Confusion Over Medical Marijuana Laws in Washington

Somewhere in Washington state, an old rheumatoid arthritis patient faces a possible 8 years or more in prison for growing pot for he and 3 friendos. In Seattle, a collection of grow operations serves 2,000 people with little interference from “the man“. Apparently, this sort of confusion is typical since voters passed Washington’s medical marijuana laws more than 10 years ago. Unlike most of the other pot friendly states, Washington requires patients to grow the weed themselves or designate a caregiver to do it for them. With my knowledge of stoners, I would think that after a decree like this hilarity would ensue. Twas rather quite the opposite, these people are medical patients and often too sick to grow – not to mention the thousands of dollars to set up proper growing equipment.

So, of course, these patients have devised their own loopholes. They’re claiming to meet the “letter of the law” in establishing collective grows or the more standard storefront dispensaries. This is, of course, making police and prosectures more and more uncomfortable. “The spirit of the law would recognize the necessity of having small cooperative ventures,” said Dan Satterberg, the prosecutor in King County, where Seattle is. “But if they get past a certain size, become a magnet for neighborhood violence, or you get other people showing up to buy marijuana who are not permitted to under the law, then there’s tension.”

Three years past, Satterberg did not prosecute a man who was growing 130 plants for roughly 40 people. However, this year he has not decided whether to charge a hepatitis patient found with 200 plants supplying about 100 people. The ACLU and other activists in Washington began recent discussions with Seattle police over limitations on cooperative grows. This month, in Spokane, police shut down a medical marijuana dispensary – the first bust of its kind under the new laws – and arrested both the owners. They also warned other dispensaries to close as well which has drawn protests from patients as well as caused a stir in the courts.

Approved by voters in 1998, Washington’s medical marijuana laws allow doctors to recommend cannabis as a treatment for a series of debilitating or terminal conditions – a smaller range of illnesses than California’s law. A year ago, the state issued guidelines to give police and patients alike an idea of how much pot was OK: Up to 15 plants and 24 ounces of dried marijuana per patient. People can have more if they demonstrate need. Police in some jurisdictions have applied the guidelines strictly, arresting people simply for having more than 15 plants, even if they possessed no usable marijuana. In Seattle, Satterberg issued a memo to law enforcement saying he wasn’t interested in dragging sick people to court. Some other counties have also adopted a more lenient view.

Washington’s law says that a caregiver can only provide marijuana to one patient at any one time. In Spokane this year, medical marijuana activists focused on that language in setting up a for-profit dispensary called Change. Lawyer Frank Cikutovich said the business met legal requirements: A lone patient would enter the store, sign a document designating the shop as his or her caregiver, and buy marijuana. The agreement expired when the patient left and the next customer came in. According to police spokeswoman Jennifer DeRuwe, the business rendered the “one patient, one caregiver” rule meaningless. She further stated that peripheral crime had become associated with the dispensary including robberies at grow sites and street sales from people who had purchased weed there. “They’re dispensing to hundreds and thousands of people,” DeRuwe said. “The police department’s stand is, we want to get some guidance on this. We know it’s going to be up to the court system to provide us with that.”

In Western Washington, patients have instead opted for cooperatives, Seattle medical marijuana attorney Douglas Hiatt said. Those are closed membership groups. Patients pay dues or otherwise contribute on a sliding financial scale for their medicine, and some people work full time and even draw salaries under the table. “For some people, it would be difficult to see marijuana being sold out of storefronts in their neighborhoods,” Hiatt said. “But most Washington patients really haven’t gone that way. They’ve wanted to be on the down-low, and the majority of folks are not for the California-style delivery system.” Members of one Seattle collective say it serves 2,000 patients and is primarily supplied by about a dozen grow sites, which range from a handful of mature plants to about 70 – a few hundred plants in all, compared to the 30,000 that the patients would be allowed under the 15-plant guideline. One of the grows is in the basement of a Seattle home surrounded by blackberries and condominiums. Dozens of starter plants fill one cramped room, while in the next a bumper crop of 15 plants is just days from yielding around 16 pounds of pot. Setting up the grow operation with custom-built transformers, ventilation and lighting systems cost more than $50,000 – even though union electricians donated their time. The marijuana is brought to a clinic in an industrial South Seattle neighborhood for trimming and distribution, said the HIV patient who tends the plants.

- Mr. Hats

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