Marijuana News

The Marijuana Policy Project submitted comments today recommending revisions to the Delaware Department of Health and Social Services’ proposed medical marijuana compassion center regulations. MPP is particularly concerned that the proposed rules would result in an inadequate supply of medical marijuana by allowing only a single compassion center — instead of the three provided for in the law — and allowing it to grow only 150 plants.

delaware-compassion-center-regulations Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/12/Discount_Medical_Marijuana_-_2.jpgFailing to allow for an appropriate and consistent supply will cause qualifying patients to either have to continue frequenting the criminal market or suffering without a medicine that can improve their quality of life. It will also seriously compromise the financial sustainability of successful compassion center applicants.

Delaware is one of 20 states and the District of Columbia to allow patients to use marijuana to treat certain medical conditions, but development of compassion centers to provide safe access to their medicine was temporarily halted in 2011. In August, Gov. Jack Markell decided to move forward with implementing a more limited program and tasked the Division of Public Health with setting the rules for compassion center licensing and operation. Since Gov. Markell’s announcement, the U.S. Department of Justice has released a new memo that provides that federal prosecutors should not target dispensaries based on their size alone.

The full recommendations can be viewed here.

“We commend Gov. Markell and the Division of Public Health for moving forward with this program,” said Robert Capecchi, deputy director of state policies for the Marijuana Policy Project. “While many of the proposed rules are reasonable, there are several that history has shown will result in compassion centers being unable to provide enough medicine for their patients. Seriously ill Delaware residents deserve legal protection for using the medicine that works best for them, but they also need safe and reliable access. The proposed rules would create the same problems we’ve seen in New Jersey, where the sole dispensary has been unable to meet patients’ needs, leaving most of the state’s patients without any access to their medicine.”

The proposed regulations can be viewed in full here.

Article republished from Marijuana Policy Project