Seattle Paper Endorses
Medical Marijuana Initiative: "A Better Approach"
May 17, 1998Seattle Post-Intelligencer
editpage@seattle-pi.com
MEDICAL MARIJUANA: A BETTER APPROACH
After a misguided Washington State Supreme Court refused to
shelter dying cancer patient Ralph Seeley from prosecution for marijuana possession, many
Washington voters looked for a way to change the law.
See Medical Marijuana Initiative
to be Filed Today in Washington State -- Modeled After Senate Bill
and The University of Washington
Student Newspaper Reports on Medical Marijuana Bill
They did not find it in last November’s Initiative 685, which was an equally
misguided attempt to decriminalize a whole host of drugs and free convicted criminals from
state prisons.
What reasoning voters were looking for was offered in the last session of the state
legislature in Senate Bill 6271, introduced by Sen. Jeanne Kohl. But even though the bill
had the support of the majority of the Health and Long-Term Care Committee, including
Republican Chairman, Alex Deccio, the Senate’s Republican
leadership did not want the bill to come up for a vote. So it died. (Legislators
did, though, pass a bill to fund studies on the efficacy of "medical
marijuana".)
Voters finally can get what they were looking for if Initiative 692 gets enough
signatures to appear on the Nov. 3 ballot.
The initiative would protect from prosecution patients with
terminal or debilitating illnesses who use marijuana for physician-sanctioned medical
purposes. Physicians would not be prosecuted for advising a patient about the risks and
benefits of medical marijuana nor for providing a patient documentation that the potential
benefits of its use outweigh the potential risks.
Likewise, these patients’ primary care-givers would be safe from prosecution.
Neither
physician nor care-giver would be allowed to consume the marijuana.
No patient would be permitted to have more than a 60 day supply and would have to have
written documentation from a physician to possess any of the substance.
The initiative explicitly does not legalize the "acquisition, possession,
manufacture, sale or use of marijuana for non-medical purposes."
The initiative would not decriminalize marijuana.
It would merely humanize law enforcement’s approach to
enforcement, allowing dying, suffering and debilitated patients a chance at surcease from
pain, nausea, and wasting without having to become criminals.
We urge registered voters to seek out the signature gatherers for I-692, get the
measure on the ballot and strongly support its passage in November.
Supported