MEDICAL MARIJUANA OUTLET WALKS FINE LINE

For the most part, law enforcement officials don't bother with the Green
Cross Patient Coop in Seattle

By Hunter T. George
The Associated Press

SeattleIt's not advertised on billboards, and it's not on any list of
health plan services, but people with AIDS, cancer and other diseases know
where to find marijuana: Green Cross Patient Coop.

"They're not doing it for profit," said a partially paralyzed man picking
up marijuana he said he uses to control muscle spasms. "This is a service."

The Green Cross has been providing the drug to the sick for five years,
usually for free or at cost. It does so in a workingclass West Seattle
neighborhood with only occasional hassles from authorities, even though the
"medicine" is illegal.

"They pretty much leave us alone," said Joanna McKee, cofounder of the
coop. "I think they just realize we're not a problem."

Although McKee had nothing to do with drafting Initiative 685, the Nov.4
Washington ballot measure that sought to legalize the medical use of
marijuana, heroin, and other drugs indeed she found it flawed she said
the Green Cross could serve as a model for a distribution network of
marijuana clubs that serve people with medical needs.

She and other supporters of legalizing drugs for medical use plan to draft
a new initiative dealing only with marijuana.

Meanwhile, the popularity of the nonprofit Green Cross continues to grow.
After starting out with a few plants for her own use, she now serves about
200 patients, McKee said. They are mostly people infected with HIV' other
patients suffer from cancer, multiple sclerosis and injuries. An average
of six patients stop by each day, she said.

Green Cross is operating in the jurisdiction of King County prosecutor Norm
Maleng, but he and the Seattle police apparently are willing to leave Green
Cross alone.

"We have no particular issue with that group," said Officer Carmen Best, a
Seattle police spokeswoman.

Maleng thinks most people don't mind allowing the severely ill to have
access to marijuana in controlled situations. He opposed Initiative 685,
he said, because it covered heroin and LSD, and its revision of criminal
policies could have led to the release of 300 felons serving time for drug
possession.

"We would welcome an intellectual honest debate about a true medical
marijuana law where doctors could prescribe marijuana as pain relief for
patients suffering severe and terminal illnesses or battling side effects
of radiation treatment," said Don Satterberg, Maleng's chief of staff.

"The Green Cross is a welcome contrast to the I685 message. They're only
after recognition that marijuana, and no other drugs, can play a role in
pain relief for people who are suffering from terminal illnesses and other
terrible diseases."

The Green Cross was founded by McKee, 54, and Ronald "Stitch" Miller, 51,
in the early 1990s.

McKee began using marijuana to control pain from a back injury caused in a
1981 car accident. She can walk, but spends much of her time in a wheelchair.

Now living off her monthly Social Security check, McKee smokes about a gram
of marijuana a day, usually a few puffs from a pipe every few hours, she said.

"Constant pain leads to depression, and depression can be terminal," she
said. "I wake up in the morning to a giant red ball of pain. I can't
think. I can't hardly move."

"When I smoke, it distracts my mind around the hurt."

At the Green Cross house, marijuana is dispensed in plastic prescription
bottles bearing labels that warn users not to drive or operate machinery
while using the "medication." Patients sometimes stay to smoke; a housemate
delivers to those too sick to visit.

"Thank God for Green Cross," said Dr. Rob Killian, a Tacoma physician who
supported Initiative 685.

Still, Green Cross is not immune to legal problems.

McKee was arrested in 1995 in a highly publicized bust that netted 162
plants; the case was dropped due to a faulty search warrant. Federal
agents last spring seized a shipment of marijuana valued at $300,000. A
Green Cross patient, Martin Martinez, recently started a 90day prison term
for growing 88 plants for himself, an amount that disturbed Maleng's
office. In October, Olympia police seized 18 plants from a man who said he
was growing them for a friend with AIDS.

To keep police attention to a minimum, McKee and Miller said, they no
longer grow marijuana in the house. Instead, they said, they rely on
suppliers who charge about $1,200 a quarter pound.

The coop has a Web site the address is www.hemp.net/greencross.