cannabisnews.com: Medical Pot: Legal, But Still Under Wraps










  Medical Pot: Legal, But Still Under Wraps

Posted by CN Staff on August 18, 2006 at 06:41:32 PT
By Maureen O'Hagan, Seattle Times Staff Reporter 
Source: Seattle Times 

Seattle -- Every week, the ad runs on the front page of the Little Nickel: If you have: Chronic pain, chronic nausea, muscle spasms, seizures, cancer, AIDS Medical Marijuana may help.Call the number in the ad and you'll find a local clinic where, for a fee, a doctor will write a note saying he believes the illegal plant will help what ails you.
Not long ago, such a business plan likely would have the cops asking a lot of questions. But for two years, The Hemp and Cannabis Foundation has been operating the Bellevue clinic completely aboveground, seeing thousands of patients.It has Washington's 1998 medical-marijuana initiative to thank for that. The law, approved by 59 percent of voters, said people with certain debilitating conditions could use marijuana so long as their doctor said it could help.The biggest question has always been this: How is a sick person supposed to get the stuff?"People in the government want the pot fairy to come deliver it," said Douglas Hiatt, a lawyer who crusades on behalf of medical-marijuana patients.He laments — curses, actually — that medical marijuana still isn't a part of the mainstream, that sick people with doctors' authorizations are still getting charged with crimes, that some police officers don't even remember that the law was passed.And he is not alone. Organizers of the 15th annual Seattle Hempfest, which runs Saturday and Sunday at Myrtle Edwards Park, have the same complaints.Despite the problems, however, patients are finding their way to marijuana. Over the past eight years patients and entrepreneurs have pieced together an ad hoc network of products and services ranging from cookbooks to co-ops to classes that help patients get their voter-approved medicine.Parts of this world are discussed only in whispers. Others are quite open.None is perfect. Bare-Bones OperationAsk Hiatt about The Hemp and Cannabis (THC) Foundation's Bellevue clinic — the only one of its kind in the Puget Sound area — and he'll roll his eyes. "Pothead capitalists," he calls them. "Doc-in-the-box."Indeed, if you look around the clinic, that's pretty much what it seems. You won't find any examining tables. There's not much aside from several dozen chairs, piles of file folders and buckets of pens.That's really all you need for the business model devised by Paul Stanford, president of the nonprofit that oversees clinics in Washington, Hawaii, Oregon and Colorado. Altogether they've seen 14,000 patients in four years, he said.The organization's financial filings for 2003 show revenue of $352,000 — and for most of that year, its only operation was in Oregon."It just kind of snowballed and we're doing pretty well," he said.A marijuana advocate since the 1980s, Stanford of Portland long ago realized that a lot of doctors are skeptical of marijuana. Providing a friendly doctor, he thought, would fill a niche. He placed an ad and soon hired Dr. Thomas "Tim" Orvald, a heart surgeon from Yakima.Stanford's clinics do not provide marijuana. Instead, they exist solely to provide doctor's notes for patients who qualify.A good chunk of their business comes from the 1-inch ad in the Little Nickel.On a typical day, Orvald sees 30 to 40 patients. (The clinic is open just one or two days a week.) Patients first must show medical records that prove they've been diagnosed with one of the conditions covered under the law. They'll fill out a bunch of paperwork and watch a video that provides information on everything from growing marijuana to jury-rigging a heat gun and a dimmer switch to make a pot vaporizer.Then a nurse gives a brief physical. Finally, the patient sees Orvald, who after confirming the patient has a standing diagnosis that's covered under the law, writes a letter stating he or she could be helped by marijuana. The charge is $150 to $200, depending on income, although Stanford said they see some low-income patients free of charge.Patients are also provided a list of organizations that might help them find pot."There are about a dozen different quasi-legal/illegal organizations in the state who are doing dispensaries," Stanford said. Quasi-legal? "They're selling marijuana but the police turn a blind eye to it."Seattle police Capt. Steven Brown said officers know it's going on. But "we haven't been involved in that, quite honestly, in terms of priorities." Patients Band TogetherGreen Cross. Emerald Cross. The Wormhole.These are just a few of the patient-run clubs throughout Washington.Commonly called co-ops, they bring patients together to get their "medicine." Exactly how that's done usually isn't discussed openly.That's because it's easy to run afoul of Washington's medical-marijuana law. It doesn't legalize the sale of marijuana, even to qualified patients. And patients can grow it only for themselves. The exception is that patients can designate a caregiver, who can grow for them and only them.This leaves the co-ops playing a game of semantics. Patients don't buy their marijuana; they make donations. Growers don't sell it; they're patients helping other patients. Even the larger-scale operations are labeled "P-patches," where several patients tend to the crop.The co-ops have helped thousands of patients. But to some, this route isn't all that comforting. Hiatt said one Seattle P-patch was busted by police last year; prosecutors are still deciding whether to file charges.In addition, patients say they're sometimes provided poor-quality marijuana; some complain about "moldy pot." Quantities are variable.Mark Wachter, a 46-year-old multiple-sclerosis patient from Renton who uses the drug to battle constant pain, has encountered all of that."You feel pain coming on, and you know a lot's riding on this coming through," he said.Meanwhile, all the patients want is a straightforward way to get what the voters said they could have."The frustrating part to me is being a sick person and having to go out and find my medicine," Wachter said. "It's not like you can go to Bartell's." MisunderstandingsThis is where Steve Sarich, a relative newcomer to the Washington medical-marijuana scene, is filling another niche. Along the way, he made some interesting discoveries about the way the law is enforced.A 55-year-old with short hair and a phone that's constantly ringing, he does not look like the stereotypical marijuana user. Degenerative disc disease led him to use marijuana to ease the pain in his back. Now he's leading an advocacy group called CannaCare."Our goal is to get these patients up and self-sufficient," he said. He does that by teaching classes on marijuana growing and supplying starter plants."You don't have to take a class to get a plant from us, but we make it so cost-effective," he said.Sarich also grows his own — in considerable quantity. Visit his garden and he'll brag about his team of volunteers who care for the plants.Plants in different rooms range from 2-inch clones to 4-foot-tall specimens that are nearly ready to produce usable buds.Sarich got motivated last year when he heard about another organization like his that was broken up by Seattle police. That's when he first learned of the department's rule that medical-marijuana patients are limited to growing nine plants.Sarich and a friend decided to survey law-enforcement agencies around the state to see how they were enforcing the law. The responses ran the gamut."A medical-marijuana law has not been passed," Yakima County Sheriff Kenneth Irwin wrote in a February e-mail response.Another county said the limit is five plants; a third said it's 27.To Sarich and others, this is a big problem.The 1998 medical-marijuana law never specified a limit on plants. Instead, it limited patients to a 60-day supply, but that quantity has never been defined.Sarich thinks the law should be clarified so patients can be assured that they're legal. He proposes a dry-weight limit of 24 ounces — with no limit on plants — and has been talking to law enforcement and others about his idea.Mostly, it seems, he's itching for a fight."Access Is The Gap" Dominic Holden has been working for 12 years on medical-marijuana issues and is a spokesman for Hempfest. He's heard all the arguments: about the 60-day supply, the lack of access for patients, the differences in enforcement from county to county.In fact, he was a sponsor of I-75, which in 2003 made marijuana enforcement the lowest law-enforcement priority in Seattle, and he has supported other legislation to clarify the medical-marijuana law.Washington's medical-marijuana law, he said, "isn't as strong as it could be."Here's an analogy Holden likes to use: Imagine if a doctor prescribed you penicillin but you had to somehow find it on the street — or make it yourself."Having access to medical marijuana is the gap in all of this," he said. "If people really knew the trauma the patients go through, there would be a different attitude." Sidebar: Washington's Medical-Marijuana Law The Law: Passed by voters in 1998, it says qualifying patients and their caregivers may not be punished in state courts for growing or using marijuana. The law limits patients to a 60-day supply and does not permit the sale of marijuana. Qualifying Medical Conditions: Include cancer, HIV, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, glaucoma, Crohn's disease, hepatitis C, intractable pain or any illness that causes nausea, vomiting, appetite loss, cramping, seizures or muscle spasms.Source: Seattle Times (WA)Author: Maureen O'Hagan, Seattle Times Staff ReporterPublished: Friday, August 18, 2006Copyright: 2006 The Seattle Times CompanyContact: opinion seatimes.comWebsite: http://www.seattletimes.com/Related Articles & Web Sites:Seattle Hempfesthttp://www.seattlehempfest.org/THC Foundationhttp://www.thc-foundation.org/Marijuana Policy Reform is Emphasis at Hempfesthttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread22080.shtml Club Pot Med - Seattle Weekly http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread22070.shtml

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Comment #17 posted by Hope on August 20, 2006 at 13:44:58 PT
Steve Sarich
Right on!
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Comment #16 posted by Steve Sarich on August 20, 2006 at 13:31:26 PT:
Absolutely NO need for a state registry
I will be happy to consider a state-run registry the day the Washington State Legislature signs legislation providing a registry for Viagra patients. How about AIDS and Cancer patients? Who out there would volunteer their personal medical information to the state? That information is protected by federal HIPAA laws. Should we give up those rights simply because we are medical marijuana patients?It's bad enough that we have to carry "valid documentation" with us that shows one of the medications we take, let alone gamble to possibilty that EVERYONE in law enforcement have access to this information.Before legislators think about a state registry again, Jean Kohl-Welles and Tom Campbell might want to think about the smirk they might get from the Washington State Patrolman when he pulls them over them over and finds out that they're taking Viagra for...well you know... or Lithium for their bipolar disease. They might want to think about whether or not that cop is a big supporter of their opponent in their next election! Nah...politicians would never use that kind of information on their opponent in an election year, would they? :-) Now, Senator Kohl-Welles, think about how we feel about information on OUR medication getting out in the public arena.For those of you that are even THINKING about a state registry for the next session, please understand that we will be the first to oppose that very ill-conceived idea.Steve Sarich
CannaCare
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Comment #15 posted by greenmed on August 19, 2006 at 09:28:24 PT

