ILL SHOULD NOT HAVE TO FEAR A DRUG BUST

Witnesses headed into Tuesday's state Senate medical marijuana
hearing have a prescription for lawmakers: Help us relieve pain. Help
us deal with illness in privacy.

And those set to testify before the Senate health committee are
citizens one least expects to be turning on and tuning in. A major
reason for using cannabis is that they don't WANT to drop out.

Katy Rourke, who worked for 27 years in the psychiatric ward at
Harborview Medical Center, suffers from bone degenerative diseases.
She takes a drug advertised in TV spots where happy people romp on
the screen while the announcer reels off possible side effects.

"I just need to function," Rourke said. The "medications I take for
muscle relaxation leave me unable to think. With marijuana, while I
can't drive of course, I am functional."

Bambi Hope, a longtime military police officer, cares for an
18-year-old son who suffers from crippling muscular dystrophy and
chronic severe pain.

"We tried every synthetic medication," Hope said. "Our doctor
recommended that he try marijuana and it made a world of difference.
. I am military -- I was an MP -- and I never thought that I would
let marijuana into my home, let alone putting it down my son's throat."

Cannabis may relieve physical pain, but having and growing it remains
a source of legal anxiety for patients and caregivers.

Washington voters in 1998 passed Initiative 692 with a 59 percent
majority. It allows for medical use of marijuana by patients with
certain terminal or debilitating conditions. The law is an
"affirmative defense" in court if patients are prosecuted.

With Initiative 75, Seattle voters took a step further in 2003,
mandating that arrests of marijuana-using adults would become the
lowest priority for city police.

Alas, no state or local initiative can change federal law, or the
attitude problem of the Bush administration. Federal law makes
cannabis possession, distribution and manufacture illegal -- period.

U.S. Drug Enforcement Administrator John Walters campaigned in
Seattle against I-75. He crossed the border to warn Vancouver, B.C.,
of possible ruptures in relations as the Canadian city pondered
adoption of a treatment-based drug policy.

The feds claim that "no animal or human data" supports the efficacy
of marijuana use in treatment.

They should go talk to Ric Smith, who has recovered from a serious
stroke and survived colon cancer.

How did marijuana help?

"I could eat," he said. "It was a key to recovery. I could eat and
hold down my medications. Pharmaceutical drugs kept me alive. No way
I could keep down all those pills without eating."

Rourke was stopped while driving, and officers found her medical
marijuana. After producing papers showing that she was an authorized
patient, Rourke was let off.

Subsequently, claiming to be acting on a tip, police found plants in
her home. Rourke now faces charges for cultivating cannabis in
Snohomish County.

"It's very emotional," she said Friday. "I just spent my morning in
court. I'm 63 years old. I've worked my whole life. I have three
wonderful children. I've never been in trouble with the law.

"What is gained by wasting money and everybody's time on a matter
that is my business?"

Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, D-Seattle, asks the same question.

"I've seen very sick people get arrested and have very serious
problems," she said. "And, dealing with this, law enforcement people
get put in a quandary."

The bottom line: Change is needed at the federal level. Congress is,
of course, afraid of being seen as being "soft" on drugs.

Given political realities, however, Kohl-Welles has come up with a
modest, sensible proposal to relieve anxiety. It would protect
marijuana patients from being arrested or prosecuted under state law.

Senate Bill 6032 would broaden what physicians can do, saying they
can recommend medical marijuana if it "may benefit" a patient. The
definition of who can supply marijuana would be changed from "primary
caregiver" to "designated provider."

Kohl-Welles would permit patients or caregivers to pool resources in
growing marijuana ("We could have a P-patch"). She would ensure that
patients who are able to produce authorizing paperwork would not be
arrested. She would add conditions, including Hepatitis C, where
marijuana can be prescribed.

Kohl-Welles cites as an example her 31-year-old sister-in-law, who
slowly died from cancer.

"Her very conservative parents were out getting her medical
marijuana," she said. "Should someone like this be arrested?"

The fate of SB 6032 and two House bills introduced by Rep. Sherry
Appleton is uncertain.

Our cautious state House of Representatives hasn't mustered the
gumption to pass bills aimed at cell phone users who drive
recklessly. It has failed to make global warming a top priority.

If scared about their political lives, legislators ought to consider
the real lives of people such as Rourke, Hope and Smith.

They should also turn to Question 32 in a statewide poll of 1,200
registered voters taken last year by Belden Russonello & Stewart for
the American Civil Liberties Union: "Washington state -- not the
federal government -- should be able to make its own laws regarding
medical marijuana, that is marijuana recommended by doctors to
relieve pain and suffering."

Sixty-eight percent of those surveyed strongly agreed. Fifteen
percent somewhat agreed. Only 15 percent disagreed.