LEGISLATURE 1999: MARIJUANA BACKERS WARY OF TINKERING

Legislators Trying To Fine-Tune Initiative Granting Medical Patients Access
To Drug

Legislators are trying to clarify the state's medical marijuana law for
police and prosecutors while holding true to the initiative voters passed
in November.

"We're not trying to repeal the law or handcuff it so bad that it doesn't
work," said Tom McBride, lobbyist for the Washington Association of
Prosecuting Attorneys. "We just need some guidance: 'Look, doc, if you're
going to recommend this to a patient, tell me you did it and tell me how
much he needs.'"

But the initiative's backers are leery of legislative interference with a
law that already faces federal barriers.

"It's a blind-sided attempt to basically bring the government back into
regulation of patients' and doctors' relationships," said initiative
supporter Rob Killian, a former Tacoma physician.

The law allows patients with certain debilitating illnesses, such as AIDS
or cancer, to possess a 60-day supply of marijuana. But it has left the law
enforcement community wondering how to determine when a person is using the
drug legally and how much constitutes a two-month supply.

That confusion played out in Tacoma in December when police arrested a
blind AIDS patient and his mother after finding three marijuana plants in
their house.

Though Kelly Grubbs and his mother, Terry Morgan, had no documentation for
the plants, Pierce County Prosecutor John Ladenburg did not file charges
against them because, he said, they were following the "spirit" of the law.

Grubbs' doctor had advised him to use the marijuana.

Senate Bill 5704 would allow the state Department of Health to write rules
to flesh out the law. Its primary sponsor, Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles
(D-Seattle), who supported the initiative, said the department could
clarify the law without encroaching on patients' newfound rights.

Another plan, SB 5771, would go further by spelling out those rules in law.
Among other things, it would:

* Require the state Medical Quality Assurance Commission to distribute and
collect forms logging each medical marijuana recommendation made by a
physician.

* Require physicians to notify the state every time they advise a patient
to try marijuana as a medicine.

* Require patients to carry documentation from the physician that states
the doctor recommended marijuana.

* Require the doctor who recommended the marijuana to determine what a
60-day supply is.

* Allow employers to fire employees who use marijuana, even if for medical
purposes.

"The initiative is nondescript," said SB 5771's primary sponsor, Sen. Jim
Hargrove (D-Hoquiam). "There's a real potential for using the whole
confusion in this area for trafficking drugs. All we're trying to do is put
some definition there so law enforcement can deal with the illegitimate use."

Initiative backer Killian said lawmakers should give the measure a chance
to work.

He said state law already outlaws using marijuana while driving or
operating heavy equipment, allows employers to ban its use during work
hours and outlaws its use in public.

Particularly disturbing, he said, is a provision in SB 5771 allowing
employers to fire employees who use marijuana for medical reasons.

But Hargrove argued that the initiative never specifically prohibited that
provision. He said the issue is not whether an employee is using marijuana
but whether the employee's performance is affected by it.

"We're trying to be very careful not to do anything that amends the
initiative," Hargrove said.

Killian said the problem with the medical marijuana law has nothing to do
with state government but with distribution of marijuana, which is
regulated by the federal government.

Patients who suffer from cancer, AIDS and glaucoma can grow their own
supply but can't buy it from someone else because federal law prohibits the
distribution of it.

In addition to Washington, five other states - California, Arizona, Alaska,
Oregon and Nevada - allow marijuana for medical purposes.

SB 5704 is scheduled for a hearing Feb. 24 before the Senate Health and
Long-Term Care Committee. A hearing has not been scheduled for SB 5771.