cannabisnews.com: MS Patient Has The Right To Use Marijuana MS Patient Has The Right To Use Marijuana Posted by CN Staff on August 25, 2005 at 07:36:58 PT By Terri Hallenbeck, Free Press Staff Writer Source: Burlington Free Press Vermont -- Shane Higgins, lying in a nursing home bed, thin and gaunt from the multiple sclerosis that has robbed him of the ability to walk, has quietly revealed a hitch in the state's 2004 medical marijuana law. Higgins is one of about 15 people on the state's medical marijuana registry, which theoretically allows him to legally possess and consume marijuana. However, his place of residence poses a problem. In March, when the staff at Starr Farm Nursing Center in Burlington's New North End found a marijuana cigarette in Higgins' room, they called police, who seized the cigarette. Burlington Police Deputy Chief Stephen Wark said the officer confiscated the cigarette because Starr Farm rules don't allow smoking on the premises. Higgins also denied that the cigarette was his, Wark said. Higgins wasn't charged after he showed the officer his medical marijuana registry card, he said. "If this were his house, we wouldn't have taken it," Wark said.Starr Farm Nursing Center administrators said in a statement Wednesday afternoon that they cannot allow marijuana on the premises because the federal government doesn't recognize Vermont's medical marijuana law and the nursing home receives federal funding. That advice came from state registry officials at the Department of Public Safety, the statement said. "A registry representative informed us that because our facility receives federal funds, and federal law prohibits the possession and use of marijuana, its possession and use in our facility is against the law, and therefore is strictly prohibited," the statement said. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that state laws don't protect users from federal prosecution. At the time, medical marijuana advocates thought that decision would have little impact in Vermont. Higgins, 44, who was diagnosed with MS in 1998, said when he filled out the paperwork for the marijuana registry, he had the help of a social worker at the nursing home. Marijuana helps ease the pain MS wreaks on his body and stimulates his ever-waning appetite. "I'd like to be able to use it," he said. "It helps with the pain and it gives me the munchies." When his meal tray arrived with a pasta dish and milk Wednesday afternoon, he looked at it distastefully. He signed up for the registry knowing he wouldn't be able to smoke inside the nursing home. His hope, he said, was that his health would allow him to leave the nursing home and go back to living on his own, but that didn't happen. In the meantime, he thought he'd be able to smoke marijuana discreetly outside, realizing that the state marijuana law doesn't allow registrants to smoke in public. That, too, became impossible for Higgins, who is virtually confined to his nursing home bed. His situation points to a potential flaw in the state law, which is designed to help MS, AIDS and cancer patients with pain and appetite problems. The law allows the person to appoint a caregiver to administer marijuana, but it doesn't address rules at hospitals or nursing homes. "I think people should know about this," Higgins said. His case has the attention of the Vermont Marijuana Policy Project, a Montpelier organization that helped fight for the medical marijuana law and helps patients with the registry process. Project coordinator Nancy Lynch said Higgins is a classic example of the sort of patient the law was designed to help -- someone fighting pain and a potentially dangerous loss of appetite because of his illness. There should be an allowance for someone in his situation to use marijuana, she said. "Nursing homes need to be educated. Hospitals need to be educated. Doctors need to be educated," she said.Allen Gilbert, executive director of the Vermont American Civil Liberties Union, said he doesn't have all the facts of this case, but he's interested in looking at whether any rights were violated. Wark said it's the first case he knows of in which Burlington police have come into contact with the medical marijuana registry. "It's another example of a new law that I think isn't cooked," he said. Mary Shriver, executive director of the Vermont Health Care Association, which represents nursing homes and residential care facilities, said she had not heard any discussion of how the medical marijuana law might be handled in nursing homes.Complete Title: MS Patient Has The Right, Just Not The Ability To Use MarijuanaSource: Burlington Free Press (VT)Author: Terri Hallenbeck, Free Press Staff WriterPublished: Thursday, August 25, 2005 Copyright: 2005 Burlington Free PressContact: letters bfp.burlingtonfreepress.comWebsite: http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/Vermont Marijuana Policy Projecthttp://www.vmpp.org/CannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #5 posted by Skillet on August 26, 2005 at 08:18:29 PT: facist horsepucks, for real?? I think Runderwo makes a good point here. And I don't see anything facist in the statements. Ru just pointed out how giving the Feds all of the power over us; fiscaly, socialy, or moraly is a bad deal. One of the ways the Gov't uses it's influence is the almighty dollar. If they don't have the money to throw around they don't have the power it brings. [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by boballen1313 on August 25, 2005 at 21:57:20 PT Runderwo: Huh? Better lay off the rush limbaugh for a while pal. I am sure you have a perfectly good reason to spew fascist horsepucks, but most here dont really care, amigo. [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by runderwo on August 25, 2005 at 08:51:11 PT federal funding Illustrated once again is the fallacy of the political left in thinking that appointing the federal government to redistribute money - the premise being to equalize economic classes and provide country-wide social services - is not fraught with unintended consequences.In my opinion, this is a huge reason why the status quo prevails so much around here. If you do not comply with the status quo, you lose your federal funding - but your federal funding is necessary because the government has taken away so much of your money for liberal causes. Therefore, if your organization or business wishes to continue to exist, you have to play by whatever rules the feds set.Please, people on the left - realize that encouraging, or even approving of, expansion of the federal fiscal-welfare state is a deal with the devil. It may help you get what you originally wanted, but in exchange the feds get jurisdiction over your affairs. And, as demonstrated here, that is rarely a good thing. [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by Hope on August 25, 2005 at 08:21:40 PT Cannabis could be processed in many ways that could help people without having to smoke it. It's so simple...yet the obstacles prefer to make it oh so complicated. [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by dongenero on August 25, 2005 at 07:50:50 PT use vaporizers The nursing home should be outfitted with vaporizers. At least this poor man should have one.As for the issue of the Federal Government, they should just get the h*ll out of the way. [ Post Comment ] Post Comment