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Legislation Based on Best Practices of Other Jurisdictions
Washington, D.C. – Today, the Council took the first of two votes on the“Legalization of Marijuana for Medical Treatment Initiative Amendment Act of 2010,” moving it closer to final passage. The legislation amends Initiative 59, the “Legalization of Marijuana for Medical Treatment Initiative of 1998,” which District voters approved in 1998 by a wide margin (69% of voters approved). Soon after this approval, however, Congress blocked the implementation by placing a rider on a District appropriations bill. This rider existed for a decade until December 2009, when it was lifted for the first time.
In the 11 years since District voters approved Initiative 59, a number of other states have implemented medical marijuana programs – some effectively, while others faced major problems after implementation. After surveying the best practices in the 14 states that permit the medicinal use of marijuana, Chairman Vincent C. Gray and Councilmembers David Catania (At-Large) and Phil Mendelson (At-Large) introduced the “Legalization of Marijuana for Medical Treatment Initiative Amendment Act,” The legislation seeks to avoid the problems experienced by other states while ensuring that the District moves forward with a medical marijuana program based on best practices.
“I am pleased by the Council’s vote today. I believe this legislation will give residents with qualifying chronic conditions access to medical benefits of marijuana but the will also guard against its misuse,” said Councilmember Catania.
Key components of the legislation include:
· The legislation establishes a Medical Marijuana Program that will regulate the cultivation, distribution, possession, and use of medical marijuana.
· The bill also includes a prohibition on the public use of medical marijuana, as well as its use in dispensaries and cultivation centers.
· In order to prevent contaminated medical marijuana from harming already seriously ill patients, the legislation requires the Mayor to create quality control standards for the cultivation of medical marijuana.
· To prevent the District from being inundated with dispensaries, the legislation caps the number of dispensaries at 5. In order to ensure that patients have adequate access to medical marijuana, the bill gives the Mayor the authority to increase this number to 8, if warranted.
· To ensure that the District does not attract doctors who recommend medical marijuana to virtually anyone who walks through the door, the bill requires that recommending physicians have a verifiable physician-patient relationship with the patient. The bill also authorizes the Board of Medicine to audit the recommendations made by physicians – with a required audit for any physician who provides more than 250 recommendations in 1 year.
The legislation also addresses problems that other states have neglected. For example, marijuana, like all types of medications, can interact with other medications in potentially dangerous ways. Since the systems that are designed to catch dangerous drug interactions do not include medical marijuana use, dangerous interactions involving marijuana are more likely to be overlooked. To protect already seriously ill residents from additional harm, the bill requires consumer education for medical marijuana patients about potentially dangerous interactions between marijuana and other medications.
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