Pubdate: Thu, 05 Mar 2015
Source: Seattle Times (WA)
Copyright: 2015 The Seattle Times Company
Contact:  http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/409
Author: Joseph O'Sullivan

PATIENTS FEAR MEDICAL POT MAY SUFFER WITH NEW RULES

Legislature 2015

Not All Wrinkles Worked Out As Lawmakers Try to to Combine Medical, 
Recreational Systems

OLYMPIA - Just outside the room with jars full of cannabis, Rainier 
Xpress owner Patrick Seifert points out the photos of veterans on the 
walls of the medical-marijuana dispensary's waiting area.

They're all customers, says Seifert, who added that he gives every 
veteran customer a joint a day to cope with PTSD, traumatic brain 
injury or other medical problems.

But Rainier Xpress, which Siefert says serves up to 120 patients 
daily, may not be long for this world. Preoccupied with a thriving 
black market and medical products that aren't subject to 
state-mandated testing, lawmakers want to fold the state's 
medical-marijuana patients into the highly regulated recreational system.

"I hope we can stay here for a lifetime, but that remains to be 
seen," Seifert said as he stood in the dispensary's lobby.

Medical marijuana, approved by Washington voters in 1998, has 
flourished beyond its roots of small, mostly personal grows and small 
collective gardens to become a cottage industry of unregulated 
dispensaries that provide patients a variety of unique products.

The state estimates there are 1,100 dispensaries, and fewer than half 
may become legal under legislation that will get a public hearing on Thursday.

But now the state has a new, highly regulated recreational system, 
which voters approved under Initiative 502. And as cities and a group 
of new pot businesses lobby for a comprehensive set of regulations, 
medical-marijuana advocates are seemingly finding themselves on the 
outside looking in.

"At the time, during I-502, we were promised 'medical won't be 
harmed,' " said Seifert. Since the initiative passed "we've been 
under attack, now we're competition for I-502."

But he may have a tough time finding sympathy with lawmakers like 
Sen. Ann Rivers, chief architect of a medical-marijuana overhaul this 
year under Senate Bill 5052.

"His business is illegal," said Rivers, R-La Center. "It's illegal, 
and while I laud what he's attempting to do, collective gardens were 
only intended to service 10 people at a time."

Medical concerns

Sitting in a Capitol campus cafeteria, Kari Boiter, state director 
for Americans for Safe Access (ASA), shows off a pair of cannabis 
patches on her wrist. They help relieve the symptoms she suffers from 
Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a rare disorder of the connective tissue.

ASA, which has 8,000 Washington members, is concerned that SB 5052 
might result in a system that doesn't include the variety of products 
patients get now at medical dispensaries.

Boiter says that if she walks into a recreational store right now, 
she won't find different strains of cannabis or a host of 
non-smokable products.

"I'm not going to find the high-CBD strains that I'm used to using, a 
lot of the specialty products, transdermal, topicals, tinctures, they 
aren't there right now," said Boiter.

"How are we going to make sure the products that exist now, that are 
actually very beneficial to people with serious illness, make it over 
to the other system?" she added.

Boiter and ASA are also concerned about the database under SB 5052 
where patients would have to register to be authorized for medical products.

Since marijuana, medical and otherwise, is still illegal at the 
federal level, federal authorities could gain access to the database 
and prosecute those found in it, according to Boiter.

"You can lose your job, you can lose your house, you can lose your 
kids, you can actually have medical care rejected," she said.

ASA prefers an alternative to Rivers' proposal, one that lawmakers 
approved in 2011 before then-Gov. Chris Gregoire vetoed parts of it. 
Reintroduced this year as House Bill 2058, it would create a separate 
regulatory system for the medical market.

But HB 2058 hasn't gotten a public hearing, and Rivers said in late 
February that with the recreational market in place, HB 2058 doesn't 
have much use.

