POLICE SAY MARIJUANA CROP EXCEEDED NEW LAW

A Tacoma Grower's Claim He Was Acting As A Caretaker For 11 Ill People May
Put The Statute To The Test

TACOMA -- A Tacoma man charged with growing 157 marijuana plants was
legally raising them for sick people, a proponent of medical marijuana use
says.

But authorities who charged David Teatsworth say the amount of the drug
clearly exceeded the boundaries of last year's medical marijuana initiative.

That disagreement could turn Teatsworth's case into a legal test of the
voter-approved law.

Teatsworth pleaded not guilty Thursday to unlawful manufacture of a
controlled substance.

Teatsworth said Green Cross, which supplies medicinal marijuana to patients
who have a doctor's recommendation, had contracted with him to grow the
drug for 11 people.

He agreed to raise the crop because he knew how to raise plants and was
unemployed, he said.

"We had passed a law. I thought everything was OK. I am not a criminal,"
Teatsworth, 43, said in an interview in the Pierce County Jail.

"The Green Cross lawyers told me everything was legal because I was acting
as a caregiver for the 11 people."

Under Initiative 692, people who are too sick to grow their own marijuana
can designate a "caregiver" to do it for them, said Charles Grisim,
director of Green Cross' Pierce County chapter.

But county prosecutor John Ladenburg said the initiative doesn't give
anyone the right to grow marijuana for more than one other person.

"The initiative doesn't make it legal for one person to become the
marijuana grower for half the state," he said. "If the Green Cross thinks
otherwise, then this will become the test case."

Grisim said Green Cross attorneys have advised his organization that
arrangements such as Teatsworth's are legal.

"We've got an imbalance in the number of sick people who can grow marijuana
and the number who need it," Grisim said.

Ladenburg said prosecutors asked the Legislature this year to set specific
limits and enforcement guidelines for the initiative approved last fall.
But the legislation died, and rules of enforcement remain vague, he said.

The initiative's main author, Seattle physician Rob Killian, agreed with
Ladenburg's interpretation.

"The law clearly contemplates one person growing marijuana for one other
person," Killian said. "If Green Cross is claiming otherwise, then they're
wrong."

Ladenburg said law-enforcement officials also aren't sure how much
marijuana a medical user or his caregiver may possess. The initiative
allows a sick person with a physician's recommendation, or his caregiver,
to possess a "60-day supply."

Killian said he is working with the state to define that quantity. The
amount may vary depending on a patient's needs, he said.

Police seized 157 plants from Teatsworth's home Wednesday.

Green Cross was going to pay him $200 an ounce for the finished product,
and he figured his yield would be about 1 ounce per plant, he said.