This proposed law would allow the medical use of marijuana by patients who have been diagnosed with a debilitating medical condition such as cancer, glaucoma, HIV-positive status or AIDS, hepatitis C, Crohn’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, ALS, or multiple sclerosis.

The patient would have to obtain a written certification from a physician with whom the patient has a bona fide physician-patient relationship. Patients could possess up to a 60-day supply of marijuana for their personal medical use.

Non-profit treatment centers could grow, process, and provide marijuana to patients if they register with the state Department of Public Health, pay a fee, and identify where the marijuana will be grown and stored in enclosed, locked facilities.

A center’s personnel would have to register with DPH, be at least 21 years old, and have no felony drug convictions. In 2013, there could be no more than 35 treatment centers, with no more than five centers in each county. In later years, DPH could modify the number of centers.

If a patient’s access to a treatment center is limited by financial or physical limitations, DPH could allow the patient or a registered caregiver to grow plants, in a closed, locked facility, for a 60-day supply of marijuana for the patient’s own use.

The sale, distribution, or trafficking of medical marijuana for profit could be punished by up to 5 years in state prison or by 2 1/2 half years in a house of correction.