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Mainers
for Medical Rights
44 Exchange Street
Suite 201
Portland, ME 04101
800.846.1039
207.780.0704
info@mainers.org
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The
1999 Maine Medical Marijuana Initiative...
What it does...
- Protects
Patients Whose Medical Marijuana Use Is Advised By A Doctor
If a person has one of the debilitating illnesses listed in the initiative, and
can prove that the person's doctor has advised that marijuana use might benefit
the patient's treatment, the person is exempt from state laws against possessing
personal-use amounts of marijuana.
- Limits Qualifying
Medical Conditions To The Most Serious
In order to use marijuana as a medicine, a patient must be diagnosed by a physician
as suffering from one or more symptoms or conditions for which marijuana has shown
promise as a part of treatment. A recent National Institutes of Health report
identified several such conditions that are listed in the initiative. The conditions
are: cancer, glaucoma, AIDS, neurological seizures and severe muscle spasticity.
- Limits Patients
Protected Supply To A Reasonable, Personal-Use Amount
Maine law now provides for civil fines of a few hundred dollars for possession
of 1-¼ ounces of marijuana. The initiative exempts patients from any punishment
for the same amount of marijuana. To help patients avoid the black market, it
also permits eligible patients to cultivate a few plants for their own use. No
more than three out of a maximum of six plants may be producing usable marijuana.
- Protects Doctors
Against Possible Federal Threats
Today, many doctors are afraid to speak to their patients about marijuana use
because the federal government has taken a hard line against the practice. However,
the initiative carefully requires a doctor's involvement in authorizing a patient's
marijuana use without requiring any steps that would expose a physician to threatened
punishments like revocation of prescription licenses, cutoff from Medicare and
Medicaid eligibility, or criminal prosecution. Experts in medical law have drafted
the key provisions.
- Builds
On Previous Maine Legislative Efforts
Over the last 20 years, Maine legislators have tried several ways of protecting
patients from laws against marijuana use. Such efforts have included attempts
to set up a medical marijuana research program and a 1997 bill to exempt AIDS
patients from punishments for marijuana. Despite such efforts, no medical marijuana
law has been permitted to go into effect. The initiative takes the basic framework
of the most recent legislation and puts the question directly to voters.
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