POLICE SEIZE MEDICAL MARIJUANA, PATIENT RECORDS

Police searched a medical marijuana cooperative in the University
District on Tuesday evening, seizing 12 ounces of marijuana and more
than 500 patient medical records, medical marijuana advocates said.

The search was carried out after police officers smelled the odor of
marijuana on the street, entered the Life Vine cooperative on
Northeast 50th Street and University Way Northeast and later obtained
search warrants.

A spokesman at the King County Prosecutor's Office confirmed that a
search was conducted but said a case hadn't been filed with the office.

Police declined comment and referred questions to prosecutors.

At least two patients were in the cooperative when officers showed
up, but nobody was arrested, said Martin Martinez, who runs the
cooperative and is the director of a local chapter of the National
Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

Nobody was smoking inside the cooperative when police officers
arrived, said Douglas Hiatt, a lawyer representing the cooperative.

He speculated that officers might have smelled marijuana leaves
because the building's ventilation system is inadequate.

Under a state law passed by voters in 1998 and amended last year,
patients are allowed a 60-day supply of marijuana if a physician allows it.

The cooperative, one of several similar organizations in the Seattle
area, helps seriously ill patients get together and locate medical marijuana.

It's rare for patients to be able to maintain a 60-day supply on
their own, Hiatt said.

Most then return home to smoke because the law specifies that medical
marijuana must be used in private.

Martinez says the cooperative collects patients' medical histories in
order to produce identification cards for them. They can show those
cards to police if officers confront them for possessing marijuana.

"Here, patients grow together and teach each other. It's just
patients helping patients," Martinez said. "We don't buy marijuana
and resell it; we comply with all the laws."

Hiatt and Martinez said they begged police not to search the
property, but officers did it anyway after consulting with a prosecutor.

"I'm speaking with (the) King County Prosecutor's Office about this,
and I don't expect that this is going to turn into a case," Hiatt
said. "There was no reason to do what they did."

Patients' medical records, especially those of medical marijuana
patients, deserve special protection because of their sensitivity,
said Doug Honig, an American Civil Liberties Union spokesman. He said
the ACLU was looking into the situation.

From a legal standpoint, medical marijuana exists in a strange gray
area. Although some states, such as Washington, allow its use in
limited circumstances, marijuana is technically illegal under federal law.

Nevertheless, cooperatives such as the Life Vine have proliferated
where medical marijuana has been legalized, including Washington and California.