Pubdate: Sat, 23 Jul 2011
Source: Spokesman-Review (Spokane, WA)
Copyright: 2011 The Spokesman-Review
Contact:  http://www.spokesman.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/417

MUDDLE OVER MARIJUANA DEMANDS A SOLUTION

If uncertainty could cure nausea, Washington state's new medical 
marijuana laws would be a grand success. Alas, this not the case.

Before the last legislative session in Olympia, the call came from 
all quarters to please produce legislation that would clarify the 
muddle of laws on medical marijuana. Washington state voters passed 
an initiative saying pot should be available for medicinal purposes, 
but clear guidelines have never been produced for its production and 
procurement.

Instead, state leaders have doubled down on the confusion, and 
communities have returned to groping along their own paths.

Looming large over this mess are some federal law enforcers who are 
hanging back, and some who are not. Those who jump in cite a federal 
law proclaiming there isn't any medicinal value to marijuana. That 
law was adopted 41 years ago, when it wasn't known that pot could 
quell nausea and stimulate hunger in chemotherapy and AIDS patients, 
and lower eye pressure in glaucoma patients.

The Seattle City Council recently passed rules designed to fill in 
the gaps between what the Legislature passed and what the governor 
vetoed. In doing so, the city will regulate the production of 
marijuana and tax it. Some medical marijuana proponents like it; some 
don't. To show how strange this issue has become, one medical 
marijuana attorney says he will sue the city over the ordinance, 
because it has no right to tax a substance that the state and feds 
deem to be illegal.

Meanwhile, in Spokane the feds have indicted the owners of two 
medical marijuana dispensaries that were shut down after raids in April.

This disparate treatment of the same issue in the same state 
demonstrates the need for a clear-cut solution. We need a 
cross-jurisdictional meeting of the minds so that medicinal marijuana 
can be dispensed just like any other drug that requires a prescription.

Yes, there is a federal law, albeit obsolete. Ideally, Congress would 
simply rewrite it. In the meantime, federal law enforcement has the 
leeway to set priorities on what it will pursue. Raids and 
prosecutions of well-meaning suppliers of medical pot don't strike us 
as a high priority or a smart use of taxpayer dollars. This is 
especially true in a state whose voters overwhelming adopted a 
medical marijuana initiative. It's not enough to robotically state, 
"Just doing our jobs."

Once the feds show that they will back off, the Legislature can focus 
on writing clear guidelines, as opposed to the dozens of laws that 
recently went into effect. These new laws have left potential 
suppliers puzzled over how many patients they can help, and how to 
legally deliver the goods.

As one proponent told the Associated Press, "I don't even think (Gov. 
Chris) Gregoire understands what she put in (the law)."

The answer is to put the wishes of voters and the needs of patients 
first. The solutions will grow from there.
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart