At Hempfest last weekend, posters titled “What’s Gregoire Smoking?” were being circulated through the massive crowds of people checking out the nation’s largest pro-pot gathering. The posters are advertising a rally for the hearing that the state Department of Health will be holding in Tumwater on Monday to discuss the proposed draft limits for medical marijuana patients.
The limits were patterned after Oregon’s limits, and while their limits have managed to protect their patients (even ones who require more than the limits allow), there are some differences between our system and theirs, the major ones being that providers can grow for multiple patients and that there’s a state-run registry system for patients that the police respect. The Cannabis Defense Coalition, a newly formed group of activists working together to protect patients from arrest (I’m a member), details some of the concerns with having to rely primarily on the limits to protect the patients:
1. The definition of a “mature” plant as any plant that reaches twelve inches in height is neither reasonable, nor grounded in science.
2. The new rules as written are absolute upper bounds, not “presumptive amounts” as mandated by SB-6032. If a patient has more than the presumptive amount, the new rules require a doctor to state the amount of marijuana required by that patient. This is illegal under the federal Conant v. Walters case, and doctors risk losing their federal licenses if they abide by this state requirement. This will have a disastrous effect on the legality of medical marijuana in Washington State.
3. That the limit of six “mature plants” — is too low. Cannabis typically takes 8 or more weeks to mature once blooming is triggered. Most patients produce 1-2 ounces per plant, or 6-12 ounces for their 60-day supply. Blooming at twelve inches will decrease yield to under half an ounce per plant, or less than 3 ounces for a sixty day supply.
These numbers are far less than the 24 ounces of dried medicine allowed for under the new rules. In short, the new rules do not honestly take into account the real world mathematics of marijuana growing, let alone the non-scientific, arbitrary limit on plant height written into the rules at the request of Governor Chris Gregoire.
On Saturday at the Hemposium tent, the area of Hempfest where music takes a back seat to politics, there was a lively panel of patients, activists, and attorneys discussing what happened during the process and what still needs to be done to make sure that patients stop getting arrested around the state. During the session, Douglas Hiatt – a local attorney who represents patients across the state – introduced Robert Dalton, a qualified patient who was not only arrested by Kitsap County authorities but may also lose a quarter-million dollars worth of his property.
Among the panelists, there was little disagreement over how we got into this mess. The State Department of Health originally came to a very workable proposal for the limits, 35 ounces and a 10ft by 10ft growing area. The Governor then told the DOH to solicit more input from doctors and law enforcement. The proposed limits were far more restrictive, and as Hiatt pointed out, every patient he knows is now at risk of arrest, and that some arrests have already taken place in Spokane County.
Where there’s a lot of disagreement is on why the Governor stepped into the process and told the Department of Health to revise the numbers. Some are chalking it up to cluelessness or apathy, but others think the Governor is deliberately making the limits unworkable in order to keep law enforcement happy (although Steve Sarich, the loudest voice in that camp, had to be corrected by the crowd when he asserted that every single police group in Washington State supports Gregoire, which we know pretty well by now is not true).
After getting a chance to ask the Governor about this mess in person at her recent pop-in to Drinking Liberally, I’m still in the camp that chalks this up to cluelessness and apathy. I don’t think she understands how disingenuous the concerns from law enforcement are, and I don’t get the impression that she cares enough about authorized patients getting arrested. After I pressed the issue, she said that if patients continue to get arrested after the limits are set that she’d work with the police chiefs to have the situation resolved. However, when you have rogue prosecutors like Russell Hauge in Kitsap County, I’m not sure how much the Governor can do.
Monday’s hearing is at 11AM at the Department of Health offices at 310 Israel Rd. SE in Tumwater. This may be the last chance to get this right, so whether you care about protecting patients or just don’t like law enforcement wasting more of your taxpayer dollars to throw sick people in jail, it’s your chance to be heard.
I’ll have to be honest, after reading this post, I still don’t have any idea what Wash. St. laws are regarding medical marijuana. And I also don’t understand why, if there are laws protecting patients and growers, local police can still arrest them.
A fully grown plant (not one of those 12 inchers) ONLY produces 1-2 ounces of smokeable (manicured & dried) pot?
What about growing the pot in a cage of chicken wire, 12 inches high and 5 feet square?
Maybe your organization should get some growers involved to help out. Using dopeheads to write these press releases isn’t doing your side justice.
@2
A fully grown plant (not one of those 12 inchers) ONLY produces 1-2 ounces of smokeable (manicured & dried) pot?
That’s my understanding
What about growing the pot in a cage of chicken wire, 12 inches high and 5 feet square?
Even if you could do that, the police would have no problem finding a way to bust you anyway.
Maybe your organization should get some growers involved to help out.
Several of the people involved in the organization grow for patients, and they are the ones who raised these issues.
Using dopeheads to write these press releases isn’t doing your side justice.
I’m not sure how you’ve come to the conclusion that you’re someone we take seriously.
What’s needed is full and total legalization of marijuana.
Maybe someone needs to propose use of the REST of the marijuana plant to make hempoline .. a replace ment for gas.
Then using marijuana would be seen as patriotic!
@4
Agreed. I would even take that farther and say that the so-called War on Drugs should be ended, completely. I don’t believe that a government has the right to tell a free people what they can, or cannot, use for intoxication. Obviously, something that sweeping has wide ranging implications – such as abortion, assisted suicide, are a couple that come to mind. But it seems to me that “too much” freedom (if there could be such a thing) is far better than the opposite.
@4 and @6 Agreed. It is all about freedom. In this sense, it shouldn’t be a left-right issue. Also, I tend to think that the medicinal MJ issue detracts from the larger issue of personal freedom.
