce the number of allowable plants while increasing the amount of legal marijuana that could be possessed. Patients could have three plants, down from 12. The limit for caregivers would be six, down from 24.

JoAnne Leppanen, executive director of the Rhode Island Patient Advocacy Coalition, said the bill cuts the number of plants so much that caregivers wouldn't have enough marijuana to meet their patients' needs.

"You would literally be taking medicine away from patients," she said, adding that many patients say the cost of getting medical marijuana from licensed compassion centers has proved to be prohibitively expensive.

She said that most in the program follow the rules and that problems are "very few and far between." She questioned whether all the crimes cited by police are in fact linked to medical marijuana.

Tomasso's bill would also require growers to get a cultivation certificate from the Department of Health; institute national criminal background checks for those applying to be caregivers; set up a safety inspection system for growers; and allow police to more easily verify, through a 24-hour automated system, whether someone is authorized to cultivate.

"With medical marijuana grows, there is no monitoring," said Richmond Police Chief Elwood Johnson Jr., the head of the Rhode Island police chiefs association, in recent testimony before a House panel hearing marijuana-related bills, including one to legalize it. "There's no regulation outside of the police acting on tips. And we can't find whether there's a grow there until we go there."

According to the state Department of Health, there are 7,600 registered medical marijuana patients and just fewer than 3,500 caregivers. Five registrations have been revoked for violations since the program went into effect, according to spokesman James Palmer.

Tomasso said that the program has been highly successful in helping sick patients and that the proposed changes are not designed to get in the way of that. Rather, she said, they would address serious problems that have cropped up.

"We're trying to find the balance," she said.

She and Lindbeck have called the bill a work in progress and say they are continuing to have discussions with the patient and caregiver community.

The House Judiciary Committee did not vote on it. Companion legislation hasn't been heard in the Senate.

 

http://www.dailyjournal.net/view/story/d3f54b3c52e8422eaaa01ca31167f165/RI--Medical-Marijuana-Safety/#.U105x8bHP8s

[bobandtorey]

Tomasso's bill would also require growers to get a cultivation certificate from the Department of Health ?

 

The State now knows how too grow cannabis ?

[t-pain]

i dont get how the police will be happy with 3 plants vs 12 plants.

 

how does that make them happy? in other states trying to get mmj, the mpp offers 3 plants instead of 12 and the police still dont want it.

 

whats the difference between 3 and 12 for a home invasion? nothing? nothing.

[bobandtorey]

it's my own opinion that its not how many plants but its where the plants are located  i think the War is more on plants now then people  must using cannabis

[GregS]

Yeah. No statistics. That's the answer.

[Chauncy Gardner]

They are just PO'd at the whole marijuana thing. They are stuck in a mindset that tells them "It must be controlled! It must be controlled!" without giving any corroborating evidence as to WHY it must be controlled. When they go looking for evidence and can't find any, they resort to making things up because "they just KNOW" that there is something bad here.

 

This is the same "club" that is operating in all 50 states. They are against marijuana, but they can't honestly say why.

[motorcitymeds]

MOre BS MJ haters still clinging onto that OLD REEFER MADNESS mind set.  They just can not get over it..Weed is here to stay and not going anywhere,  they can try and circumvent the laws that get passed but in the end they are jsut setting themselves and the country up for out right legalization.

 

let them hate it only fuels the war they pledge to fight.  Soon they will not have MJ to hate on any further and will be forced to get out there and fight Heroin houses and crack heads...or metheads who are committing hom einvasions to steal just to get a fix.

 

 

Fuxin sick of hearing stories like this.

[bobandtorey]

They are just PO'd at the whole marijuana thing. They are stuck in a mindset that tells them "It must be controlled! It must be controlled!" without giving any corroborating evidence as to WHY it must be controlled. When they go looking for evidence and can't find any, they resort to making things up because "they just KNOW" that there is something bad here.

 

This is the same "club" that is operating in all 50 states. They are against marijuana, but they can't honestly say why.

