cannabisnews.com: In Hopes of a Toke 





In Hopes of a Toke 
Posted by FoM on March 10, 2000 at 07:10:02 PT
By Cathy A. Logg, Herald Writer 
Source: Herald Net
Beverly Foxx expects to have a panic attack soon because she's not in the Snohomish County prosecutor's computer yet. She may calm herself by lighting up a marijuana pipe in the Marysville Public Safety Building.Foxx, 64, intends to make her situation a test case to force the state Legislature to better define the medical marijuana law, which many law officers don't adequately understand, even if it means forcing police to arrest her.
She hasn't been arrested or charged with a crime, but Marysville police last week seized the marijuana she uses to ease pain from a variety of ills.Unless she gets it back, her only options are to find a friend or another medical marijuana patient who can provide her some, or to go to an Everett street corner and try to score a bag from a drug dealer, thereby risking arrest and prosecution, Foxx said Thursday."It'll cost me $20 for a toke or two of stuff that's been sprayed with chemicals," she said.Foxx and her son trudged into the prosecutor's office hoping to talk to someone about getting her pot back. They never made it past the receptionist, who told them there is no case file open, no information on Foxx and her marijuana in the computer, and that it could be two to four weeks before the Marysville police investigation lands in the prosecutor's office."I will not sit around four weeks and wait," Foxx said. "I have none, and I'm hurting. I'm standing up here today for people in wheelchairs and people who can't stand on their own feet."The law, enacted after voters approved an initiative in November 1998 to legalize the use of marijuana to treat certain terminal or debilitating illnesses, does not include specific provisions to define how much marijuana is allowable or even where authorized patients can obtain it legally. On March 1, Marysville police were evacuating a motel on State Avenue because of a gas leak outside that was potentially explosive. When no one answered the door of the room rented to Foxx's son, officers went in to make sure they didn't overlook anyone. They found about 35 small marijuana plants and seized them, leaving behind an officer's business card."You can't have a policeman trying to be a doctor, and that's what they're trying to do," Foxx said.The law needs to be modified to protect legitimate medical marijuana patients from having their pot seized, she said."I don't want to fight with them," she said. "I want someone to sit down with me and work something out. They need to have a system set up, and the system has to be realistic. You have to have guidelines that will protect the growers, the patients, a transport system and the doctors that write the authorizations."Right now, Foxx said, doctors are intimidated to keep them from signing authorizations, and people who use medical marijuana or who take it to patients in hospitals or senior centers risk arrest, she said. Patients also need access to marijuana that is not contaminated with chemicals, she said.Foxx said she used to grow marijuana for Green Cross, an organization in Seattle that provides it to authorized patients."I can grow marijuana with just water and light," she said. "It needs to be healthy for people to use."Published: March 10, 2000You can call Herald Writer Cathy A. Logg at 425-339-3437or send e-mail to logg heraldnet.com Comments: newmedia heraldnet.comCopyright © 2000 The Daily Herald Co., Everett, Wash. Related Article & Web Sites:Washington Citizens For Medical Rights http://www.eventure.com/i692/ Green Cross Patient Co-Op http://www.hemp.net/greencross/MMJ Law: 'Playing It By Ear' In Washington Statehttp://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread3801.shtml
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