"There's nothing left in the bill worth keeping," said Steve Sarich, executive director of CannaCare, a medical marijuana advocacy group. "Trash it."

But the bill's primary sponsor and other supporters -- including the American Civil Liberties Union -- say political compromise is necessary to get the measure through this year and that it still does a lot to help patients who use marijuana to ease pain from cancer and other medical conditions.

The measure passed the state Senate earlier this month and was scheduled for a hearing in the House Health Care Committee on Monday afternoon.

After it was amended, Sarich said, he and other patients asked the ACLU to end its support of the bill. The organization refused, and a group of patients picketed its offices in Seattle on Friday.

"The ACLU is absolutely not going to back down," Sarich said. "The patients are really angry. We trusted them."

Alison Chinn Holcomb, director of the state ACLU's Marijuana Education Project, said the bill represents progress for medical marijuana patients, even if it doesn't go as far as the original measure.

"The ACLU ... has experienced and understands that allies from time to time are going to have different opinions about the best strategies to adopt for pursuing a common goal," Holcomb said. "I think that's where we are right now."

The main sticking point is a provision added to the bill that would require the state Department of Health to determine the quantity of marijuana that could reasonably be considered a 60-day supply.

Initiative 692 passed with 59 percent voter approval in 1998. It gives doctors the right to recommend -- but not prescribe -- marijuana for people suffering from cancer, AIDS, multiple sclerosis, glaucoma and other conditions that cause "intractable pain."

But state law limits the amount of marijuana an individual can possess for medical use to a 60-day supply. People found with marijuana can still be arrested, but if they prove it's for medicinal purposes they can avoid being charged with a crime in the state system. That does not protect them from federal prosecution, however.

Sarich said doctors , not a state agency, should determine what constitutes a 60-day supply for individual patients.

"That is completely unacceptable," said Sarich, who said he takes medical marijuana for an incurable spinal disease. "These people aren't even meeting with me. They aren't my treating physician. How would they know how much medication I need?"

But Holcomb said doctors do not want to determine the amount of a 60-day supply, because that comes close to prescribing marijuana. If doctors are found to be prescribing the drug, they can lose their ability to prescribe other medications -- which is a federal license.

She added that the measure does not ask the Health Department to set a maximum amount of marijuana a person can have. It only asks the department to set an amount that would be presumed to be a 60-day supply.

Patients who had more than that amount and were arrested would still have a chance to show that their needs were more than the amount set by the department.

The ACLU still supports the bill because the creation of the 60-day supply amount would make it easier for police officers to determine quickly whether a patient is in compliance with the law or not.

That would mean fewer arrests and prosecutions of patients, Holcomb said.

The measure also would require the Health Department to come up with recommendations on how the state can provide safe access to marijuana for patients and present them to the Legislature in July 2008.

"This is going to keep the ball moving down the field," Holcomb said.

Sarich said patients were also upset that a provision was taken out of the bill that would have allowed them to set up cooperative growing operations, where several could grow marijuana in the same location.

"Right now, I'm not allowed to grow for another patient," Sarich said. "As a result, the vast majority of medical marijuana patients -- nine years after the passage of the initiative -- are still having to get their medication from drug dealers. That's just not right."

Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Wells, D-Seattle, the bill's sponsor, said Friday there were too many concerns about cooperative growing, including how big growing fields should be and how many patients they would serve.

Law enforcement wanted the "ambiguity and vagueness" of the 60-day supply language that is currently in the law clarified, and that is why the Department of Health provision was included, she said.

"I would have liked to have my original bill but we can't get there," Kohl-Wells said, noting that even with a strong Democratic advantage in both the House and Senate this year there still wasn't support.

"What they may not fully understand is our political realities," she said.

And Kohl-Wells insisted that not all patients are against the amended measure.

JoAnna McKee, a medical marijuana patient who was active in working to pass the initiative in 1998, said Friday she supported the new bill.

"The new bill is a big change from what we had expected. It's been very hard for some people to accept," she said. But she added that it "gives us the opportunity to work with the state to solve and answer the questions about supply."

