No comment…

[via The General]

Over at Slog, Dominic Holden has posted a copy of the heavily-redacted police report from Tuesday’s raid on the Lifevine medical marijuana office in the University District. The police involvement in this case began when the operator of a barbershop adjacent to the Lifevine office reported the smell of marijuana to police. According to the Seattle Times, the barbershop owner was unaware that the office was being used by medical marijuana patients.

When the police arrived, Martin Martinez from Lifevine cooperated with them (Martin was actually one of the people who helped pass the initiative in 1998 that was intended to make medical marijuana legal in this state). After communicating with Ellen O’Neill-Stephens in the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s office, the police were then able to obtain a warrant to conduct a search. During the search, the police took out a wall in the office, convinced that there was a secret grow operation behind it. They found no plants growing anywhere.

They then took both medicine (12 ounces) and patient files from the office. In an interview with KUOW this morning, King County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg acknowledged that the medical files should not have been taken and they are being returned this afternoon. The police are still refusing to return the medicine, even though the amount taken is within the draft 60-day supply limits proposed by the Department of Health.

Even as this situation inches towards a positive resolution, there are still a lot of questions. Why did the police take the files in the first place? Were they authorized by O’Neill-Stephens to do so? Is SPD going to pay for the wall they damaged? And how are the actions of SPD in any way compliant with Initiative 75, which made adult marijuana use the lowest priority for the city’s law enforcement, so that they could, you know, deal with real crimes?

And there’s one other question here that’s not directly related to marijuana laws. Why didn’t the barbershop owner try to find out why there was a marijuana odor coming from the office next door before calling the cops? This is a peculiar Seattle trait that I’ve noticed. People here will call in NATO to intervene with a neighborhood dispute before they’ll actually knock on their neighbor’s door and ask what’s up. I just don’t get it.

I’ve received word over email that there was a police raid of an office in the University District of Seattle that does work supporting medical marijuana patients. The office is used by Cascadia NORML and Lifevine. No one was arrested, but files and medicine were allegedly taken by the police. This is the first King County raid on medical marijuana patients that I’ve seen recently, and people are being encouraged to call King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg’s office at 206-296-9000. Satterberg has been known to be an ally of medical marijuana patients, so this comes as a bit of a surprise. I’ll be updating this throughout the day Wednesday as I learn more.

UPDATE: I’ll be posting updates at Reload as I learn more.

UPDATE 2: The raid was carried out by SPD. I’ll be attempting to contact Leo Poort to see if he can provide any more information about this incident.

UDPATE 3: Dominic Holden and Gene Johnson have both been investigating this, but are not getting answers from SPD or the King County Prosecutor’s Office. This part from Johnson’s AP report concerning the medical records taken strikes me as the most serious aspect of the case:

Medical marijuana attorney Douglas Hiatt said the records are protected under federal privacy laws and the police shouldn’t have them.

I peeled an old newspaper off a pipe in my garage today…

A month ago, I briefly mentioned a visit I’d made to some medical marijuana patients near Tacoma who went through an arrest ordeal that was so over-the-top I felt compelled to follow up. Brad and Kristie Choate are a married couple who live in the Spanaway area. Brad, who is in his late 20s, lost his leg in a diving accident and Kristie, who is in her mid 40s, is partially disabled with a number of serious ailments. After I met with them and recorded an interview, I was told by a patient advocate not to write anything until they put something up online themselves. On Wednesday this week, that happened, as Kristie recounts what happened:

[Read more…]

Could you imagine the shrieking if any Democrat in this country did what Karl Rove did yesterday?

This is why the Taliban is coming back in Afghanistan.

Alabama’s strongly anti-gay Attorney General (the guy who was ridiculed for trying to ban sex toys) was caught being gay.

The Seattle PI has printed two good editorials on the upcoming Hinchey-Rohrabacher Amendment vote that would prevent Attorney General Rob McKenna from receiving federal assistance in arresting the state’s registered medical marijuana patients.

I found the dumbest anti-pot column I’ve seen all year. At the other end of the spectrum, the Swiss may move to full legalization this year.

This week’s Birds Eye View Contest is still unsolved.

How useless and dysfunctional does a political entity have to be in order to have a 9% approval rating?

This useless and dysfunctional.

More here.

And here:

And hopefully, the fact that Obama voted for this bill dispels any false notions about his ability to transcend traditional politics. He may be the best empty suit running this year, but he’s still an empty suit.

In arguing in support of I-1000, I’ve often asked people to look at the experiences in Oregon to see how it’s been an effective law. Now that the State Department of Health has released draft limits for medical marijuana patients that closely mimic Oregon’s limits, I think we should again look to Oregon to make a comparison. I’m cautiously optimistic that these limits will provide some level of protection for the patients, but there are certainly some problems that will need to be resolved at the next hearing in Tumwater on Monday, August 25. In the meantime, I understand that a lawsuit will be filed this week against the Department of Health over the fact that they ignored the testimony from medical professionals in arriving at the limit. I’ll post more on that as more information becomes available.

“I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.”
– Thomas Jefferson

Yesterday, the Seattle Times printed an op-ed from Booth Gardner, the former Governor and supporter of the Death with Dignity Initiative. Curiously, though, this was the picture that ran alongside it online:

I don’t think I really need to describe the image any more than what’s obvious about it. It shows a doctor preparing a needle with an elderly woman (with a concerned look on her face) next to it. There’s one obvious problems with this – with I-1000, the medication is orally self-administered. Right within the column, Gardner lists out the safeguards:

The basic provisions of the Oregon Death with Dignity Act that have been included in Washington’s Initiative 1000 include:

• The patient must be diagnosed by two physicians as being terminally ill with less than six months to live

• The patient must repeat the request in writing twice with at least two weeks between requests

• If either physician suspects the person is not mentally competent to make the decision, a mental-health evaluation is required.

• The patient must be provided with information about and access to palliative (hospice) care.

• A prescription may not be written if there is any indication of coercion. Coercion is punishable as a felony.

• The patient must self-administer the medication.

All of these rules are meant to make it impossible for the slippery slope scenarios of this initiative’s opponents to come true. This is copied from Oregon, where the law has worked just fine, allowing for only a few hundred patients to make this choice about the end of their life, and with no stories of doctors forcing elderly patients to end their lives against their will.

The Seattle Times has long been the beacon of nanny statism within Washington. It’s probably not as bad today as it was back when Lou Guzzo was there, but it still carries the torch for just about any cause that is meant to protect the citizens of this state from themselves and their own decision-making ability. And if you’re not clear on whether or not the Times is carrying water for I-1000 opposition, check out the title they put on this article.

The ideals of liberty that people like Thomas Jefferson fought for are illustrated quite well by the quote above. He knew that the risks of having too much liberty were far more appealing that the risks of having too little. But the Seattle Times reminds us again that they seem to always arrive at the opposite formulation, that any time people are demanding greater liberty to make choices about their own lives, it’s equated with an unforeseen (and in this case, unfounded) danger. It’s the nanny state mindset, one that constantly seeks to equate choice with peril and freedom with disaster.

[via Slog]

The I-1000 Death With Dignity initiative is holding a press conference at 1PM today to announce that they’re turning in the signatures required to make it onto the November ballot:

Former governor Booth Gardner, a well-respected leader of the death with dignity movement, who has called this his last campaign, will speak about his support for aid-in-dying. Volunteer Nancy Niedzielski, whose husband died of brain cancer, will also share her experience and discuss the reasons that it is important to decriminalize death with dignity.

I’ve been a pro-choice advocate on this issue for a long time and I’m excited to volunteer to help get this initiative passed. If you would like to help out, visit their website and sign up.

The preliminary 60-day supply limits for medical marijuana patients in Washington have been released:

Patients authorized to possess or grow marijuana for medical reasons under Washington law would be limited to 24 ounces of harvested marijuana, plus six mature plants and 18 immature plants, according to an official draft rule filed by the state Department of Health today.

The filing of the draft rule starts a rule-making process and a public-comment period. A hearing has been scheduled for Aug. 25 in Tumwater, Thurston County.

