LEGITIMATE POT PATIENTS TO CARRY PICTURE-ID CARDS

A Capitol Hill organization that distributes medical marijuana plans
to begin issuing photo-ID cards to its patients.

The strategy seeks to protect legitimate patients from being harassed
by police, said Dr. Francis Podrebarac, volunteer medical director for
Capitol Hill Compassion in Action.

The card will include a photo of the patient and a copy of a doctor's
or caregiver's authorization, as required under state law.

State voters in 1998 approved marijuana use for some patients. But the
law did not specify how patients were to get marijuana, which remains
a controlled substance under federal law.

Some grow their own, while others obtain it through organizations such
as Green Cross or Compassion in Action, which terms itself a
"medical-marijuana-access service."

But some medical-marijuana advocates have complained that police
continue to treat qualified patients as if they were breaking the law
by possessing marijuana.

One patient's plants and growing materials were confiscated in a raid
last spring. After prosecutors declined to pursue the case, his
insurance company covered the loss.

Two weeks ago, the man was again approached by police who were
responding to a domestic-assault call in a nearby apartment. Police
smelled marijuana smoke from his apartment and asked that he open his
door. He told them he was a medical-marijuana patient but refused to
let them into his apartment to verify his doctor's
authorization.

Leo Poort, Seattle Police Department legal adviser, said a
photo-identification card would help change the dynamics in similar
situations.

"I think that's a very good way to go," he said. "Then our officers
can start thinking about the situation they're confronted with in a
different way."

Law-enforcement officials throughout the state would benefit from
having a "quick and sure exchange of information at the point of
contact," Poort said.

Police and medical-marijuana advocates still differ radically as to
how many plants or how much marijuana may be possessed by a qualified
patient.

Under the law, a patient or a caregiver for a qualified patient may
possess a "60-day supply."

A draft policy nearing completion at the Seattle Police Department
directs officers on the scene to contact the narcotics section when
confronted with a case involving a person claiming to be a
medical-marijuana patient, said Lt. Mike Sanford of the vice and
narcotics section.

Police guidelines specify a nine-plant limit but with a case-by-case
review, Sanford said.

"It's a bench mark, not an absolute," he said. "If they've got 30
plants, it's pretty clearly not medical marijuana. They're giving it
away or distributing it, or doing something that the law doesn't allow
them to do."

Podrebarac disagrees. He uses standards derived from a handful of
patients who receive marijuana from the federal government, as
computed by the city of Oakland. That would amount to no more than 144
plants, he says.

Still, he advises patients to keep the plant count as low as possible,
"preferably under 100 total plants."

Compassion in Action also plans to offer a 24-hour phone number for
police to verify that person is a qualified patient, Podrebarac said.

Sanford said police "want to avoid a true medical-marijuana patient being
bothered by the police. We have no interest in putting true patients
through a stressful situation."