No offense, but your understanding is incorrect. Not that I would ever know anything about it since it’s illegal, but I’ve seen top buds alone being 1-2 ounces.
If the law limits the height and not the width you get off on a technicality.
You would be surprised how common this is, to have a small hedge of pot that is solid green as opposed to a plant standing 6 feet tall.
Find better qualified growers.
Do you have any idea how common it is to clone plants? Cross breeding? When growing indoors, mess with the hours of light to produce hermaphrodite plants, which produce only females seeds?
Take me seriously? Fully grown plants only producing 1-2 ounces of smoke is a joke. You got played!
On the other hand… maybe it’s the crappy growers that are in favor of legalizing pot, the successful growers want their cash crop to remain illegal so prices will be higher. If it’s legal, there will be taxes, something real growers don’t have to worry about.
@7 an underlying issue …
I suspect the real reason mj is not legalized is that a lot of folks have an investment in their credibility as experts. This credibility ranges fomr politicians to government officials to parents!
Imagine the loss of credibility if “they” admitted the truth.
1) Oregon and Washington can legalize medical MJ all they want, but it still doesn’t make it legal at all under Federal law. From what I see looking from my perch in Oregon is that the State Law Enforcement honors the state medical MJ laws, and the Federal authorities just (usually) look the other way. Part of the current problem is lack of consistent enforcement.
2) I believe that all of our congress critters, R’s and D’s alike, are intelligent enough to understand that marijuana is not in the same class as other drugs and should be only lightly regulated (as you might restrict liquor or tobacco sales to children, for example). But this is all about saving face. No politician can be the first to propose legalization, since they would have to admit that they were wrong all along.
The solution to the marijuana issue is to figure out a way that our leaders can legalize it while still saving face.
@8 Different strains have different characteristics. Some grow tall and stringy, some short and bushy. Some produce a lot of bud, others not so much. THC content will vary from strain to strain. How much bud weighs depends on how dry the bud. Of course, why would someone making a living off of illegal MJ ever want to see it legalized?
@9 It isn’t easy for individuals or a society to admit that they are wrong about something.
Change is slow. Sometimes too slow. MJ won’t be legal any time soon. Perhaps the pace of change justifies the medicinal MJ cause? I’m not sure. They seem to have made some progress. On the other hand, medicinal MJ leaves the legalization issue out in the cold, in effect saying that non-medical MJ should remain illegal.
@11 Steve
Like the post.
Honestly I think mj is an overblown issue on all sides. II see the issue as mainly one of scientific integrity. “We” should be intolerant of all fakery .. from the right or the left. The sad thing is that the mj opponents have badly abused science.
That is also part of why I disagree with Lee’s stand on medical marijuana and agree with your post.
Lee…it’s not “apathy”, it’s cowardice. You’d think anyone with half a brain would be aware by now that the “war on druuuugs” is pure political horseshit, but for some reason even the most liberal of Democrats feels the need to pander to the drug-enforcement industry and the remaining civilians who still have all the Harry Anslinger/Gabriel Nahas propaganda echoing inside their empty skulls.
I don’t think she understands how disingenuous the concerns from law enforcement are, and I don’t get the impression that she cares enough about authorized patients getting arrested. After I pressed the issue, she said that if patients continue to get arrested after the limits are set that she’d work with the police chiefs to have the situation resolved. However, when you have rogue prosecutors like Russell Hauge in Kitsap County, I’m not sure how much the Governor can do.
@14 Art
It seems to me that there may be room for movement on a different tack. I think that after 8 years of Reprican fantasy in the US, the task may be to “sell” the public on the general issue of rationalism. A charge that a candidate is irrational may be more powerful than the current silliness over whether they are or are nto a Christian.
In the case of mj, medical marijuan, imho, has hurt the efforts of folks like Lee because .. tightly or wrongly .. mm is viewed as a trajan horse and the evidence that mm is needed is, with all hopes this will not inflame Thehim, weak.
A better effort might be to lump opposition to mj with creationism, global warming denial, holocaust denial, the evil of gay partnering, all children have equal abilities, race bigotry, the rights of anyone who can sneak into the US to work here, the reality of exporting 12 million illegals, mandatory bussing, and voodoo economics. What all of these isms, on the right and the left, hold in common is a denial of well established facts.
This sort of crap is not unique to the US. Modern Chinese believe Tibet and Taiwan were always parts of China, Muslims believe M. rose into heaven from the Temple grounds and that the Jews stole an existing country called Palestine, Tomo Mbeki of SA claimed AIDS was not the result of HIV, Iranians believe that Sharia is just for all people, etc.
The question is can rationalism become an ismm in itself? I do not mean just appealing to facts, I mean making irrationalism an despised practice .. the weay aetheism is in the US.
Back at MJ, I would love to sign onto a campaign to raise funds to debunk the antiMJ crowd’s BS. Suc h a campaign, like Gore’s effort, would show that there are no significant number of scientists who consider mj a risk and make the skeptics look dumb.
Like Gore’s GW, however, such a campaign need to be strictly factual and leave the messianic marijuana crown to join the discovery institute.
There’s actually been some great, meaningful discussion on marijuana on this thread. I’m impressed. But while I’m absolutely for total legalization, I can understand why some growers woulnd’t want it legalized. Remember that while Elliot Ness and his Untouchables kept Al Capone at bay, it was the IRS that cuffed him. And potheads would probably have a real bitch of a time doing their taxes……
(Grower talking to his accountant)
Dude, do I get a deduction for all those Twinkies I killed the other night?