Pubdate: Thu, 02 Aug 2012
Source: Wenatchee World, The (WA)
Copyright: 2012 World Publishing Company
Contact: http://wenatcheeworld.com/section/editor
Website: http://wenatcheeworld.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/494
Author: Jefferson Robbins
Referenced: Letter dated July 24, 2012 from U.S. Attorney Michael 
Ormsby to Alfred Stonas, landlord of Compassionate Care Collective: 
http://mapinc.org/url/79zNo7cp

MEDICAL POT CENTER CONTEMPLATES ITS FUTURE

WENATCHEE -- Joe and Tamara Amendolare plan to do what they've done 
at every legal barrier to their crusade for easily available medical 
marijuana: comply and adapt.

"We're gonna go ahead and stabilize ourselves as not so much a 
resource site, but an information center," said Joe, 31, whose 
Compassionate Care Collective was defined as an illicit drug 
trafficking operation July 24 in a letter from U.S. Attorney Michael Ormsby.

The letter, one of four sent to Wenatchee-area landlords whose 
properties housed access points for medical marijuana patients, gave 
the owners 30 days to remove the businesses or face prosecution, 
which could lead to fines, imprisonment and property seizure.

The Amendolares rent their center, 2123 Duncan Road, from landlord 
Alfred Stonas. While other medical pot operations shut down 
immediately, the Amendolares, of Chelan, spent subsequent days 
arranging alternatives for their patients. They'll close their doors 
as a medical marijuana provider site this weekend.

Collective gardens like Compassionate Care operate under Washington 
state law that allows "caregivers" to cultivate and supply medical 
marijuana and products derived from it to patients holding a doctor's 
authorization. Multiple providers pool resources and licenses to 
create community gardens, growing an allotted number of plants per patient.

Aside from smokable cannabis, providers refine marijuana into oils, 
pills and other substances to alleviate physical and neurological 
disorders. Many pot products are applied topically rather than 
smoked, said Tamara, a 32-year-old massage therapist. Those 
treatments relieve pain without the intoxicant effect of smoking, she said.

"A lot of people can't medicate and go to work and do what they need 
to do," she said.

Ormsby's office, which represents the U.S. Attorney General in 
eastern Washington, last year targeted about 40 marijuana facilities 
in the Spokane area with similar tactics. Two months later, the 
attorney general's office issued a memo that said medical marijuana 
cultivators and distributors are in violation of federal law 
"regardless of state law."

Compassionate Care, the first collective garden to operate in the 
Wenatchee area, worked from locations in Chelan and elsewhere until 
moving to the Duncan Road location about 18 months ago. Part of the 
7,000-square-foot space became a "farmer's market" where 
grower-providers offered products to patients; the other half was 
renovated into an office space, lounge, a clinic where visiting 
doctors offered consultations, and a kitchenette.

Classes showed patients and growers how to cultivate, harvest, 
prepare and refine cannabis to get a desired cannabinoid dosage. 
Patients must show their doctor's authorization before entering, and 
are not allowed to use their marijuana products on the premises.

"God forbid they were stopped for driving medicated," Joe said.

The goal, the Amendolares said, was to professionalize the 
medical-pot market and create a welcoming space for patients. They 
estimate some 6,000 Wenatchee Valley residents hold doctor's 
authorizations for marijuana -- although they no longer keep records 
of their own patients, fearing federal seizure and violation of privacy.

It's not the collective's first brush with the law, although the last 
time involved local police. Officers of the Columbia River Drug Task 
Force searched the Amendolares' home under warrant last September, 
and charged him with unlawful manufacture of cannabis.

The charges were thrown out after Joe, who uses marijuana products to 
control temporal lobe epilepsy, diverticulitis and attention deficit 
hyperactivity disorder, was found to have proper authorizations to 
grow the plants for himself and other patients.

Tamara, due to deliver twins later this month, still faces a charge 
of psilocybin possession from the same raid. Her father, Chelan 
physician Dr. Michael Travers, was dismissed last month from Lake 
Chelan Clinic, in part because of his advocacy of medical marijuana 
for some uses.

Joe said Compassionate Care may align itself with the Cannabis 
Defense Coalition, becoming a clearinghouse for advice and education 
to local medical marijuana users. The couple still hope to provide 
medicinal pot to their patients via delivery -- and Joe predicts a 
spurt in such business, now that central access points have been closed.

"They just opened up so much delivery, it's ridiculous," he said. 
"You're gonna have 500 guys offering delivery by Saturday."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom