MASS GRASS Care Givers have all stopped taking patients or have shut-down
completely. Patients who inquire from hence forth will be sent this reply:
Dear Patients:
Thank you for your inquiry. You should join MASS CANN/NORML by visiting:
For several months MASS GRASS, the newsletter for members of MASS
CANN/NORML, published a list of Care Givers and the Care Givers were able to
provide patients marijuana, hash, oil and edibles. Many hundreds of patients
were successfully placed with Care Givers and were provided with medicine.
On May 24, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) enacted
regulations, as called for in the new law. Unfortunately the DPH wrote the
regulations to only allow each Care Giver to serve only one patient. This
limitation was not a part of the law we voted for.
For some weeks before these regulations were enacted and a couple of weeks
after MASS GRASS Care Givers worked to find ways to provide for patients
despite the regulations. This past week the Care Givers’ lawyers gave their
recommendations.
The lawyers seem to agree the DPH regulations violate the intentions of the
law. Until Dispensaries become operational, patients were intended to be
cared for by Care Givers. The regulation makes that impossible for all but a
few patients.
This leaves Care Givers who serve multiple patients in a “defensible
position” after they have been arrested and their lives torn asunder. This
means they might not be convicted and, yet again, they might.
None of our 5 Care Givers can afford to pay for a trial they might win. None
of them are willing to risk the added burden of asset forfeiture.
Where, without Care Givers, does DPH, the department charged with allowing
access for patients, expect patients to get their marijuana?
DPH says patients can grow their own! Growing your own takes months, money
and some interest in horticulture. But many, if not most, patients cannot
grow their own. Patients who rent, are in public housing, who live in a
condo, who can’t afford an indoor grow and have no safe place for an outdoor
grow may well comprise the majority of patients. So what should this
majority of patients do?
Buy from the black market? If that is what patients must do, why have any
MMJ law at all? What good does it do? Many patients cannot or will not buy
from the black market.
What about dispensaries? They will be licensed in April of 2014 and may have
product on the shelves by summer 2014. What should patients who cannot or
will not grow do until a year from now?
The only honest answer DPH can give you patients as to what patients should
do is, “Suffer and wait.” For some patients, waiting means waiting and
suffering for the rest of their lives.
This is not what we all voted for. The law we voted for allowed for a
reasonably functioning Care Giver option. The regulations DPH enacted do not
allow for a reasonably functioning Care Giver option.. The regulations are
in violation of the law, but the only way to show that is to be arrested and
point out the regulation violates the law as a part of your defense – unless
someone had the money to sue DPH now.
There are not many times when, in our politically correct society, we are
allowed to loudly express our righteous indignation. We should relish our
opportunities to be able to fully express our anger and frustration. This is
a valuable chance to purge your emotions and clear your mind by letting
someone who has harmed you know of the negative karma that awaits them. Who
has harmed you?
The Massachusetts Department of Public Health – our employees! Our taxes pay
their salaries! Our law tells them to allow patients access to MMJ!
Contact DPH at:
http://www.mass.gov/eohhs/gov/departments/dph/contact-dph.html,
Massachusetts Department of Public Health
250 Washington Street
Boston, Massachusetts 02108
They need to know that after all these years of needless waiting the people
have voted and the wait is OVER. Patients will no longer tolerate being held
hostage to Reefer Mad logic.
You can read the law (it’s only 5 pages) at:
http://www.mass.gov/ago/docs/government/2011-petitions/11-11.pdf
For details on the new law, you should visit:
http://www.mass.gov/eohhs/docs/dph/quality/drugcontrol/medical-marijuana-faq
.pdf
http://www.masspatients.org/site/?q=node/28 and
https://www.masscann.org/law/patients-caregivers-and-treatment-centers-who-can-gr
ow-and-how
Best of luck!
Bill Downing
Editor
MASS GRASS