BY PROTECTING medical marijuana patients, the General Assembly has greatly helped some very ill people — 376 so far. But legal medical marijuana patients in Rhode Island still buy their medicine from illegal drug dealers.

After one of our patient/caregiver meetings this year, a patient suffering from a severe gastro-intestinal disorder told me that he was recently robbed at gunpoint while trying to buy marijuana. He was trying to grow his own medicine at home, but his plants were dying and he had nowhere else to turn. He went down to the street corner, asked around for a drug dealer, offered cash, and found himself looking down the barrel of a handgun. The dealer took his money and ran.

What? Isn’t there somewhere for the severely debilitated people in our state’s medical marijuana program to go buy their medicine safely?

Not yet, but we’re working on it. Under legislation introduced this session by Rep. Thomas Slater and Sen. Rhoda Perry, registered patients would be able to obtain medical marijuana from a Department of Health-licensed nonprofit Compassion Center. The Compassion Center would need to meet certain rules for record-keeping and security.

The Senate recently passed this bill by an overwhelming majority of 29-to-6. Now the House of Representatives should follow suit. An April 2008 poll by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research found that almost 70 percent of Rhode Islanders support allowing a Compassion Center.

The Rhode Island Patient Advocacy Coalition (RIPAC) supports this bill because patients should never have to go to the dangerous black market to get their medicine. Many patients are too sick or too poor to grow their own marijuana, and do not have a trusted friend to appoint as a caregiver to grow for them, as is allowed under current law. A Compassion Center would provide reliable safe access for our state’s most vulnerable residents.

RIPAC, founded in 2003, is Rhode Island’s community of patients, medical professionals, and advocacy groups supporting and implementing the Medical Marijuana Act. Endorsing organizations include the Rhode Island Medical Society, the Rhode Island State Nurses Association, the Rhode Island State Council of Churches, the Rhode Island Academy of Family Physicians, the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of Rhode Island, Senior Agenda Coalition and AIDS Project Rhode Island.

Nationally, the American College of Physicians, our nation’s second largest physician group, recently endorsed medical marijuana. Other national groups supporting the issue include the American Nurses Association, the American Public Health Association, the American Academy of HIV Medicine, the Episcopal Church, the Presbyterian Church and the United Methodist Church.

Last February, Dr. Donald Abrams published a new medical marijuana study in the prestigious medical journal Neurology. Dr. Abrams is chief of oncology at San Francisco General Hospital. In this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial (the “gold standard” of medical research), Dr. Abrams found that marijuana reduced both experimental pain and HIV neuropathic pain by 30 percent or greater for most patients.

In March 2004, before Rhode Island had a medical marijuana program, 69 percent of Rhode Islanders supported medical marijuana. In September 2006, after this program had been up and running for a few months, 79 percent supported the idea. The General Assembly also voted in favor of medical marijuana by overwhelming margins that year.

Currently, 12 states have medical marijuana laws on the books. Rhode Island’s was the 11th to pass, in January 2006. The 12th and newest state, New Mexico, already has a law that requires the Department of Health to “license producers” of medical marijuana. New York, Minnesota, Illinois, Michigan and Arizona will all consider medical marijuana laws this year.

Horror stories like that of my patient who was robbed are the reason the House of Representatives should act quickly to allow a regulated Compassion Center. People suffering from debilitating diseases such as AIDS, cancer, multiple sclerosis, Hepatitis C, epilepsy, glaucoma, Alzheimer’s disease and Crohn’s disease should not have to grow their own medicine at home if they are too ill to do so. And they should never be forced to get their medicine from the violent illicit market. Why should sick people whose doctors recommend marijuana be treated any differently than the rest of us who get our doctor-approved medicines from pharmacies?

Jesse Stout is executive director of the Rhode Island Patient Advocacy Coalition.