In a January public hearing, a multitude of smaller groups showed up, 
like John Worthington, whose home was raided in 2007 by a 
drug-enforcement team, with the American Alliance for Medical 
Cannabis. Also speaking was Arthur West, a public records gadfly with 
Cannabis Action Coalition, and representatives from Okanogan County 
from The People For Medical Cannabis. Individual medical patients 
also testify before lawmakers about how the unregulated system works for them.

But not all of those who operate medical dispensaries oppose SB 5052. 
Seattle medical dispensary owner John Davis calls SB 5052 "the best 
shot that we have to get some sort of licensing."

Davis says the Rivers bill needs polish and that there are valid 
concerns about patients having enough products or stores for medical 
marijuana under a new system. But if SB 5052 passes, Davis believes 
his dispensaries will get licensed.

Burgeoning pot lobby

Meanwhile, a group of recreational producers, processors and 
retailers are lining up behind the Rivers proposal. Organized as the 
Washington Cannabusiness Association (WACA) it has a seasoned 
lobbyist, Vicki Christophersen, as its executive director.

As with any regulated industry, she said, "there needs to be 
consistency in application across the state."

And, she added later, "I think there are a lot of folks that are in 
the medical system right now that want to be regulated."

After last year's attempted overhaul failed in the Legislature, 
Christophersen said she brought the idea of an industry group to 
recreational-marijuana entrepreneurs.

"I went to them and said, 'We need a trade association,' " said 
Christophersen, whose other current clients include the Association 
of Washington Spirits and Wine Distributors and Washington State 
University. "We need to be just like the restaurant association or 
the hospital association. We need to have a professional organization 
that can have a credible voice."

And that's how WACA, which now has 42 industry members - growers, 
processors, retail stores and one testing lab - is operating. WACA 
has focused its arguments, testified in legislative hearings and even 
donated to lawmakers' campaigns last election cycle.

Recipients of WACA money - $26,000 in all - included contributions to 
both major parties' spending committees and to Republicans in 
leadership positions, such as Sen. Andy Hill, R-Redmond; Senate 
Majority Leader Mark Schoesler, R-Ritzville; and House Republican 
Leader Rep. Dan Kristiansen, R-Snohomish.

Included among the Democrats were Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, D-Seattle, 
who sponsored her own bill, and Rep. Eileen Cody, D-West Seattle. 
Cody chairs the House Health Care and Wellness Committee, where SB 
5052 will be heard Thursday.

Recreational producers stand to gain in sales if medical marijuana is 
folded into the recreational system. How much that would amount to, 
"We have no idea," Christophersen said. Right now, sales of medical 
marijuana are about $85.6 million annually, according to a recent 
state estimate.

Christophersen dismisses the concerns about a patient database as "a 
fear-based argument that doesn't have a lot of factual history around it."

"We have to have some mechanism," she said. "And every other state does."

Other support for regulation

SB 5052 arrives at a time when politicians and local governments are 
determined to stamp out a black market and make sure medical patients 
have products that are tested according to standard regulations.

But few say much about the devil-in-the-details aspects that medical 
patients are concerned about.

In a January legislative public hearing, representatives of the 
Association of Washington Cities, the city of Seattle and the Seattle 
City Attorney's Office all testified in favor of SB 5052.

The state Liquor Control Board, Department of Health and Department 
of Revenue, which would play roles in medical-marijuana regulation 
under SB 5052, also have signaled support.

In a statement, Cody said it is important to preserve patients' 
access to medical marijuana but mostly spoke about the need for regulation.

"At this time recreational marijuana users are guaranteed more 
testing on their product then medical marijuana users and that is 
unacceptable," Cody said in prepared remarks.

But Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, D-Seattle, described SB 5052, as in "a 
very fluid situation" now that it has reached the Democratic-controlled House.

"There are a lot of House members who are not thrilled with some 
parts [of Rivers'] bill, including the registry," said Kohl-Welles 
who offered a competing proposal this year that likely won't be used.

Gov. Jay Inslee said in February that he'll sign whichever bill 
lawmakers agree on.

"I would like to see a bill reach my desk," Inslee said. "That is the 
single highest priority for us."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom