Search Results: chafee (26)

Photo: Ocean State Cannabis

​The new colonel of the Rhode Island state police wants state health officials to provide law enforcement with information about medical marijuana caregivers if they are targets of criminal investigations.

Col. Steven G. O’Donnell told The Associated Press that being able to verify whether an individual is authorized to grow cannabis at home would prevent unnecessary police search warrants and raids.
O’Donnell claimed it would save money on investigations and protect participants in the state’s medical marijuana program.

Photo: Business Insider
Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee said dispensaries will be on “difficult ground” until federal pot laws change

​Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee said medical marijuana dispensaries like those planned for his state will face challenges as long as the federal government takes a hard line on cannabis.

Chafee, an independent, put on hold a plan to license three dispensaries to sell marijuana to patients after the state’s U.S. Attorney warned in April that doing so could violate federal law, reports the Associated Press.
Now Gov. Chafee said state and federal officials should find “common ground” on the question of dispensaries. Last week Attorney General Eric Holder visited Rhode Island and promised to clarify the federal government’s position on medicinal cannabis.

Photo: Reuters
Attorney General Eric Holder: “We are in the process of working [on]these issues”

​U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said on Thursday that the Justice Department will work with governors and other state officials to reach a “satisfactory resolution” to the establishment of medical marijuana dispensaries in states with medicinal cannabis programs.

“We are in the process of working [on]these issues with the U.S. Attorney for Rhode Island and other U.S. Attorneys across the country,” Holder said, reports W. Zachary Malinowski at The Providence Journal. “My hope is that sometime in the not too distant future … it will be addressed.”

Graphic: Potspot 411

​Vermont on Wednesday joined the growing list of medical marijuana states which have received threatening letters from federal prosecutors regarding state licensing of cannabis dispensaries and grow operations.

Disturbingly, the latest letter — from U.S. Attorney Tristram Coffin — is yet another overt attempt to influence pending legislation, this time a bill which would legalize and license medical marijuana dispensaries in Vermont.
“I really had every intention of voting for this bill until this morning,” said Rep. Patti Komline (R-Dorset), reports Terri Hallenbeck at the Burlington Free Press. “The letter impressed me.”

Photo: pbn.com
Gov. Lincoln Chafee, Rhode Island: “Friday’s letter makes it clear DOJ will now pursue certain commercial cultivation and distribution of medical marijuana, even if such cultivation and distribution is permitted by state law”

After Federal Threats, Gov. Lincoln Chafee Puts Hold On State’s Dispensary Licensing Program

Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee has responded to a threatening letter that U.S. Attorney Peter Neronha delivered last week, and according to the governor, it’s not good news for medical marijuana patients.

“The Department of Justice previously indicated that it would not focus its limited resources on doctors and their sick patients who prescribe and use marijuana if such use was permitted by state law,” Gov. Chafee correctly pointed out. “This position was interpreted by some states as giving them latitude to authorize medical marijuana cultivation and distribution programs.
“Friday’s letter makes it clear DOJ will now pursue certain commercial cultivation and distribution of medical marijuana, even if such cultivation and distribution is permitted by state law,” Chafee said (emphasis added).

Photo: NBC 10 News
Governor Lincoln Chafee received a threatening letter today from Rhode Island U.S. Attorney Peter Neronha.

​Add Rhode Island to the list of states that have received threatening letters from the federal government on the issue of medical marijuana in recent weeks.

Significantly, the Rhode Island letter — delivered to Governor Lincoln Chafee’s office on Friday — unlike all of the other recent U.S. Attorney letters to medical marijuana states, does NOT begin with a line like “In response to your inquiry…”
“That likely means that this legal advice was not solicited by the Rhode Island government, marking an escalation in the feds’ aggressiveness on this issue,” media relations director Tom Angell at Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) told Toke of the Town Friday evening.
To date, U.S. Attorneys have only weighed in with threat letters after being contacted by state and local officials.