Pubdate: Sat, 30 Nov 2013
Source: Santa Cruz Sentinel (CA)
Copyright: 2013 Santa Cruz Sentinel
Contact: http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/submitletters
Website: http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/394
Author: Bryan Steele, California News Service

TWO APPROACHES TO MEDICAL MARIJUANA

WASHINGTON -- Complaints of a "wink-wink" headache and the $40 
prescriptions that qualify thousands for marijuana in California 
won't work in the newly opened medicinal marijuana dispensaries in 
the nation's capital.

In July, Washington joined a budding number of states to allow 
medical marijuana to be sold legally.

But with the Justice Department and Drug Enforcement Agency calling 
D.C. home, the district's medical marijuana program varies quite a 
bit from its California counterpart.

In Washington, the dispensaries actually look like medical offices.

One proposed site is sandwiched between an orthodontist and urologist 
office on a downtown corridor crowded with lobbyists and attorneys.

Close to Capitol

One of the dispensaries already open for business is just a short 
walk from the U.S. Capitol.

By comparison, some Venice Beach dispensaries have featured scantily 
clad women inviting passers-by inside for "evaluations."

In Santa Cruz, shops such as "The Goddess Delivers" and "Sweet Leaf 
Caregivers" offer delivery services. Similar ventures offer one-stop 
diagnosis and shopping, without having to officially register with the state.

Advertisements for "medicated Thanksgiving turkeys" and "$49 medical 
doctors," lead many to suspect that California's dispensaries cater 
toward recreational use and not the treatment of illness.

Some say that the differences between the programs reflect each 
coast's perspectives: California more laid back and Washington more uptight.

"They're not practicing medicine on Venice Beach," Eric Sterling, 
Director of the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation said, noting that 
Washington patients are in dire need.

"D.C.'s average patient is 50 years old, with one 93-year-old 
patient, all of whom are deeply concerned with obeying the law and 
are sufficiently sick," Sterling said.

California cardholders would have a hard time recognizing the 
restrictions on Washington's exclusive patient pool.

Washington dispensaries list only four conditions that qualify: 
HIV/AIDs, Cancer, Glaucoma, and conditions characterized by severe 
muscle spasms such as multiple sclerosis.

The Department of Health website also permits chemotherapy, 
radiotherapy and Azidothymidine or Protease inhibitors -- used for 
HIV -- as treatments that qualify for D.C. medical marijuana.

The paper shuffle

Patients must fill out a 14-page application with the D.C. Department 
of Health, pay a $100 application fee, and register with one specific 
D.C. dispensary in addition to finding one of the few doctors in the 
area that will recommend the program in the first place. If patients 
want to change their dispensary, they have to pay a new $90 
registration fee and notify the Department of Health 14 days before changing.

Doctors recommending more than 250 patients per year automatically 
trigger an audit.

The strictness of the program means that Washington currently has 
only about 70 patients, a number that has been growing very slowly 
since the program's inception in July.

California had an estimated 554,000 card-carrying medical marijuana 
patients as of last December, according to Mason Tvert from the 
Marijuana Policy Project.

Prices are more expensive in Washington, with an average ounce 
costing about $100 more than a Californian equivalent.

Some argue that D.C.'s strictness could prevent access to the people 
who need it most.

For some terminally ill patients that actually qualify, the time and 
money required by the application process are two things that the 
patients may not have.

The D.C. Department of Health declined to discuss the city's policy 
for this article.

Conflicts create tension

Conflicting state and federal laws have long created tension for 
states with medicinal marijuana. The District has had a particularly 
tense history because it falls under the jurisdiction of the federal 
government. The city council originally passed medical marijuana laws 
in 1998, two years after California, but it took more than a decade 
for Congress to give its approval.

D.C.'s strictness is not by accident, the only way it could win 
Congressional support was by emphasizing the legitimate medical 
treatment possibilities of cannabis for seriously ill patients.

The first of Washington's three dispensaries, Capital City Care, is 
just two blocks away from the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco & Firearms in 
a baby blue building with barred windows. On its website, it talk 
about D.C.'s unique legal situation:

"As D.C. moves forward to create patient access to this important 
medicine, we do so with a wealth of knowledge gained from 
jurisdictions around the country. Our law is different from that of 
some other states in that it contains strict rules about how medical 
marijuana may be produced, packaged, and sold."

Despite what some see as the federal government's old fashioned view 
of "reefer madness," some advocates and policy experts say that 
federal law does not recognize the legitimate medical treatment 
potential of marijuana.

"Federal law is locked into a cartoonish view of marijuana that was 
created 40 years ago and bears no relation to medicine of modern 
science," said Eric Sterling, Director for the Criminal Justice 
Policy Foundation in a phone interview.

To ends of spectrum

Washington and California's practices represent two ends of the 
medicinal marijuana spectrum.

Some drug policy experts say that the California approach has hurt 
medical marijuana efforts in other parts of the country.

"California experience has sadly created a barrier for legitimate 
patients in many states, leading to several bureaucratic obstacles," 
Sterling said, explaining that California's "de facto legalization," 
acts like a veneer covering the criminal activity of the California 
drug trade, the polar opposite of D.C.'s attempt to legitimize 
"marijuana-folk-medicine" as a lawful and socially acceptable 
medicine prescribed by a doctor.

Asked whether Washington or California represents the future of 
medical marijuana, Mason Tvert , Communications Director for the 
Marijuana Policy Project, answered: "Neither."

He pointed to Colorado which completely legalized recreational 
marijuana usage in 2013 and has plans to develop marijuana retail 
shops and lounges.

"We still have a long way to go," Tvert said.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom