POT LAW BACKER SHUNS LEGISLATIVE TINKERING

OLYMPIA -- The Seattle doctor who sponsored Washington's voter-approved law
legalizing the medical use of marijuana said Monday he's wary of legislative
attempts to "clarify" the measure's impact.

Initiative 692, approved by 59 percent of voters in November, allows people
suffering from certain terminal and debilitating illnesses to grow and smoke
pot. Physicians who advise qualifying patients about the risks and benefits
of marijuana use also are protected from prosecution.

But state prosecutors are looking for more guidance.

They're backing a bill in the Senate that would require doctors to notify
the state every time they advise patients to try marijuana. The measure also
would allow employers to fire workers for medically approved marijuana
smoking if it poses a safety risk or leaves them too stoned to work.

Dr. Rob Killian, the physician who sponsored the initiative, said lawmakers
should leave the new law alone, especially since it already faces obstacles
from the federal government.

"It's an outrageous attempt to make this bill less effective in this state,"
Killian said. "It puts a heavier burden on physicians, who are already
nervous about federal restrictions.

"This is a delayed attempt to overturn the will of the people."

Senate Bill 5771, sponsored by Sen. Jim Hargrove, D-Hoquiam, has not been
scheduled for a hearing.

Instead, the Senate Health and Long-Term Care Committee plans to have a
hearing Wednesday on Senate Bill 5704, a milder proposal that instructs the
state Department of Health to write rules that clarify provisions of the
law.

The agency could use authority granted under SB5704 to determine what
constitutes a 60-day supply of pot, the vague standard outlined in the new
law, said Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, the measure's sponsor.

The Seattle Democrat, an ardent supporter of the new law, also would like
the agency to consider whether a group such as the Green Cross Patient
Co-op, which runs an underground clinic in Seattle that dispenses marijuana
to the sick, can continue its work.

The law allows patients to name a caregiver who can grow or otherwise
provide marijuana for them, but it limits each caregiver to one patient.

Killian predicted that neither measure will pass since state law requires a
two-thirds majority of both houses to amend an initiative within two years
of its approval.

The Washington Association of Prosecuting Attorneys and the Washington
Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs are the main forces behind the
Hargrove measure.

Law enforcers need more information about who's smoking pot legally and how
much marijuana they can possess, said Larry Erickson, executive director of
the sheriffs and police chiefs group.

"We don't want to interfere with what the people's initiative does,"
Erickson said. "But we think we need to have some guidelines."

The police group prefers the Hargrove measure over the less-restrictive
Kohl-Welles bill, he added.

The Washington State Medical Association recently came up with a
standardized form physicians can use when recommending that patients try
marijuana to relieve suffering. That should clear up one area of concern by
helping doctors feel more comfortable about complying with the law without
getting in trouble with the federal government, Killian said.

A second sticking point, how to distribute the drug, must be resolved by the
federal government, he said.

"I don't think we need to tweak it anymore," Killian said. "Let's give it
some time to work."

Killian said he supports a second measure scheduled to be discussed at
Wednesday's hearing.

Senate Joint Memorial 8005 is a resolution that urges Congress and President
Clinton to move marijuana from the list of controlled substances the federal
government deems to have no medical value to a list of potent drugs that can
be legally prescribed.