Lawmakers Need to Fix the Medical Marijuana Mess

[Jacob Bell]

This state's medicinal marijuana law is a wreck. Attempts to clarify the voter-approved law during the 2011 legislative session imploded when the governor vetoed large portions of the measure aimed at legalizing cannabis dispensaries.

Between them, lawmakers and Gov. Chris Gregoire have created quite a mess, increased uncertainty and left patients and suppliers totally confused about their legal status. Add in federal raids on marijuana dispensaries in Spokane and the people of this state are left with a jumbled mess that merits legislative action.

Now that lawmakers have completed their work for the year and adopted a balanced 2011-13 state operating budget, it's time for medicinal cannabis supporters like Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, D-Seattle, to draw the players together to see where compromises can be found and clarity added to state law. If consensus can be reached, a bill should be ready to run early in the 2012 session. If the issue cannot wait until then and the feds continue their raids, a special one-day legislative session can be held to clarify the law and clean up the mess from the governor's veto.

This is one of those issues where there's no doubt where voters stand. After a feisty campaign in 1998, Washington voters made it clear that they wanted cancer patients to be able to use marijuana to combat nausea caused by chemotherapy. More than 1.1 million Washington voters approved Initiative 692 — 58.97 percent favorable vote — to authorize the use of medicinal marijuana for cancer and other patients.

Ever since, users and growers have been caught in a legal limbo — caught between the voter-approved initiative and federal drug laws that make no exception for the medicinal use of cannabis. This should be a states' rights issue and the feds should bow out. They certainly have a terrible record in combating illegal drug trafficking.

Washington state's original initiative didn't say explicitly that dispensaries are legal or illegal.

The Legislature this year passed Senate Bill 5073 which offered patient protections, authorized collective gardens, and allowed local cities and counties to adopt zoning and health regulations governing the production, processing and distribution of medicinal marijuana.

Definitions in the original law that medical marijuana supporters used to justify dispensaries were removed by legislators who thought they would be replacing them with a blueprint for a state-regulated supply and distribution system.

Old language referring to "designated providers" who provided cannabis to "only one patient at any one time" disappeared, taking one of the dispensaries' main claims for legitimacy with them.

The federal government raised the stakes on the issue, raiding marijuana dispensaries in Spokane the day before the governor was to take up the bill, which passed the House 54-43 and the Senate 27-21.

Gregoire was under intense pressure to both sign and veto the proposed legislation. U.S. attorneys in Western and Eastern Washington, Jenny Durkan and Michael Ormsby, urged a veto saying state regulators would not be immune from prosecution by the federal government. That prompted the state's largest employee union to urge a gubernatorial veto, too.

The governor vetoed large portions of Senate Bill 5073 and as a result the state law is in tatters and confusion abounds.

Nathan Harris, manager of Tacoma's Best Alternative Medicine, a dispensary, says he doesn't know what to expect. "If the law says we have to close, we'll close," he said. "We're not trying to be a vigilante or anything. ...To tell the truth, I'm a little confused about what's going on right now."

He's not alone.

Mac McCloud, 56, of Yelm, a qualified medical marijuana patient, is right when he says, "People are going to smoke, no matter who sells it. If they close these dispensaries, the people that sell illegal drugs are going to be happy about it. The Mexican mafia will just make more money, because that's where most of these drugs are coming from."

Lawmakers have an obligation to clear up this mess. They didn't get a second bill passed in the 30-day special session in May because their full attention was focused on passing a balanced budget. But the interim between annual sessions is a perfect time to draft a proposed solution, hold public hearings, collect ideas and craft a bill that recognizes the will of the voters and does not subject public employees to the possibility of arrest. Surely reasonable minds can come to a reasonable solution to clear up the mess we have today.


News Hawk- Jacob Ebel 420 MAGAZINE
Source: theolympian.com
Author: The Olympian
Contact: Contact Us
Copyright: The Olympian
Website: Lawmakers need to fix the medical marijuana mess

 

[MasterLynxx]

Pass the Buck, He said, she said bull.
It's all what keeps these cards playing the games they do with our human rights.
Cocaine, illegal in any way you look at it, yet still prescribed and used in numerous facets. I could go on and on about the different "Illegal" or UN-Lawful" drugs they use on so many regular basis' I would get sick of being a writer.
It's not the fact that it's illegal, it's that "Communist" authorities can profit from it, that makes this plant, or many drugs a discussion.

"...An intoxicated, confused mind is simpler to control, then that of a free mind..." (Mr. M. Strindberg)
"It is the Imaginative and intellectual mind that "their" afraid of. An educated mind, is the world's most powerful weapon..." (Mr. M. Strindberg)

If the lawmakers organized their efforts, and fixed the "Mess" there wouldn't be a job for them... Job security is a big issue, cause after all if we all did our part, we really wouldn't need cards like these playing stupid-childish, abusive mental trickery games of word play on us. I say, how long will you remain in a cage, as a slave, before you find a way out? We would have no need for politicians, no matter what "side", if we all JUST ACCEPTED RESPONSIBILITY FOR OUR OWN!!!!