Complete Title: ACLU, Some Patients at Odds Over WA Medical Marijuana Measure

Source: Associated Press (Wire)
Published: March 25, 2007
Copyright: 2007 Associated Press

Related Articles & Web Site:

ACLU
http://www.aclu.org/

Senate Bill Seeks To Clarify Medical Marijuana Law
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread22792.shtml

Senate OKs Revamping Medical Marijuana Rules
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread22752.shtml

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Urban development does not change the condition of criminal justice overfunding ,and will not achieve higher retail sales and sales taxes.... If Seattle wants retail sales tax,then seattle needs profitable business concepts that generate sales volumes not sophist utopian socialized urban village mass transit systems. Developers need urban village socialized mass transit because they have no profitable business concepts under long term lease to show a banker,and they need new developments. Reduce criminal justice funding so profitable business concepts can pay for seattle development. Thank you JOHN WORTHINGTON

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This publicbulldog has convinced me he is indeed a prohibitionist.

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You don't actually know what you're talking about.

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State involvement and lower plant limits = no federal involvement. Wanna sell drugs and claim its in the name of compassion, fine, Don't expect me to sign on. I can grow my own,and I fought hard to make the changes that would have allowed the have nots to get their medicine without risking federal involvement. These people want to read the whine list about how they cant get their medicine and then fight the attempts by the State to do it for them. Can kiss my grits. I must have missed 60 minutes when they showed how smoking avid and malathion was a benefit for medical marijuana patients. The Washington State legislature sided with my views this time. I dont want to hear about any patients that cant get their medicine.I have just been busted and have none of my own. Do I want to go to a dispensary that is not tested and get another lung disease for a year and a half smoking some avid or malathion,no frigin way. The State has to sell quality meds,if I want a particular strain then I will petition for them to grow it. That is going to be the fastest way of getting safe legal meds ,not thru a grey market venue. over 50 percent of California dispensaries tested positive for avid and malathion,and were deemed unfit for patient consumption. You want to rely on untested ,unsafe suppliers bent on making profit and whine about paying taxes,get real That is why I havent called the grey market dorks on the list I have. They will give me bad meds period. or canadian hay that will give me a head ache. I dont need this forum to do what I do. Go ahead and carry on with your wish of dispensaries. The legislature is not buying it here. Dispensaries lost this session.Predictably. California is a good visual aide for our State. So is Oregon. Dispensaries are just plain dumb. The grey market is unsafe,I know,I had a lung infection for a year and a half adfter smoking bad meds. Otherwise I would be running to one of them right now for some avid ,and malathion laced meds. Dispensaries no thanks. I would rather go without.

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Publicbulldog, you are not living in the real world if you think that people will be best helped by being deprived of their medicine until your unworkable conditions are met.

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You are definitely not helping us.

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I am comfortable doing this alone. I have identified the Stateholders and made it harder for the Greymarketeers to get the changes that will make more money for them and allow for more federal intervention. The comment that the vast majority gets its medical marijuana from black market or gray market sources is not confirmed with any real data. I have also identified CTED as being the Federal governments way of getting federal compliance. people had no idea about CTED before I started my free research. CTED will not be able to fly under the radar anymore. I feel I have laid out the best arguments for my State. I had a municipality ready to grow it and distribute it. The gray marketeers were really concerned about that. They went all over olympia spouting my research and telling the legislature I did not speak for them. wanna buy a bag dude.

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This is not going to work that way in my opinion.

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It has to be a common goal though. The gray marketeers wont join because they are making money off of the current law. The average patient is who we want to represent. Out of all my non gray market medical marijuana friends they like to grow there own special blend,but would not mimd being able to go to the State if something went wrong with their crop. Most people I know would be happy growing 15 or 20 plants,and dont want or need a limit over 100 plants. The gray marketeers want to grow hundreds of plants,and sell lots of pot. Can you see why they want to use my research ,but don't want me speaking for them.

