February 10 Town Hall Meeting to Explain DC's New Medical Marijuana Program

Patients Losing Patience Over Slow Implementation

Ban on Home Cultivation by Patients Unfair After Year-Long Delay

WASHINGTON, Feb. 8, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The District of Columbia Patients Cooperative (DCPC), a taxable non-profit corporation that formed one year ago to provide high quality and affordable medical "marijuana" to qualifying DC patients will host a "Town Hall" meeting about the implementation of DC's new medical marijuana program.  The public meeting is open to members of the media and will take place on Thursday, February 10th at 7:00 pm in Pierce Hall at All Souls Unitarian Church located at 16th and Harvard Streets, NW in Washington, DC. 

WHO:  DC Patients Cooperative, Americans for Safe Access, more than 100 people RSVPs including Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners, City Officials, and People of Faith

WHAT:  Town Hall Meeting on DC's New Medical Marijuana Program

WHEN:  Thursday, February 10, 2011 at 7:00 pm

WHERE:  Pierce Hall in All Souls Unitarian Church, 16th and Harvard Streets, NW, Washington, DC

"The meeting aims to provide DC residents with a better understanding of the medical marijuana program," say Nikolas Schiller, a board member of DCPC.   "We have been collecting questions about  the medical marijuana program from the public and it's clear there is a lot of confusion out there.  We will cover different topics concerning how the patient registration process will work, as well as the rules surrounding the cultivation and dispensing of the medicine."

Key members of the DC Council and the Mayor have been invited to come and speak on a panel that will feature experts from Americans for Safe Access and DCPC.  However, no officials have been willing to confirm their attendance in a major snub to the growing community of medical marijuana patients in Washington, DC.  "Not even the author of the new medical marijuana law, Councilman David Catania, is willing to come explain what is going on.  We are tiring of being left out of the process at this key stage," says DCPC Board member and seriously ill patient, Christopher Garrett. "We've begged the city to speak to the community of patients here. It is as if the new administration thinks sick and dying patients can be ignored and treated like criminals for another year.  The only thing criminal going on is that we have waited a year for this DC medical marijuana program to start." 

Currently DC's medical marijuana program is awaiting Mayor Vincent Gray's signature on the final regulations that were introduced in August last year.  The Mayor must also appoint members for a new Medical Marijuana Board that will have the power to license dispensaries and cultivation centers.

The public and media can RSVP for the forum by visiting the DCPC website: http://www.DCpatients.org

SOURCE DC Patients Cooperative