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http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20110512/NEWS02/105120346/Medical-marijuana-OK-d

Delaware Senate approves medical marijuana

DOVER -- Delawareans with cancer, HIV/AIDS, multiple sclerosis and other debilitating diseases could be legally using marijuana a year from now to alleviate the effects of their ailments.

The Senate on Wednesday sent Gov. Jack Markell legislation that would decriminalize marijuana possession, use and distribution for limited medical purposes.

The Senate's final vote came after an extensive lobbying effort that began in January with a visit to Legislative Hall by celebrity talk show host Montel Williams, who uses marijuana to ease the debilitating effects of MS.

With Markell expected to sign the bill soon, Delaware would have one of the strictest medical marijuana laws in the country, regulating everything from the quality of the cannabis to how it is transported. Fifteen states, including New Jersey, already have medical marijuana laws on the books.

"There is no other bill like the bill we just passed here in Delaware," said Senate Majority Whip Margaret Rose Henry, a Wilmington Democrat who was the bill's sponsor.

Unlike residents in other states, ill Delawareans who get a doctor's recommendation to use marijuana would not be allowed to grow their own at home. They would be supplied only through state-licensed dispensaries.

"All of the changes that were written in weren't bad things, they were responsible and safety things," said Joe Scarborough, a 47-year-old Wilmington man with HIV who advocated the bill.

Laws in New Jersey and the District of Columbia also prohibit home cultivation, according to the Marijuana Policy Project, a Washington, D.C., advocacy group that helped write the Delaware legislation.

Three dispensaries

Under the bill, the Department of Health and Social Services would issue one dispensary license in each county to a not-for-profit organization. Licenses could be added in the future if demand warrants.

Usage of dispensaries, or so-called "compassion centers," varies by state. Alaska, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont and Washington do not allow them, limiting marijuana growing to patients' homes, according to the Marijuana Policy Project.


Eric D. Schwerin
Rosemont Seneca Partners, LLC
1010 Wisconsin Ave., NW
Suite 705
Washington, DC 20007
(202) 333-1880
eschwerin@rosemontseneca.com
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