ARTICLE: Henry urges Markell to resume medical marijuana program

Chad Livengood
Feb 16, 2012

Nearly a week after Gov. Jack Markell put the brakes on implementing Delaware’s medical marijuana law, the sponsor of the legislation is urging him to reconsider.

In a statement released Thursday afternoon, state Sen. Margaret Rose Henry said the regulation-writing and licensing of dispensaries should continue, despite veiled threats of prosecution against state workers by U.S. Attorney Charles M. Oberly III.

“I urge the Governor to allow the regulatory process to continue while the discussion continues in search of a solution to what has become a national issue,” Henry said.

Late last Friday, Markell and Department of Health and Social Services Secretary Rita Landgraf decided to halt implementation of the nine-month-old law, which decriminalized the cultivation, distribution, sale and possession of marijuana for limited medicinal purposes.

“In light of this guidance and recent federal enforcement actions in other medical marijuana states, the Governor and I are not comfortable proceeding with state regulation and licensure of medical marijuana compassion centers that appear to be a federal prosecution priority,” Landgraf wrote Saturday in a letter to Henry and state Rep. Helene Keeley.

Henry sponsored Senate Bill 17, the medical marijuana law, and Keeley was the prime House co-sponsor.

Markell has said he would not put state employees charged with regulating medical marijuana dispensaries in legal jeopardy of federal prosecution.

“Those employees, by undertaking the duties required by the Medical Marijuana Act, may be exposing themselves to federal prosecution as persons involved in or knowingly facilitating marijuana distribution,” Landgraf wrote.

The governor’s office blamed its decision to stop implementing the law on a recent change in attitude toward state marijuana laws by President Barack Obama’s Department of Justice.

Terminally ill Delawareans who had hoped to get marijuana legally have criticized Markell this week for so quickly caving to Oberly’s opinion that state workers and dispensary operators could face prosecution under federal drug and money laundering laws.

Here is Henry’s entire statement:

While implementation of Delaware’s medical marijuana law has been suspended by the Governor, I can appreciate his concern for State employees although I am not convinced of the underlying legal issue. I believe it would be unfair to put state employees at risk of prosecution on federal drug charges for providing chronically ill Delawareans with the help they need to ease their suffering. At the same time, it is time to respond to the needs of Delaware patients.

I urge the Governor to allow the regulatory process to continue while the discussion continues in search of a solution to what has become a national issue. Delaware did not act alone, there are several states with operational medical marijuana programs that have not experienced Federal intervention.

This is a challenging issue. States are responding to patients who are looking for relief from a failed Federal system that refuses to recognize and respond to the emerging body of evidence that supports legitimate medical use of marijuana. While marijuana has been illegal for any use, it is no different than other medical tools such as morphine – an opiate derivative. At one time, all opiate use was illegal. Over time, the medical application became apparent and the government responded by approving the medical use of some forms of opiates while maintaining as illegal the use of others. It was a very common sense approach.

Delaware and other states have taken action to provide their citizens with a way to access this needed medicinal use of marijuana. This is an issue that needs national attention and I will communicate this to the Obama administration.

The new Delaware law is organized as a tightly regulated system of growing and distributing marijuana for several reasons. First and foremost, the legislature wanted to provide for the safety of patients from several perspectives. The Delaware model requires the marijuana would have been grown in secured facilities. In addition, security was mandated for compassion centers that would have made patients or their caregivers feel safe – the same as patients feel when obtaining other medicinal therapies.

The Delaware program used what has been learned from the mistakes of other states to develop one of the nation’s most restrictive medical marijuana laws.

In the meantime, I will explore all the options that are open to us to ensure that people who need medical marijuana to alleviate their pain and suffering may receive the medication they need as safely as possible and without fear of criminal prosecution and act on those which meet those key tests.