MEDICAL POT USE DOESN'T STOP ARRESTS

Mother, Aids-Afflicted Son Jailed After Police Find Plants

Despite a new state law that allows some medical use of marijuana, a
61-year-old Tacoma woman and her blind son who has AIDS were arrested
this week after Tacoma police found three marijuana plants in their
home. But it was unresolved past brushes with the law that kept the
man in jail until New Year's Eve, his mother acknowledged Friday.

The current pot-growing charges against mother and son have been
dropped pending further investigation.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Washington is investigating
whether the arrests thwarted the intent of a recently passed
initiative that lets patients with certain illnesses grow and keep a
60-day supply of marijuana.

"At this point, we don't know what end is up. We are still wanting to
know the details," said Gerard Sheehan, ACLU legislative director.
"But we're really interested in this, and we are very concerned if the
facts turn up to be as we have been told."

The trouble started Tuesday afternoon as Tracie Morgan picked up her
son, Kelly Grubbs, 35, from an appointment with a counselor.

Their outgoing telephone service had been disconnected and while they
were gone, the telephone company reconnected it.

That triggered an alarm on Grubbs' lifeline alarm system. Operators
couldn't reach Grubbs or a neighbor, so police were dispatched to
check on him.

Among the usual furnishings of a seriously ill man - a portable toilet
chair, walker, scooter and Braille reading machine - the officers
found a mature marijuana plant and two smaller plants.

Morgan said she tried to explain her son's medical situation to the
officers, including a sergeant at the scene, but they would have none
of it.

"One phone call could have solved this whole thing," Dr. Rob Killian,
a leading proponent of the initiative, complained Friday. "No one called me."

Instead, mother and son were booked into the Pierce County
Jail.

Morgan was able to come up with the $1,000 needed to get a bail
bondsman to post her bail. She was out by midnight.

But Grubbs had some unresolved legal problems: A 1987 conviction for
possession of less than a gram of marijuana and a 1991 trespassing
charge that had turned into a burglary conviction, Morgan said.

He was in violation of his terms of release and therefore wasn't
eligible for bail, Morgan said.

Killian said Grubbs' arrest is the kind of thing voters wanted to
abolish when they passed the medical marijuana initiative.

"This was not a borderline case," Killian said. "This man has AIDS.
... I don't know about his past; I know about him the past few months."

Police contend they acted properly because Grubbs and Morgan had no
medical documents showing they were authorized to grow marijuana for
personal medical use.

Such documents would usually include medical records proving the
existence of terminal or debilitating disease and a document showing a
physician had discussed the potential medical benefits with the patient.

But Killian said doctors are advised to put that documentation in
their patients' files, not distribute it to patients. The fear is that
doctors could be prosecuted for prescribing marijuana, which is
illegal to possess or grow under federal law.

Killian said he had talked to Grubbs about the medical benefits of
marijuana in November, and a note documenting that discussion is in
Grubbs' medical file.

Grubbs was released Thursday, based on his terminal
illness.

"He spent two days in jail getting his head screwed up and his body,
too," Morgan said, complaining that jail food wasn't plentiful or
nutritious enough for an AIDS patient.

Grubbs was diagnosed with advanced AIDS in 1996, she said. Since then,
he has had a stroke, lost his eyesight and is semi-paralyzed on one
side of his body.

But medications have caused a recent rebound, she said, and marijuana
is playing a role in improving Grubbs' eyesight.

Marijuana proponents say the drug has significant medical benefits,
including reduction of nausea for cancer patients going through
chemotherapy.

There is still no legal way to obtain marijuana, despite the new law,
which took effect Dec. 3. While it provides a legal defense to some
seriously ill people and their caregivers if they are charged with
illegal possession of marijuana, it doesn't prohibit police from
investigating patients' use in the first place.

Morgan acknowledged she and her son used marijuana long before the
initiative passed.

Morgan said she was charged with manufacture and sale of marijuana a
few years ago, but that she mostly provided it to sick people.

Morgan said she has used pot for more than half of her 61
years.

Killian said marijuana helps many AIDS patients maintain their
appetites to keep them from wasting away.

Although Morgan says she is angry about the treatment of her son, she
sees it and his illness as part of a larger plan.

"Sometimes God just tests you real hard, you know."