Maine State Housing Authority puts a hold on controversial medical marijuana policy

In this week's Phoenix, which isn't even on the streets in some places (and isn't online yet), I write about the Maine State Housing Authority's decision to disallow medical marijuana patients from using or cultivating marijuana in federally subsidized Section 8 housing. The ACLU of Maine, along with state representative Deborah Sanderson (R-Chelsea), and three caregivers, spoke at an MSHA board meeting yesterday, expressing their concerns about the new policy. 

The board decided to place a 180-day (six-month) moratorium on the policy -- which will, at the very least, allow affected tenants to get through the winter. Here's this, from the Portland Press Herald report:

[Agency spokeswoman Deborah] Turcotte said MaineHousing wants a document from the federal government that says it can have a policy for medical marijuana that applies to all current Section 8 voucher recipients and makes clear that the agency doesn't have to treat tenants on a case-by-case basis.

Without that, she said, "it puts funding at risk."