Steve and John
Thanks to both of you for posting information about CannaCare. You've addressed my concerns and even some I had not thought of. With the examples set by the OCBC and now CannaCare, I am convinced there is no need for a government-run registry, period. I hope all goes smoothly as things get up to speed ... please keep us updated here at cannabisnews.
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Comment #14 posted by Steve Sarich on August 19, 2006 at 07:31:23 PT:

Washington
You have to realize too that Washington is a loooong way from California when it comes to LEO and the medical marijuana laws. We have letters from prosecutors and Sheriffs from all over the state admitting that they refuse to recognize the law. Numerous counties have told us that they have their own "zero plant laws". This is clearly a violation of the state law. Now ask yourself how smart it would be to volunteer to be in a state-run registry if you lived in one of those counties. Would you feel safe growing your meds? Would the local Sheriff be likely to use this registry as a shopping list? No patient in their right mind would volunteer to take part in this system...so what's the point? It's actually worse than that. LEO would use the fact that you aren't in the "voluntary registry" to assert that you aren't actually a legal patient. This registry would have created havoc here in Washington for patients.Until we can educate (one way or the other) law enforcement in Washington and get them to start complying fully with the state law, a state registry is just not a viable option...except for the sleezy pot attorneys who'd see their incomes rise dramatically. I suspect they'd all like to see this registry. Don't get me started on the pot attorneys in Washington.
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Comment #13 posted by Dankhank on August 19, 2006 at 06:36:26 PT

edit ...
I must do that better in the future ...:-)
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Comment #12 posted by Dankhank on August 19, 2006 at 06:35:38 PT

The Shat will hit the fan ...
I love that promo.Not sure what I think of William ...I'm sure I will watch ...he's an American Icon ...gotta love what he's done to Amewrican TV ...Peace ...
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Comment #11 posted by Richard Zuckerman on August 19, 2006 at 06:25:31 PT:

OOPS! THE WILLIAM SHATNER ROAST MIGHT BE TOMORROW
Ooops! The roast of William Shatner on the Comedy Channel might be tomorrow night at 10 P.M., rather than tonight. 
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Comment #10 posted by Richard Zuckerman on August 19, 2006 at 06:21:16 PT:

10 P.M. COMEDY CENTRAL WILLIAM SHATNER ROAST
Tune in to Comedy Central television channel tonight, Saturday, August 20, 2006, for the William Shatner roast? Tape it if you can?
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Comment #9 posted by whig on August 19, 2006 at 02:18:34 PT

John Markes
Quoting Steve Sarich: "We actively opposed the last Senate bill sponsored by Senator Jean Kohl-Welles and the ACLU because it called for a state-run registry."What was the alternative? I'm very concerned about registries being abused. The OCBC card in Oakland California is a private registry, run by people who are part of the patient community. We trust them to not disclose anything unless legally compelled.It's not required though even to get an OCBC card. You could give your doctor's recommendation directly to a dispensary, but then they either need to keep some kind of registry for themselves or you'd have to go through the whole verification process each time.But there is also a voluntary county-issued state id program here. I nearly applied for one until I figured out why it was a bad idea.
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Comment #8 posted by John Markes on August 19, 2006 at 00:51:22 PT

