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Washington State Prosecutors
Seek To Nullify State’s New Medical Marijuana Law
By "Fine-Tuning" It. Would "Require physicians to notify the state
every time they advise a patient to try marijuana as a medicine."
LEGISLATURE 1999: MARIJUANA BACKERS WARY
OF TINKERING
See
Patients In Eastern
Washington State Continue To Live In Fear; "We’re all scared."
and links
From The Tacoma News Tribune
February 17, 1999
leted@p.tribnet.com
http://www.tribnet.com/
By Beth Silver, The News TribuneNote: Washington residents can reach their legislators
on the state’s Legislative Hotine at 1-800-562-6000.
Legislators Trying To Fine-Tune Initiative Granting Medical Patients Access To Drug
Legislators are trying to clarify the state’s medical marijuana law for police and
prosecutors while holding true to the initiative voters passed in November.
"We’re not trying to repeal the law or handcuff it so bad that it
doesn’t work," said Tom McBride, lobbyist for the
Washington Association of Prosecuting Attorneys.
"We just need some guidance: ‘Look, doc, if you’re going to recommend
this to a patient, tell me you did it and tell me how much he needs.’"
But the initiative’s backers are leery of legislative interference with a law that
already faces federal barriers.
"It’s a blind-sided attempt to basically bring the
government back into regulation of patients’ and doctors’ relationships,"
said initiative supporter Rob Killian, a former Tacoma physician.
The law allows patients with certain debilitating illnesses, such as AIDS or cancer, to
possess a 60-day supply of marijuana. But it has left the law enforcement community
wondering how to determine when a person is using the drug legally and how much
constitutes a two-month supply.
That confusion played out in Tacoma in December when police arrested a blind AIDS
patient and his mother after finding three marijuana plants in their house.
See
Paralyzed Blind Man
With AIDS and His 61 Year-old Mother Jailed
After Tacoma Police Find 3 Marijuana Plants In Home.
Police Weren't Sure He Was Medical User? -- 2 Stories
Though Kelly Grubbs and his mother, Terry Morgan, had no documentation for the plants, Pierce County Prosecutor John Ladenburg did not file charges against them
because, he said, they were following the "spirit" of the law.
Grubbs’ doctor had advised him to use the marijuana.
Senate Bill 5704 would allow the state Department of Health to write rules to flesh out
the law. Its primary sponsor, Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles (D-Seattle), who supported the
initiative, said the department could clarify the law without encroaching on
patients’ newfound rights.
Another plan, SB 5771, would go further by spelling out those rules in law.
Among other things, it would:
 | Require the state Medical Quality Assurance Commission to distribute and collect forms
logging each medical marijuana recommendation made by a physician. |
| Require physicians to notify the state every time they advise a patient to try marijuana
as a medicine.
(Marijuananews note: This seems designed to intimidate
doctors who are already afraid even to discuss marijuana with their patients.) |
| Require patients to carry documentation from the physician that states the doctor
recommended marijuana. |
| Require the doctor who recommended the marijuana to determine what a 60-day supply is.
(Marijuananews note: As with any drug, a doctor cannot know in
advance how much a patient may need, and this is especially true with marijuana, which is
new to doctors and varies in potency.) |
| Allow employers to fire employees who use marijuana, even if for medical purposes. |
"The initiative is nondescript," said SB 5771’s primary sponsor, Sen.
Jim Hargrove (D-Hoquiam). "There’s a real potential for using the whole
confusion in this area for trafficking drugs. All we’re trying to do is put some
definition there so law enforcement can deal with the illegitimate use."
Initiative backer Killian said lawmakers should give the measure
a chance to work.
He said state law already outlaws using marijuana while driving or operating heavy
equipment, allows employers to ban its use during work hours and outlaws its use in
public.
Particularly disturbing, he said, is a provision in SB 5771 allowing employers to
fire employees who use marijuana for medical reasons.
But Hargrove argued that the initiative never specifically prohibited that provision.
He said the issue is not whether an employee is using marijuana but
whether the employee’s performance is affected by it.
(Marijuananews note: Actually, this may not be as much of a
problem as the authors hope, because marijuana affects behavior so much less than many
legal drugs. But what about employees whose performance is affected by other drugs? Why
the double standard?)
"We’re trying to be very careful not to do anything that amends the
initiative," Hargrove said.
Killian said the problem with the medical marijuana law has
nothing to do with state government but with distribution of marijuana, which is regulated
by the federal government.
See
17 AIDS
Organizations Write Drug Czar
Urging Medical Marijuana Not Be Delayed By IOM Report;
"Terminally ill patients cannot afford to wait for years of research
to prove something they already know: Medical marijuana works."
Patients who suffer from cancer, AIDS and glaucoma can grow their own supply but
can’t buy it from someone else because federal law prohibits the distribution of it.
In addition to Washington, five other states - California, Arizona, Alaska, Oregon and
Nevada - allow marijuana for medical purposes.
SB 5704 is scheduled for a hearing Feb. 24 before the Senate Health and Long-Term Care
Committee. A hearing has not been scheduled for SB 5771.
Copyright: 1999 The News Tribune
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