As I mentioned below, this is lower than earlier numbers proposed by the DOH, but it’s also higher than the 3 ounces that law enforcement considered “reasonable.” Why these numbers? Probably because they’re exactly the same as what Oregon allows.

Senator Jeanne Kohl-Welles, the prime sponsor of the bill tasking the State Department of Health to set the limits, has released a statement:

We have a responsibility to stay true to the values of compassion and empathy that are at the basis of this law, which was passed by voters in 1998. While I appreciate the Department of Health’s efforts to address this complex issue, I am concerned that today’s proposed rule is more restrictive than what had been previously discussed and may be unclear regarding a physician’s role in making a recommendation for a patient’s use of medical marijuana. Since the rule is not yet final, I encourage all stakeholders to continue providing written input and participate in the upcoming public hearing on August 25 to ensure a full consideration of their concerns.

Earlier this morning, Postman wrote:

I was talking to a smart friend over the weekend who bemoaned the oh-so-careful approach Gov. Chris Gregoire is taking to governing. He’s a supporter. But he worries that out of fear of alienating someone, somewhere, Gregoire has traded activism for near-paralysis.

The topic of that post had nothing to do with drug policy, but with the deadline for having the State Department of Health establish the 60-day supply limits for medical marijuana patients coming up tomorrow, I find myself in the same boat as Postman’s unnamed friend – if not even more critical of the Governor.

As of my typing this, I still have no idea what the released limits will be. Earlier this year, it was revealed that preliminary numbers of 35 ounces and a 100 sq ft growing area caused the Governor to get more involved in the process and demand more feedback from law enforcement and medical professionals. Many patients and advocates within the medical marijuana community saw this as an attempt by the Governor to derail the process in support of the state’s law enforcement union, while the Governor’s dishonesty about why the process was derailed didn’t exactly convince people that she was acting in good faith.

At the follow-up meeting (which the DOH attempted to keep closed to the public, but failed), the two parties who the Governor claimed were underrepresented in the initial round of workshops were in attendance. The law enforcement officials again iterated that the decision should be left up the medical professionals, and the one medical professional who showed up said that 35 ounces might be too low of a limit for some patients who ingest it within food. Law enforcement officials also asserted that the limit shouldn’t be so high that criminals could hide behind it, but believing that someone with a small growing area in their basement could launch a massive criminal enterprise is more than a little absurd, considering that marijuana is already the most lucrative cash crop in the state of Washington.

The released limits tomorrow (if they’re even released) will go a long way towards showing whether or not Governor Gregoire is someone who can put politics and special interests aside and do what’s right for the citizens of this state.

Earlier this month, I visited a partially disabled medical marijuana patient in Tacoma who spent over a week in jail this winter. She was kept from receiving the special liquid meals she requires for nearly the entire time. In her mid-40s, she was a former nurse who told me she was staunchly anti-drug before discovering that marijuana worked best for her illnesses. She and her husband then became active in helping other registered patients learn how to grow for themselves.

Stories like that one are common. The list of other patients being hauled into court across the state has been growing. At Drinking Liberally and other events, I occasionally talk to people close to the Governor, and they rarely seem to understand that this is more than just a number. It could be the difference that causes someone to lose their house, their livelihood, or what’s left of their health, should they be sent to jail without adequate medical needs being met. Hopefully, the Governor herself doesn’t suffer from her own paralysis on this one.

The immigration issue can be complicated, but one part of it that should be simple is that it benefits us to have hard working immigrants come here and raise families.

A friend of mine just sent me a petition for Anuj Garg, a friend and co-worker of hers who’s close to facing deportation due to delays and understaffing in the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) office. He owns a home here and has a three-month old son. You can sign a petition supporting him and his family here. Their story is probably just one of many right now, especially considering he works for a large company and even that hasn’t been enough to get his visa extended.

It’s really disheartening to see how we’ve gone from being a country that welcomed my great-grandparents off of boats in New York a century ago (some of whom were teenagers who spoke no English) to one that sends back hard-working people who’ve been here for years, hold good jobs, and own their own homes.