R.I.'s Vote To Allow Chronically Ill To Buy Marijuana Puts New Focus On Connecticut

By JOSH KOVNER | The Hartford Courant
June 19, 2009


Penny Bacchiochi knew people who knew people. Still, she was nervous when she paid for the marijuana and took it home. She gave it to her husband at the time, watched him smoke it gratefully — and saw something wondrous.

"He had bone cancer and was paralyzed from the waist down. He'd lost 80 pounds," said Bacchiochi, the Republican state representative from Somers. "No medication was helping with his nausea and sickness."

A doctor recommended marijuana "so I talked to some people. They got me some. When I gave it to my husband, there was a night-and-day difference. It changed the quality of his life."

That was in 1983, and her husband's experience was the reason, 24 years later, that she backed a medical marijuana bill in 2007 that sailed through the legislature but was vetoed by Gov. M. Jodi Rell.

And it was why she was moved by the actions this week of the Rhode Island legislature, which expanded legal protection to medical marijuana patients, and by the words of Tom Slater, a cancer-stricken state representative from Providence.

Rhode Island approved "compassion centers" — places where chronically ill Rhode Island residents who are registered with the state's health department and have a prescription from a doctor may buy pot to ease their pain. Before the legislature acted Tuesday, Rhode Island patients could grow a certain amount of marijuana for personal use but could not buy it legally.

"This gives a safe haven for those who have to go into seedy areas to try and get marijuana," Slater, a Democrat, said to a standing ovation at the State House on Tuesday after lawmakers overrode Rhode Island Gov. Don Carcieri's veto. Slater said that he plans to smoke marijuana for pain relief.

There are 700 medical marijuana patients registered with the Rhode Island health department and 582 caregivers who may purchase marijuana on behalf of someone else, said agency spokeswoman Annemarie Beardsworth.

Bacchiochi said that compared with the new Rhode Island law, Connecticut's proposal "was a baby step." It would have allowed patients with conditions such as cancer, epilepsy, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis or AIDS to grow up to four marijuana plants in their homes with a doctor's prescription. The bill was approved by wide margins in the Connecticut House and Senate in 2007 — when polls showed that 83 percent of Connecticut residents supported the legislation. But Rell vetoed the measure, saying that she sympathized with those in pain but felt that it would force people to seek out drug dealers to buy marijuana. The legislature lacked the votes to override her veto.

Bacchiochi, whose 52nd District consists of Somers, Stafford and Union, said that she reintroduced the bill earlier this year but did not press it after she was told that the governor had not changed her position.

"It's an issue the governor has carefully weighed and with which she has admittedly struggled," Rell spokeswoman Donna Tommelleo said Thursday. "However, she has made it clear that there are legal alternatives available and has concerns that it would send the wrong message to our youth. Further, the bill that came before her in 2007 made no provision for monitoring the drug's use or effectiveness."

The movement is gaining steam nationally, said Dan Bernath of the Washington, D.C.-based Medical Marijuana Project. Thirteen states provide protection to patients who use marijuana under a doctor's care, and the administration of President Barack Obama has said that it would not spend federal money going after people who are using marijuana legally.

Rhode Island joined California and New Mexico as the only states to permit marijuana sales to chronically ill people.

At least eight other states are considering similar legislation, including New Hampshire and Maine.

Bacchiochi said that the issue is worth fighting for in Connecticut.

"I look forward to being part of a legislature that takes this compassionate step," she said.