Thank you

 

you make great points i agree 

[bobandtorey]

MOre BS MJ haters still clinging onto that OLD REEFER MADNESS mind set.  They just can not get over it..Weed is here to stay and not going anywhere,  they can try and circumvent the laws that get passed but in the end they are jsut setting themselves and the country up for out right legalization.

 

let them hate it only fuels the war they pledge to fight.  Soon they will not have MJ to hate on any further and will be forced to get out there and fight Heroin houses and crack heads...or metheads who are committing hom einvasions to steal just to get a fix.

 

 

Fuxin sick of hearing stories like this.

 

I also agree i'am sick of it too and sometimes i just don't want to post stories like this but feel i have to get the word out to as many as i can 

[bobandtorey]

Row after row of pot plants fill every room of a home in Little Compton.

It was set up, police said, by two men from Massachusetts.

"Just about every single room in the house had some type of marijuana growing in it or drying," said Lt. Antone Marion in September 2013.

 

One of the suspects had a Rhode Island medical marijuana caregiver card, allowing him to legally grow pot for a sick friend or relative.

But the hundreds of plants found in two homes here in September went way beyond what the law allows.

 

And police said one of the suspects sold pot to an undercover officer multiple times, allegedly looking not for medicine, but for a profit.

"I think what's happening is there are plenty of people out there who are circumventing the medical marijuana laws for personal gain," said Capt. Kevin O'Brien of the Rhode Island State Police.

On March 4, Rhode Island State Police troopers made a massive bust that included 19 pounds of packaged marijuana and about 100 mature plants.

 

The sophisticated growing operation was hidden inside two suburban homes in Hopkinton. Inside both grow houses, troopers found medical marijuana patient cards.

But again, the massive amount of marijuana far exceeded the legal limit.

 

O'Brien said it's a pattern police all over the state are seeing, with state police logging at least 10 busts involving medical marijuana cards in the past 18 months.

"The amount that they're growing, in certain instances, far exceeds the demand for medical marijuana patients. So where is all that extra marijuana going?" O'Brien said.

The high level of secrecy surrounding the program is another problem.

 

Currently, the only state agency that can check whether someone has a valid marijuana card is the Health Department. Police said when they knock on the door of suspected grow house, there's no way to know for sure if the person inside is a legitimate patient or a drug dealer.

 

"We don't know who the good guys and the bad guys are," O'Brien said.

Attorney General Peter Kilmartin, a former police officer, is backing a bill he says would close loopholes in the law.

"We need to really make the system better," Kilmartin said.

 

Kilmartin also wants to close a loophole that allows patients and caregivers to apply for cards without a national background check, meaning out-of-state convictions won't show up as a red flag.

"We just want to keep those with drug convictions away from the program for obvious reasons," he said.

 

Joanne Leppanen, who leads the Rhode Island Patient Advocacy Coalition, a group that supports medical marijuana patients, said it's very frustrating for her that there are drug dealers abusing the program.

 

"This program is a successful program. It has literally maintained the lives of people who otherwise would not be with us today," Leppanen said.

 

http://www.turnto10.com/story/25369699/i-team-legal-medical-marijuana-cards-used-for-illegal-drug-operations

She said while the recent busts are disturbing, they represent a small fraction of people in the medical marijuana program.

There are about 7,600 patients and 3, 500 caregivers statewide.

But only five have ever had their cards revoked. Most patients, she said, are following the law.

"The medical marijuana program creates a safe harbor for people who are licensed and live within the limits of the program. If they step out of that safe harbor, they are no longer protected. They are subject to the same laws that everybody else is," Leppanen said.

Leppanen said she has no problem with more thorough background checks, and she would support a system to let state police know where legal marijuana grows are located.

"As long as we don't hurt their access to medicine, then I think that we are very receptive to changes that would make this program better," she said.

Backers hope to pass the bill this year which is currently in the House Judiciary Committee.

[Wild Bill]

They are just PO'd at the whole marijuana thing. They are stuck in a mindset that tells them "It must be controlled! It must be controlled!" without giving any corroborating evidence as to WHY it must be controlled. When they go looking for evidence and can't find any, they resort to making things up because "they just KNOW" that there is something bad here.

 

This is the same "club" that is operating in all 50 states. They are against marijuana, but they can't honestly say why.