ARE 157 POT PLANTS A MEDICAL OVERDOSE?

Authorities Say Grower Far Exceeds Intent Of New Law

A Tacoma man charged Thursday with growing 157 marijuana plants in his
North End basement may become a test case for how last year's medical
marijuana initiative is enforced.

David Teatsworth was legally growing marijuana when Tacoma police
arrested him Wednesday, Charles Grisim, director of the Pierce County
chapter of the Green Cross, contends.

But Pierce County Prosecutor John Ladenburg said Teatsworth was
clearly operating beyond the law. Teatsworth pleaded not guilty
Thursday afternoon to unlawful manufacturing of a controlled substance.

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

He agreed to raise the crop because his parents had been in the
commercial greenhouse business, he knew how to raise plants and he was
unemployed, he said.

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

"I had the paperwork. The Green Cross lawyers told me everything was
legal because I was acting as a caregiver for the 11 people," the
43-year-old defendant said.

Grisim pointed out that Initiative 692 allows people who are too sick
to grow their own marijuana to designate a "caregiver" to do it for
them.

But Ladenburg said the initiative doesn't give one person 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," the prosecutor said. "If the
Green Cross thinks otherwise, then this will become the test case."

Grisim said Green Cross attorneys have advised the organization that
arrangements like 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 he and other prosecutors tried to persuade the
Legislature to pass laws this year setting out specific limits and
enforcement guidelines for the medical marijuana initiative approved
last fall.

But he said he believes legislators were reluctant to touch any
legislation that dealt with marijuana smoking and growing, and the
legislation died. As a result, the rules of enforcement remain vague,
he said.

"That's the problem when you have doctors writing laws," said
Ladenburg, referring to the physicians who drafted the initiative.
"It's the same problem you'd have if lawyers performed surgery."

The initiative's main author, Seattle physician Rob Killian, agrees
with Ladenburg's interpretation of the law.

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

The law lists a set of conditions for the "designated primary
caregiver," including a condition that the person "be the primary care
giver to only one patient at any one time."

Grisim said he and Killian have discussed the caregiver provision at
length and disagree about its meaning.

Ladenburg said law enforcement officials also are struggling with how
large a supply a medical marijuana user or his caregiver may possess.
The initiative allows a sick person with a physician's recommendation
for marijuana, or his caregiver, to possess a "60-day supply."

How much is a 60-day supply? Killian said he is working with the state
Department of Health to define that quantity. The size of that supply
may vary depending on a patient's needs, he said.

Dan Satterberg, chief of administration for the King County
prosecutor's office, said King County authorities are working with
patients and doctors on a case-by-case basis to determine what is a
reasonable amount.

"But clearly if you've got more on hand than (anyone) could smoke in a
year, you're violating the law," he said.

The King County prosecutor's office agrees with Ladenburg's
interpretation of the law.

Pierce County deputy prosecutor Phil Sorensen claims Tacoma police
went to Teatsworth's home Wednesday afternoon on a tip. Officers
seized 157 plants from his basement in the 1400 block of North 11th
Street.

Teatsworth said he had 66 nearly mature plants. The remainder were
starts for a new crop. He said 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.