U.S. attorney says medical-marijuana centers violate federal law

PROVIDENCE – U.S. Attorney Peter F. Neronha on Friday told Gov. Lincoln D. Chafee the state law establishing up to three medical-marijuana centers violates federal law and could lead to civil and criminal prosecution.

The governor received the news in a three-page letter that was hand-delivered.

“The Department of Justice maintains the authority to enforce [federal law] vigorously against individuals and organizations that participate in unlawful manufacturing and distribution activity involving marijuana, even if such activities are permitted under state law,” Neronha wrote. “The [state law], the registration scheme it purports to authorize and the anticipated operation of the three centers appear to permit large-scale marijuana cultivation and distribution.

“The Department of Justice could consider civil and criminal legal remedies against those individuals and entities who set up marijuana-growing facilities and dispensaries, as such actions are in violation of federal law,” Neronha said in the letter.

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The governor’s office issued a statement saying only that it had received the letter and it is under review.

The R.I. Department of Health last month selected three organizations permitted to open the marijuana dispensaries allowed under the state law.

The department selected the Greenleaf Compassionate Care Center, the Summit Medical Compassion Center and the Thomas Slater Compassion Center.

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3 COMMENTS

  1. Tens of millions of illegal immigrants – that’s okay but medical marijuana is an issue?

    Their problem is with the state not the individuals but the individuals can be prosecuted and the state can’t.

    Maybe another US Attorney will get caught drunk driving and the state can hold the Feds hostage with that.

  2. Prohibitionists often express the belief that the resulting, suffering, mayhem and corruption that their policy engenders is in no way connected to the basic and erroneous mechanism being used, but simply that they haven’t been granted sufficient governmental powers (the removal of even more basic individual rights and freedoms) to do their work properly.

    It’s quite possible, that many of the early Prohibitionists did not intend to kill hundreds of thousands worldwide, or put 1 in 32 Americans under supervision of the correctional system with their ill-thought-out-actions. Nevertheless, it’s now reasonably safe to claim, that our Latter-Day Sadomoralist Prison-for-Profit Prohibitionists don’t care. They don’t care that, historically, the prohibition of any mind altering substance has never succeeded. They don’t care that America has the highest percentage of it’s citizens incarcerated of any country in the history of the planet. They don’t care about spawning far worse conditions than those they claim to be alleviating. These despotic imbeciles are actually quite happy to create as much mayhem as possible. After all, it’s what fills their prisons and gets them elected.

  3. He had to do it. It’s his job. I think (or I hope) he knows it’s stupid. But don’t worry. What he describes is not going to happen. Nobody is going to jail. Nobody is going to have their money or stuff confiscated. By nobody, I mean those connected legitimately with the state-approved program. For-profit opportunits beware. Chafee knows this. It’s a dance. Isn’t silly that we have to do this?