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S 2872Drugs

Food and Drugs - Compassionate Access to Medical Cannabis Act

Healthcare facilities must allow terminally ill patients to use non-smoked medical marijuana under specific safety and documentation guidelines.

Held for study
Population
Affected
8
Email Legislator
Introduced Mar 4, 2026Committee Senate Health & Human Services

Plain-English Summary

This legislation, titled the "Compassionate Access to Medical Cannabis Act," mandates that healthcare facilities, such as hospitals and nursing homes, allow terminally ill patients to use medical marijuana within the facility. The bill explicitly prohibits smoking or vaping the cannabis; patients must use other forms. Patients are required to provide valid identification and their medical marijuana registration or physician recommendation. Facilities must establish strict protocols for the safe storage and use of the cannabis, similar to other controlled substances. The bill includes provisions allowing facilities to suspend this permission if federal agencies take enforcement action or explicitly threaten funding.

For younger readers

This new rule helps people who are very sick and might not have long to live. It says that places like hospitals and nursing homes must let these patients use medicine made from marijuana if a doctor says it helps them. They are not allowed to smoke it, so they must take it in other ways. The hospital has to keep the medicine locked up safe. If the national government tries to punish the hospital for allowing this, the hospital is allowed to stop letting patients use it for a while.

Who & Where It Applies

Impacted groups
Terminally ill patientsHealthcare facilitiesHospital administratorsDoctors and NursesMedical cannabis users
Impacted communities
All

Constitutional & Fiscal Check

None Likely

Estimated cost
None
Estimated revenue
None

Bill Analysis

Both viewpoints
For Progressives
  • Ensures that terminally ill patients have dignified access to palliative care options, potentially reducing suffering and improving quality of life during their final days.
  • Protects the rights of patients to utilize state-legal medical treatments within institutions, preventing discrimination and barriers to care based on federal prohibition.
  • Reduces the stigma associated with medical cannabis use by integrating it into standard healthcare facility protocols and treating it similarly to other managed medications.
  • Excludes chemical dependency recovery facilities, which may deny necessary relief to terminally ill patients who also have a history of substance use disorders.
  • Allows facilities to suspend patient access if federal agencies threaten enforcement or funding, potentially leaving vulnerable patients without their medication due to external political factors.
  • Strictly prohibits smoking and vaping, which limits the delivery methods available to patients who might find those methods most effective for immediate pain or nausea relief.
For Conservatives
  • Asserts state sovereignty by upholding Rhode Island's medical marijuana laws and patient rights against conflicting federal regulations regarding Schedule I drugs.
  • Protects the individual liberty of patients to utilize their chosen medical treatments without interference from hospital bureaucracy or facility policies.
  • Includes specific "safety valve" provisions that protect businesses (healthcare facilities) from federal prosecution or the loss of Medicare/Medicaid funding if the federal government intervenes.
  • Mandates that private and public healthcare facilities allow the use of a federally illegal Schedule I controlled substance, creating a conflict with the rule of law.
  • Imposes new regulatory burdens on healthcare facilities, requiring them to create storage protocols and guidelines for a substance not prescribed by their own physicians.
  • Could be viewed as normalizing drug use within medical institutions that are traditionally focused on federally approved pharmaceutical standards.

Votes

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Full Bill Text

Changes to existing Rhode Island law · 73 additions

SECTION 1. Title 21 of the General Laws entitled "FOOD AND DRUGS" is hereby amended by adding thereto the following chapter: 21-28.13-1. Short title. This chapter shall be known and may be cited as the “Compassionate Access to Medical Cannabis Act” 21-28.13-2. Legislative purpose. It is the purpose of this chapter to support the ability of a terminally ill patient to safely use medicinal cannabis within specified healthcare facilities in compliance with the terms of the Edward O. Hawkins and Thomas C. Slater Medical Marijuana act set forth in chapter 28.6 in title 21. 21-28.13-3. Definitions. As used in this chapter, the following words and terms shall have the following meanings unless the context shall clearly indicate another or different meaning or intent:

(1) “Healthcare facility” has the same meaning as defined in § 23-15-2. “Healthcare facility” does not include a chemical dependency recovery facility.

