Missouri patients now protected in Maine

A visit to the Missouri NORML booth at Columbia’s PrideFest celebration resulted in Missouri medical marijuana patients being protected from arrest and prosecution when visiting the state of Maine!

Mr. Nicholas Charles, a Missouri patient, is planning a visit to the state of Maine. He spoke with Dan Viets about the fact that the state of Maine provides for reciprocal protection for medical marijuana patients from other states, but only if the other state’s medical marijuana program has provided the state of Maine with an example of the other state’s medical marijuana credentials.

Authorities in Maine want to have such a document on file in order to be able to verify the authenticity of a medical marijuana card presented by a patient from another state in Maine. Missouri NORML Coordinator and Article XIV Campaign Board Chair, Dan Viets, J.D., offered to contact Lyndall Fraker, Director of the Missouri Medical Marijuana Program, about this problem. Dan did so after Mr. Charles sent him an email the following week. He asked the Missouri DHSS Medical Marijuana Program to send the required documentation of Missouri Medical Marijuana patients’ credentials to authorities in the state of Maine. Missouri NORML received a quick reply from the staff at the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.

   

Both Mr. Lyndall Fraker and DHSS attorney Amy Moore verified that they will indeed comply and provide such documentation to authorities in Maine.

As a result of this interaction, all Missouri medical marijuana patients who visit the state of Maine will now enjoy legal status and be protected from arrest and prosecution while there.