STATE EXTENDS TIME FOR COMMENTS ON MEDICAL-MARIJUANA LIMITS

TUMWATER, Thurston County - More than 100 activists who jammed a
state Health Department hearing Monday to protest proposed
medical-marijuana limits won at least a minor victory: getting more
time to make their case.

Responding to concerns by advocates, Assistant Health Secretary Karen
Jensen extended until 5 p.m. Friday the deadline for comments on a
proposed rule to limit medical-marijuana users to possessing 24
ounces of cultivated marijuana, six mature plants and 18 immature plants.

The action came at a 2- 1/2-hour hearing in which about 50 patients,
doctors and other marijuana supporters blasted the proposal as
unfair, unrealistic and unduly influenced by law-enforcement
agencies. "We're not criminals. We're patients," said Melissa Leggee,
of Spokane. "We just want to be left alone to do what we need to do
to survive."

Leggee said she uses marijuana to ease chronic pain, irritable bowel
syndrome and other conditions.

Dr. Karen Hamilton, of Redmond, who has treated patients helped by
marijuana, said the proposal would "effectively take treatment out of
the doctors' hands," adding that there is no "one-size-fits-all"
appropriate marijuana dose.

Speaker after speaker said six mature plants can't possibly provide
the amount of marijuana most patients need to combat pain, nausea and
symptoms of more than a dozen ailments the drug is used to treat. As
a result, they argued, users would need to find drug dealers to
augment their supply.

"You're going to make everyone in this room a felon," if the proposed
limit is adopted, Steve Sarich, of Kirkland, told the panel of Health
Department officials. Sarich is director of CannaCare, which provides
legal assistance and starter plants to patients.

Lawsuit Filed

Sarich and another activist, John Worthington, of Renton, filed a
lawsuit Friday in Thurston County Superior Court that they hope will
force the state to reclassify marijuana, now on a list of "Schedule
I" drugs deemed to have no valid medical use.

Sarich said the state's old drug law, which contains that listing,
should be superseded by Initiative 692, passed in 1998, which
legalizes marijuana for medical purposes.

The initiative, approved by nearly 59 percent of Washington voters,
said patients with valid certification by a physician should be
allowed to possess a 60-day supply of marijuana but contained no
definition of what quantity that is.

Last year, the Legislature directed the Health Department to spell
out an acceptable amount.

Several speakers Monday criticized Health Department staffers for not
sticking with an earlier draft proposal, which would have allowed a
user 35 ounces of harvested marijuana and a 100-square-foot growing "canopy."

That proposal was changed after Gov. Christine Gregoire's policy
analysts urged the Health Department to get input from
law-enforcement agencies and medical experts, who were scarcely
represented at the workshops on the draft proposal.

Staffers for Gregoire also told Health Department officials the
amount appeared to be on the high side.

The change prompted Troy Williams, of Clark County, to remark that
department officials should "stand up, have some courage, and tell
the governor to shove it."

Jensen said she expects the agency to take about a month to evaluate
comments and come up with a rule set by Health Secretary Mary Selecky.

If substantial changes are made to the current proposal, Jensen said,
a new round of comments would be solicited.

Target of Raids

Despite the Washington initiative, possession, cultivation and sale
of marijuana remain illegal under federal law. Some advocates for
medical marijuana have found themselves the target of raids by law
enforcement, which they say violates their rights not just to legal
pot but to freedom of speech.

The homes of both Sarich and Worthington were raided early last year.
Marijuana plants were seized at each man's home, but neither was
formally charged.

Jeanne Ferguson, of Seattle, executive director of "Grammas for
Ganja," said the controversy would disappear if marijuana were
legalized. "The plant should be free to be grown in your backyard,
next to your broccoli and carrots."

Outside the Health Department's Tumwater offices during Monday's
hearing, marijuana backers set up a blue tent in which certified
patients could "medicate."

Activists said state staffers had asked them not to set up the tent
but did not interfere once it was in place.