(2) “Medicinal cannabis” means cannabis or a cannabis product used in compliance with the Edward O. Hawkins and Thomas C. Slater Medical Marijuana act set forth in chapter 28.6 of title 21.

(3) “Patient” means an individual who is terminally ill.

(4) “Terminally ill” means a medical condition resulting in a prognosis of cessation of life in one year or less, if the disease follows its natural course. 21-28.13-4. Terms and conditions to use medical cannabis.

(a) A healthcare facility shall permit patient use of medical cannabis and shall do all of the following:

(1) Prohibit smoking or vaping as methods to use medicinal cannabis;

(2) Include the use of medicinal cannabis within the patient’s medical records;

(3) Require a patient to provide the healthcare facility with a copy of the patient’s valid identification card, as described in §§ 3-8-6 or 3-8-6.1;

(4) Require a patient to provide the healthcare facility with a copy of their medical marijuana card or written documentation that the use of medicinal cannabis is recommended by a physician;

(5) Reasonably restrict the manner in which a patient stores and uses medicinal cannabis, including requiring the medicinal cannabis to be stored in a locked container, to ensure the safety of other patients, guests, and employees of the healthcare facility, compliance with other state laws, and the safe operations of the healthcare facility; and

(6) Develop and disseminate written guidelines pursuant to this chapter, for the use of medicinal cannabis within the healthcare facility.

(b) This section does not apply to a patient receiving emergency services and care. 21-28.13-5. Compliance with drug and medication requirements. Notwithstanding the classification of medicinal cannabis as a Schedule I drug and any other law, health facilities permitting patient use of medicinal cannabis shall comply with drug and medication requirements applicable to Schedule II, III, and IV drugs and shall be subject to enforcement actions by the department of health. 21-28.13-6. Limited obligation of health facility. This chapter does not require a healthcare facility to provide a patient with a recommendation to use medicinal cannabis or include medicinal cannabis in a patient’s discharge plan. 21-28.13-7. Compliance and limitation.

(a) Compliance with this chapter shall not be a condition for obtaining, retaining, or renewing a license as a healthcare facility.

(b) This chapter does not reduce, expand, or otherwise modify the laws restricting the cultivation, possession, distribution, or use of cannabis that may be otherwise applicable. 21-28.13-8. Federal authority.

(a) If a federal regulatory agency, the United States Department of Justice (US DOJ), or the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) takes one of the following actions, a healthcare facility may suspend compliance with § 21-28.13-4 until the regulatory agency, the US DOJ, or CMS notifies the healthcare facility that it may resume permitting the use of medicinal cannabis within the facility:

(1) A federal regulatory agency or the US DOJ initiates enforcement action against a healthcare facility related to the facility’s compliance with a state-regulated medical marijuana program; and

(2) A federal regulatory agency, the US DOJ, or CMS issues a rule or otherwise provides notification to the healthcare facility that expressly prohibits the use of medical marijuana in healthcare facilities or otherwise prohibits compliance with a state-regulated medical marijuana program.

(b) This section does not permit a healthcare facility to prohibit patient use of medicinal cannabis due solely to the fact that cannabis is a Schedule I drug pursuant to the federal Uniform Controlled Substances Act, or other federal constraints on the use of medicinal cannabis that were in existence prior to the enactment of this chapter. 21-28.13-9. Severability. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, section, or part of this chapter shall be adjudged by any court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, that judgment shall not affect, impair, or invalidate the remainder of the chapter but shall be confined in its operation to the clause, sentence, paragraph, section, or part directly involved in the controversy in which that judgment shall have been rendered.

SECTION 2. This act shall take effect upon passage.