this is a pretty good bill and definitely a step in the right direction, but it has some serious flaws which ought to be addressed. here is a partial list:

• six ounces per month and/or 12 plants is an arbitrary limit that even the synopsis of the bill states is not considered adequate for some patients. it should be replaced by a set of guidelines for setting reasonable per patient quotas and an appeals procedure for patients who need to increase their dosage.
• the restrictions and requirements placed on compassionate care centers are too stringent. in particular, they should be allowed to operate as for-profit businesses, and they should be subject to regulations no more strict than those placed on pharmacies or medical facilities where controlled substances are sold or administered.
• the federal government could block the operation of this program by prohibiting anyone from employing or renting property to any person involved with the provision or use of medical marijuana. such a law or regulation would clearly be unconstitutional, but then so are nearly all federal drug laws and regulations and that doesn't stop them from being enforced.
• the registration and record-keeping requirements of the bill create an attractive target for federal agencies and/or rogue local officials who wish to persecute medical marijuana patients, caregivers and facilities. the bill makes some statements about confidentiality of information, and sets some penalties for disclosure of privileged information, but they do not go far enough. in addition, the bill does not require adequate technological protections of private data. in particular, it should require that:
  • all records associated with the program and all backups thereof be stored in a strongly encrypted form, and destroyed when no longer necessary
  • audit trails be maintained of all accesses to program data including the date & time, identity of the person accessing the system, the particular records viewed and the nature of any changes made
  • most persons accessing the system should be limited to viewing individual records (as opposed to entire tables or databases) and a small but reasonable limit should be placed on the number of record accesses allowed per session
  • as copies of program records could easily be anonymously leaked to federal agencies or other hostile persons, all access to program data should be via an application that, except in strictly limited and controlled circumstances, allows viewing and/or editing of program records but prohibits printing, transfer to cut/paste buffer, taking of screenshots, or any other form of duplication, and displays data in a manner that resists alternative copy methods such as photographing the computer screen
• it creates yet another layer of state bureaucracy at a time when we should be cutting state spending. it would be far better to just legalize marijuana, or legalize medicinal use w/o all the limits and regulations.