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It's not a very good name, but I like using the first letters together. More seriously, if we are going to have a cannabis patients' union, let's figure out what it represents and what we call it.

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I don't want to have somebody get fired because their boss is having a bad hair day. I dont want the Chinese to meet half way with the Irish I am not against organized labor. I am against Unions bullying legislators to grow union payroll. For example 74 percent of King County(my County)payroll goes to Criminal justice. They expect 100 percent of the budget by the year 2013. If those growth expectations are not met every year,the unions bully the legislature to continue the growth pattern. Now, am I safer walking the dark allies of King County at 74 percent than I was at say 55 or 60 percent,of course not. Criminal justice has been the most powerful of all unions we have here. They have grown faster than any other union in my adult lifetime. Do the math.At 74 percent of King Counties budget that would leave 26 percent for every other branch. If you want to look at why we have a services,and infrastructure deficit look no further. Now,if those other unions were as powerfull,there would not be as much of a funding disparity. Also they have figured out that if thereis a place were we can pad union membership,Criminal Justice is the place. The people want to feel safe. when they hear numbers like 74 percent of the budget it doesnt faze them when its Criminal justice.. If it were say human health services they think of somebody feeding from a trough. Even though car theft is at an all time high,and meth use is rampant. criminal justice crime rates are rising. We are no safer walking the dark allies of King County at 74 percent than we were at 55 percent. Another thing the unions have figured out is the more we spend on criminal justice the more we need for criminal justice. That is what enables the bar graph to continue to get higher and higher. Marijuana should have come off of the Criminal justice cart long ago,but the marijuana enforcement industry has grown to epic proportions. We are law enforcements favorite target. We are easy prey, we usually Dont carry guns,and they can seize our property. When you see law enforcement refusing to take even the medical marijuana patients out of the marijuana enforcement industry loop that is when you can see the lust for continued growth. They cant grow the Bar graph without us so they refuse to remove us from the enforcement loop,because they need us in the body count. Compassion means nothing. Union growth means everything now. We need to go after the CTED agencies IN Both california and Washington to cut off the ability for those States to be bribed into federal policy enforcement over State policy enforcement,and we need to pit the Civic infrastructure unions against the law enforcement unions. We need to encourage a mode shift of funding. People will relate to being forced to move into a high rise because we cant afford to build High Speed rail or other eco friendly strategies,so they can live where they live now and commute by high speed rail. The draconian social engineering Strategies we will be forced to endure will be a good visual aide to use to instigate that mode shift of spending more on civic infrastructure. So you can see it is not a cut law enforcement strategy,that itself will not work. It has to be a cut law enforcement,SO WE CAN BUILD HIGH SPEED RAIL, so Jed and Elle may Do not have to move into a high rise downtown strategy. That will be an easier sell.

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Washington State needs to come to grips with the fact that funding for CTED will be so minute that it is not worth propping up anymore. CTED is a feel good Federal grant agency that has been a mechanism for which the Federal Government can get Federal policy compliance. Washington State needs to make a mode shift to enable those state tax dollars to be spent on State policies not Federal policies. this mode shift should include a transfer of Law enforcement funding to civic infrastructure funding. This will be sure to cause an uprising in the law enforcement community. However we have A civic structure deficit not being properly funded,and Washington State laws not being properly enforced. Washington State must consider a day when CTED no longer will be the big fat federal trough to feed at no matter what the price. Washington State must stop the criminal justice snowball and start the Civic infrastrucure snowball. Now is the time to consider life after CTED as we know it.

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and a tip of the 'helmet’ to you..........

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But saying that this bill is worse than the one on the books is ludicrous. This bill at least starts to provide legal frameworks for caregivers, and helps clarify the muddled piece of garbage that is currently on the books. Of course, it doesn't matter since the feds will still stomp all over it, but the very fact that this bill is progressing forward is good news in itself. No it isnt perfect, but at least it's something.

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What is the purpose of the law?

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It is truly a sad day when the ACLU works to take away the rights of the people.

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