#6 greenmed
Steve sent the following for me to post:We actively opposed the last Senate bill sponsored by Senator Jean Kohl-Welles and the ACLU because it called for a state-run registry. While it was a “voluntary” registry, it would have been used by law enforcement to determine who was “valid” and who wasn’t. If you weren’t in the “voluntary registry” they would be likely to consider you “invalid”. “Voluntary registries” have a strange way of becoming mandatory, either through law or through practice. In addition, a state registry would require you to submit an address associated with it, or even an address listed for your grow. Do you trust that everyone that works for the state would NOT release those addresses to some law enforcement agency? We certainly don’t.I’m sorry, but NO organization in Washington has done more research into what “laws” (mostly secret) are being enforced around Washington State. We’ll be publishing our report on this research in the very near future. When you see what we discovered, you would never take the chance of having your home address available to LEO…anywhere in Washington.  This is why we decided on a private, third-party, system.We believe this system will work for both patients and law enforcement. We’ve already gotten positive response from LEO. The bottom line is that it is legal “valid documentation” under state law. We don’t have to ask for the permission or endorsement of the governor, attorney general, or law enforcement. It’s a legal document. If they feel they can challenge that in state court, believe me, we’re ready to do that. I doubt that it will ever be necessary.To answer your other questions, the only information that will be available that is NOT on your card is your doctor’s phone number (which you’ll want them to have) and whether or not your card is “Active” or not. Other than that, everything else is on your card.As to “fishing”…that simply won’t be possible. Let me explain what we’ve done to prevent that. Each LEO department has to agree that they will not harvest and share any information gained through the registry with any other agency, state or federal. If we find that any of them have done this, their password will be revoked. They can only search by the randomly generated alpha-numeric ID number on the card. This means that they have to have both you and the card to do this. At this point you want them to have access to the information in the database. There is NO other search available on the site. Each LEO agency is only allowed five searches per day…this prevents them from using a “bot” to farm ID numbers. If the police in any jurisdiction are finding more than five patients in one day, we’ll want to be asking a lot of questions about how and why.We have gone to extreme measures to make sure that no mistakes can be made by inept employees. There is no way to enter your address into our LEO verification database….there is no place to put it, even by accident.  In any case, we really prefer not to have your actual home address. You have two choices for receiving your card. You can have it sent directly to your doctor’s offices (preferable) or you can have it sent to your aunt Minnie…as long as she’s in Washington and she is willing to sign for it when it shows up. Once we receive the return receipt, aunt Minnie’s address is deleted from our mailing database.You can “assume” that our database is outside the subpoena power jurisdiction of any applicable authorities. Beyond that, I won’t be giving away all of our security measures…and I’m sure you wouldn’t want us to. I’m happy to answer any other questions you may have. If you can find any holes in this system that we haven’t found, we really want to hear about them. We’ve really tried to do everything imaginable to provide a system that totally protects the security of a patient’s information and still provide LEO with what they need to verify your legal status should the two of you happen to come into contact.Steve SarichExecutive DirectorCannaCare206-407-3017
CannaCare
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Comment #7 posted by John Markes on August 18, 2006 at 18:57:10 PT

ID Brochure

Here is a faster link, as a jpeg.

CannaCare ID Brochure
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Comment #6 posted by greenmed on August 18, 2006 at 18:19:14 PT

ID Brochure
Thanks for the information, Mr. Markes. By moving the verification system to a non-governmental third-party, many privacy concerns in regard to medical cannabis can be assuaged. I understand that there are other good arguments and concerns about registration, but if this card allows a medical user to travel state-wide and enjoy the freedom from worry about taking along medicine, I am for that.The card appears very professional and difficult to forge. My understanding of the process of verification would be submission of the ID number which would return a "valid" or "invalid" response. Is that correct?My main concern is whether just a name could be submitted - that's the "fishing expedition" scenario. If law-enforcement could do that, they could compile a list of valid medical users, and who knows what they might do with that.I'm glad to know the system is Linux-based, but that's a personal bias. It's reassuring too that the database is outside the state; is it fair to assume it is also out of reach of the feds?
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Comment #5 posted by John Markes on August 18, 2006 at 16:49:24 PT

ID Brochure
Here’s a link to the inside of the brochure that should explain a lot more about the system. It's a 5+ meg PDF. I|ll post the html link when I get it.

ID Brochure
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Comment #4 posted by John Markes on August 18, 2006 at 15:31:10 PT

ID Cards
I spoke to Steve Sarich of CannaCare. He will get on here and respond on the ID card info.
CannaCare
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Comment #3 posted by greenmed on August 18, 2006 at 14:03:39 PT

John Markes
Taking a look at the CannaCare website, I read..."New Medical Marijuana Patient ID Cards For the first time in state history, Medical Marijuana ID cards will be available to patients who have the qualifying paperwork from a licensed medical doctor. The cards will allow law enforcement and other agencies to quickly verify the validity of the patients illness and their access to medical marijuana. ID's will be verified online at MMJpatientid.org . More info to come."Do you know what information will be on the ID cards and how law enforcement will be able to verify the validity of the cardholders' medical recommendation through the website?  I would be interested in how CannaCare will safeguard personal information against potential law enforcement fishing expeditions to MMJpatientid.org .
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Comment #2 posted by FoM on August 18, 2006 at 08:53:00 PT

John Markes 
Thank you. I really appreciate the link to CNews too.
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Comment #1 posted by John Markes on August 18, 2006 at 08:44:53 PT:

CannaCare
CannaCare helps many patients without running an illegal dispensary. They now have an ID that conforms to state law, other ID cards available do not. They also have found the legal way around LEO plant limits. Their website is in progress...
CannaCare
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