2009 MEDICAL MARIJUANA UPDATE
HOW, HOW MUCH, AND HOW SAFE?
DOUGLAS HIATT,
LAWYER
SEATTLE, WA.
The Washington State medical marijuana
law, codified at RCW 69.51A now over a decade old, remains ill defined
and difficult to comply with.
This compassionate initiative has not enjoyed the broad reading
and liberal interpretation in Washington's courts that it should have.
Instead, hostile law enforcement and an ultra conservative judiciary
attempted to strangle the law in its infancy with cases like the now
questioned Shepherd decision. Many
doctors are unwilling to sign for patients and do not want to take any
risk that they will be contacted by the DEA or the state medical board,
as have many California doctors and some Washington doctors.
All of these factors and
more make it difficult for patients seeking relief from illnesses
treatable with marijuana, or cannabis, as it is called medically.
Washington's law is more
restrictive than California's law in that it has specific conditions or
diseases for which marijuana is approved.
There is a provision to add illnesses as data supports the
effectiveness of marijuana for the specific disease. Hepatitis C and
Crohn's disease were added to Washington's law and there are other
petitions in the works for various illnesses not now covered.
The specific illnesses are listed
at 69.51a 010(4).
The first step in becoming a medical marijuana patient is to talk
to your doctor if you believe that you have a condition treatable with
marijuana. Your doctor may not want to discuss this with you and you may
have to ask for a referral to another doctor.
Medical marijuana clinics exist
where you can also bring medical records and seek a doctor’s opinion as
to whether you have a qualifying condition or not.
Some of these are non profit
organizations and some are not. The most important thing is that the
doctor be willing to back you up if it is necessary to go to court or to
interact with law enforcement.
The law then allows a qualified patient to grow as much marijuana
as needed for a sixty day supply. The
law also allows one caregiver per patient to grow for a patient.
The department of health
established unrealistic and politically motivated suggested guideline
limits of fifteen plants per patient and 24 ounces of usable marijuana.
These are guidelines at which law enforcement is supposed to leave you
alone, in reality, because the law is an affirmative defense, they can
arrest you at any time and make you prove everything in court. If you
need to grow more plants and are an "eater" it is especially important
to have the support of a doctor who can explain your medical use needs.
The law doesn’t require it, but
if you are growing or possessing a questionable amount, it’s best to
work out the details of how you calculate your 60 day supply and have it
posted or stored next to your authorization.
This is the general outline of the law.
It is a fact that law enforcement
is suspicious at best and outright hostile to medical marijuana. Many
departments are just now recognizing the validity of the law and
beginning to establish police guidelines.
In King County, elected county prosecutor Dan Satterberg has
established guidelines, available online at the Seattle Times website,
that give guidance to patients about what is to be expected.
These are brilliant and very
workable guidelines which admit the existence of group growing as a
necessity for medical patients. Most
medical patients cannot follow the letter of the law and must join
collectives that are closed groups of patients banding together to
produce medicine at lower cost and without the dangers of street access
of an uncontrolled market bent on profit.
The legal theory behind the collectives and co-ops is simple: if
patients can grow separately, then they can grow together.
There are no caregivers, it is
all patients and the caregivers might just help or pickup medicine.
This allows for the scenario
where a 65 year old woman gets a breast cancer diagnosis and must start
chemo in a week. She has to be
allowed to join a collective and access medicine. She cannot take up
gardening and wait six weeks. This
is how the vast majority of medical marijuana patients obtain medical
marijuana in Washington State.
Dispensaries, that are open to the public, California
style, are not permitted in Washington and they are really not allowed
in California either, as the current crackdown shows. The law in
California requires non profits to be the only valid way to dispense and
to be collectives, not walk in stores. Dispensaries are viewed as
glorified drug dealing and prices are way too high for medical users who
must access larger amounts of the drug than recreational users in
Washington State there is no tolerance for dispensaries.
The Washington State Department of Corrections has taken the position
that anyone on supervision cannot use medical marijuana. We are
attempting to fight this and urge anyone affected to contact our office
for possible inclusion in a class suit to end this discriminatory and
illegal policy.
The
Washington courts have yet to rule on workplace issues but California's
Supreme Court ruled in
Ross v. RagingWire that
there is no protection for employees and we believe Washington courts
will rule the same. A defense to a criminal charge is not the same as a
workplace protection issue. Manufacturers attempted to remove all
protections for Oregon workers in the legislature last year.
Large anti-union employers groups
are also fighting medical marijuana and trying to drive patients out of
work. This must be fought.
Medical marijuana patients who are parents need to be advised
that a Washington appeals court has taken into consideration a parent’s
medical use in a divorce child custody matter.
It was considered a factor
weighing against unsupervised visitation.
Parents who are patients need to be extremely careful with issues
surrounding the children and medical marijuana, and need to be aware
there are risks if you run into the wrong CPS workers.
Douglas Hiatt can be reached at (206) 622-5117
More info at http://www.douglashiatt.com