How many times have you been serviced when you walk into an "empty restaurant", or had someone take notes for you at the movies? Ask at the political rally, the politician if he/she has ever worked a high volume, fast-food job, or ever been to one in the "HOOD".

If we played these games at a job; at lets say Mickey-D's, would people just stand there in the lobby waiting for "us" imbeciles to do our jobs; make your food?
How long it would be before we are all drop-outs!!!, while we horse around, ignore and intentionally blame someone else for screwing up your order, day, life...?

I live in the capitol of NY, and work in the fast-food industry; as a manager, and I see first hand our senate and congress charge us everyday for being in office, and doing THEIR jobs as they promise.
I deal with the pissed off 'peon' on an hourly basis. Yet, THEIR 'seats' are empty almost everyday the house is in session. I've even handled some of their lunch orders.
Sometimes we get service and people that listen to us, but most of the time, we're just trying to get heard by the 'Moron behind the counter...'
It's never the little peon, or even the middle man that's capable of doing something for you, its the BIG NAME that makes a difference when you affect their pockets. We just settle for the lame "FREEBIE" to make the "HICCUP" of the day go away.

Affect the profit potential of the plant, end the lies and clean up the mess. This issue with Cannabis is no different, they just refuse to talk about it openly here...

Albert Einstein stated, something like- "...if you attempt the same task, with the same process, and expect a different outcome. One must be insane. It is to change the procedure, that one may expect a changed out come, and a changed sanity..."
Change is what we need to do, in order to put an end to this corrupted mess the -"Little weasels of middle school"- keep us in!!! It is after-all, the "Pr*ck's & D*ck's of the Middle & High School's that end up with the badges.

 

[Illumination]

Pass the Buck, He said, she said bull.
It's all what keeps these cards playing the games they do with our human rights.
Cocaine, illegal in any way you look at it, yet still prescribed and used in numerous facets. I could go on and on about the different "Illegal" or UN-Lawful" drugs they use on so many regular basis' I would get sick of being a writer.
It's not the fact that it's illegal, it's that "Communist" authorities can profit from it, that makes this plant, or many drugs a discussion.

"...An intoxicated, confused mind is simpler to control, then that of a free mind..." (Mr. M. Strindberg)
"It is the Imaginative and intellectual mind that "their" afraid of. An educated mind, is the world's most powerful weapon..." (Mr. M. Strindberg)

If the lawmakers organized their efforts, and fixed the "Mess" there wouldn't be a job for them... Job security is a big issue, cause after all if we all did our part, we really wouldn't need cards like these playing stupid-childish, abusive mental trickery games of word play on us. I say, how long will you remain in a cage, as a slave, before you find a way out? We would have no need for politicians, no matter what "side", if we all JUST ACCEPTED RESPONSIBILITY FOR OUR OWN!!!!

How many times have you been serviced when you walk into an "empty restaurant", or had someone take notes for you at the movies? Ask at the political rally, the politician if he/she has ever worked a high volume, fast-food job, or ever been to one in the "HOOD".

If we played these games at a job; at lets say Mickey-D's, would people just stand there in the lobby waiting for "us" imbeciles to do our jobs; make your food?
How long it would be before we are all drop-outs!!!, while we horse around, ignore and intentionally blame someone else for screwing up your order, day, life...?

I live in the capitol of NY, and work in the fast-food industry; as a manager, and I see first hand our senate and congress charge us everyday for being in office, and doing THEIR jobs as they promise.
I deal with the pissed off 'peon' on an hourly basis. Yet, THEIR 'seats' are empty almost everyday the house is in session. I've even handled some of their lunch orders.
Sometimes we get service and people that listen to us, but most of the time, we're just trying to get heard by the 'Moron behind the counter...'
It's never the little peon, or even the middle man that's capable of doing something for you, its the BIG NAME that makes a difference when you affect their pockets. We just settle for the lame "FREEBIE" to make the "HICCUP" of the day go away.

Affect the profit potential of the plant, end the lies and clean up the mess. This issue with Cannabis is no different, they just refuse to talk about it openly here...

Albert Einstein stated, something like- "...if you attempt the same task, with the same process, and expect a different outcome. One must be insane. It is to change the procedure, that one may expect a changed out come, and a changed sanity..."
Change is what we need to do, in order to put an end to this corrupted mess the -"Little weasels of middle school"- keep us in!!! It is after-all, the "Pr*ck's & D*ck's of the Middle & High School's that end up with the badges.

 

[G-Dog]

The governor of Washington, Christine Gregoire, is a former prosecutor for king county (Seattle), a failure at that job btw, and now a pawn of the execute branch of the fed. I expect nothing less of her.

 

[G-Dog]

Actually she was the state attorney general... stoner moment there sorry.

 

[MasterLynxx]

Actually she was the state attorney general... stoner moment there sorry.

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