Maine voters became the first [in the United States] to license nonprofit organizations to sell medical marijuana on Tuesday, with the state’s Question 5 cruising to a landslide victory. With roughly half of the precincts reporting, six in ten Maine voters had tallied in favor of allowing state-licensed nonprofits to distribute pot to approved patients.
Two other states — Rhode Island and New Mexico — have approved such nonprofits, but Maine is the first to do so through the ballot box. In California and Colorado, the dispensaries are not specifically regulated as pot shops, but rather as businesses in compliance with state laws.
Rhode Island, New Mexico and Maine, by more tightly regulating distribution, present a model counter to California’s. As more states approve licensed dispensaries, the debate will shift from whether medical marijuana should be legal to how it should be produced and distributed – a resounding victory for advocates and patients…….
Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/04/maine-voters-first-to-lic_n_344812.html