Rep. Thomas Slater, D-Providence, listens to debate on his marijuana dispensaries bill.

The Providence Journal Connie Grosch

PROVIDENCE — Three years after legalizing medical marijuana in Rhode Island, House lawmakers Wednesday easily OK’d a plan to create dispensaries that would sell the drug to patients who use it for medicinal purposes.

“To go through cancer, or to go through a debilitating disease is extremely, extremely hard,” said Rep. Thomas C. Slater, the bill’s sponsor and a cancer patient himself. “One day you might feel great, the next day you may have pain all over your body…This bill gives people a safe haven to get help, to get medical marijuana.”

The Senate in April overwhelmingly approved an identical version of the bill. Now each chamber must pass each other’s version for the bill to receive final approval.

Governor Carcieri, a long-time critic of medical marijuana, is expected to veto the measure once it reaches his desk. But the House approved the legislation in a 63-to-5 vote with 7 members absent –– a margin wide enough to easily override a veto.

House Majority Leader Gordon D. Fox indicated that the leadership will seriously consider that option. “I would hope that [the governor] wouldn’t [veto it], and look at the broader issues raised…,” Fox said. “But if he does I think we have the votes to override and I would advocate doing that.”

High above the House floor Wednesday night, medical marijuana patient Ellen Smith of Scituate, who suffers from chronic pain conditions, craned her neck from her spot in a wheelchair to get a better look as the vote took place. When Speaker William J. Murphy announced the legislation had passed, she clapped wildly, her face awash in relief.

Since medical marijuana was legalized in 2006, many of the almost 600 Rhode Islanders like Smith, who are authorized to use drug to relieve pain from certain debilitating diseases, have noted a major loophole in the law: it provided no clear path for them to obtain marijuana, leaving them to try to grow it themselves, or buy it off the streets.

State-regulated “compassion centers” could provide a safer and presumably more affordable place for patients to legally purchase the drug, they say.

An earlier version of the dispensary bill was approved by the Senate last year, only to die in a House Committee. Governor Carcieri later vetoed a compromise plan to study the concept.

Warwick Republican Rep. Joseph Trillo acknowledges that he, too, was deeply skeptical of the dispensaries until he heard the testimony of the sickest patients.

“The bottom line is we passed a law. There are people out there that are using [the drug]; they claim it is working and it’s helping them. But there’s a problem and the problem is how do they get it?…” Trillo said. “There has been instance after instance where people have been assaulted, they’ve been beat up, they’ve been robbed and all this to get their medication.”

Legalizing the dispensaries would that protection, he said.

Not everyone was convinced. Several members questioned how to keep dispensaries safe from crime. The state police have also voiced opposition. In a letter to lawmakers this spring, state police Supt. Col. Brendan P. Doherty cited examples of medical marijuana dispensaries in California that were doubling as drug trafficking or money laundering setups.

Carcieri spokeswoman Amy Kempe said Wednesday the governor remains opposed to the legislation, believing it weakens the laws governing illicit drugs. But she would not confirm whether he will veto it.

Should lawmakers elect to override a veto, Rhode Island could see its first dispensary open as early as this fall. The proposed law gives the state Department of Health 90 days to draft regulations for those interested in applying to run the first compassion center (eventually up to three could open). The Health Department Wednesday could not provide details about that process.

Jesse Stout, executive director of the Rhode Island Patient Advocacy Coalition, which has pushed for passage of the bill, said he’s received at least 30 calls from people interested starting the first center.

On the federal level, medical marijuana is illegal, but the Obama administration has pledged not to raid dispensaries. New Mexico is the only other state that licenses so-called compassion centers, although California also allows them.

“It’s very hard to understand why you need a compassion center, I know,” Slater said. “Medical marijuana doesn’t cure cancer, but the relief people get can get from it can help ease the pain and make it all a little easier.”

cneedham@projo.com