Pubdate: Wed, 23 Oct 2013
Source: Stranger, The (Seattle, WA)
Copyright: 2013 The Stranger
Contact:  http://www.thestranger.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2241
Author: Ben Livingston

IT'S OFFICIAL: STATE TRYING TO DESTROY MEDICAL POT LAW

Legislative Work Group Suggests Repealing Rights for Sick and Dying

Earlier this month, The Stranger uncovered a draft document outlining
the state's plan to gut the medical cannabis law approved by
Washington State voters in 1998. This week, a work group created by
the legislature announced recommendations even more severe than the
ones we reported.

In addition to eliminating medical marijuana dispensaries, the current
proposal would: (1) terminate the rights of patients to grow cannabis
at home, (2) block legal defenses in court raised by patients who use
cannabis under a doctor's supervision, (3) create a taxpayer-funded
patient registry program, (4) reduce possession limits from 24 ounces
to three ounces, (5) require doctors to register pot patients with the
state, (6) forbid doctors from specializing in medical cannabis, (7)
negate every pot authorization in the state when retail pot stores
open, and (8) allow newly registered patients a tax exemption at legal
pot shops.

Part of the state's goal has been to implement Initiative 502, which
is the recreational marijuana law passed last fall that will allow for
strictly regulated retail stores, but that law says nothing about
medical marijuana.

The four-page memo is a charade. It ostensibly represents a spectrum
of government interests (including the state's departments of health,
revenue, and liquor), but it is written on liquor board letterhead.
And even though the budget rider that created this work group made no
mention of the governor's office, Governor Jay Inslee's senior policy
adviser took a seat on the work group-which met in secret and claimed
to be exempt from public disclosure laws-and appears to have approved
all of these proposals.

To be absolutely clear, the state's medical marijuana law was never
supposed to be governed by an alcohol board. And I-502's language was
not intended to affect the medical marijuana law-not by those who
sponsored it or the voters who passed it. Yet opportunistic
bureaucrats are using I-502 as justification to remove such basic
rights as legal defenses and home cultivation for the sick and dying.

Ironically, this blow to civil liberties can be tracked back to the
original backers of I-502, the American Civil Liberties Union of
Washington. The ACLU and I-502 sponsor Alison Holcomb promised voters
the recreational pot law wouldn't affect our medical cannabis law.
They have the most credibility to denounce this recommendation to the
legislature. "The ACLU opposes elimination of home growing and the
affirmative defense," confirmed Holcomb.

The City of Seattle can also flex its lobbying power. City council
members, City Attorney Pete Holmes-a sponsor of I-502-and Mayor Mike
McGinn should steadfastly stand in support of patient rights. The rest
of us can call the legislative hotline at 800-562-6000 and tell them
to leave the medical marijuana law intact.
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