MEDICAL MARIJUANA A CLOUDY ISSUE IN MID-COLUMBIA

After almost five years of constant pain and countless medications,
Chet Biggerstaff was ready to give up.

Narcotics, muscle relaxants, a morphine pump and every other
treatment the Richland man tried failed to blunt the extreme chronic
pain he suffered from because of several car wrecks.

But in 2000, Biggerstaff stumbled upon an alternative treatment that
was exactly what he'd been looking for -- medical marijuana.

"I rolled up a joint, first hit -- within the first 15 seconds -- the
nausea, the spasms disappeared," said the 38-year-old. "None of the
medicines they had me on touched it."

Now a medical marijuana advocate, he has a vision to make the drug
more accessible to other Mid-Columbia patients. He wants to establish
a collective to grow and distribute the drug, but the state's
ambiguous medical marijuana law is clouding that vision.

Washington allows residents who suffer from a terminal or
debilitating illness and have a written recommendation from their
doctor to legally possess a 60-day supply of marijuana.

But advocates and patients say the law does nothing to remove
barriers to getting safe, legal and consistent supplies of medical marijuana.

"Patients and caregivers are still caught in a Catch-22 situation
which needs to change," state Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, D-Seattle,
wrote in an e-mail to the Herald. Kohl-Welles sponsored the 2007 law
that defined how much marijuana patients can possess and expanded the
list of medical conditions that can be treated by medical marijuana.

But, as a state Department of Health report released last year found,
Washington's lack of a clearly legal source for medical marijuana is
a problem both for patients and law enforcement.

Police frustrated too

"We run into it more and more and more," said Richland Police Chief
Tony Corsi. "It's very frustrating. The laws that we've passed now
are very, very vague."

Though patients are allowed to have 15 marijuana plants and 24 ounces
of pot, there's no legal way for them to get seeds, plants or
ready-to-use marijuana.

"The only legally protected source is production, a term not defined
in law but commonly understood to mean cultivating plants," said the
July 2008 Department of Health report.

It added: "There is no legal source for seeds or seedlings, however,
making it unclear just how patients are supposed to begin a garden.
This means patients must break the law to participate."

Kennewick police Sgt. Trevor White, supervisor of the Metro Drug Task
Force, said problems surrounding medical marijuana don't come across
his desk often. But he said many challenges officers used to face
were remedied when the state outlined a legal definition of a 60-day supply.

"They're either in compliance or they're not," he said. "A legitimate
user of medical marijuana is not going to have any problems."

Biggerstaff said a big barrier for medical marijuana patients is that
many are too sick to grow their own -- although state law addresses
this by allowing a caregiver to grow marijuana for the patient. But
many patients can't wait the months it takes to grow their own
medication, which Biggerstaff said creates a need for an immediate
source like a dispensary.

Patients who can get a doctor's recommendation for medical marijuana
include those with chronic pain; cancer; epilepsy; acute or chronic
glaucoma; hepatitis C with debilitating nausea or pain; diseases,
including anorexia, which result in nausea, vomiting, wasting,
appetite loss, cramping, seizures, muscle spasms or spasticity;
Crohn's disease; HIV and multiple sclerosis.

Medical marijuana has been known to slow or stop the progression of
some conditions, such as MS.

"Not allowing MS patients access is a form of manslaughter to me,"
said Paul Stanford, executive director of Portland-based The Hemp and
Cannabis Foundation. The group organizes clinics to receive doctor
recommendations for medical marijuana in 28 cities, including Kennewick.

Tri-City pot clinics

Stanford said up to 40 new patients each month attend the clinics at
Kennewick's Wingate Inn to receive a doctor's recommendation.
Patients must provide documentation of their condition to receive a
recommendation.

"Most of the patients that we see have tried a wide variety of
traditional treatments," Stanford said.

The Hemp and Cannabis Foundation clinic began in Kennewick a few
years ago after the nonprofit saw patients were having difficulty
getting recommendations from doctors, Stanford said. Few Mid-Columbia
doctors treat medical marijuana patients, so some patients, like
Biggerstaff, travel to the west side of the state to find treatment.

The clinics also provide patients resources to learn how to bake,
vaporize or otherwise prepare the medication, as well as access to a
password-protected forum.

Though Stanford said one of the main problems is actually getting
access to marijuana, the nonprofit group has to avoid actually
providing medical marijuana, seeds or plants for patients to produce their own.

The July 2008 state report said many patients told the Department of
Health they get marijuana from drug dealers or underground
dispensaries. Patients also sometimes share their supply with others in need.

"There are legitimate people who are in pain. So where do they go?
They go to a street dealer," said Chief Corsi. "You're forcing them
to do something illegal when that's not their intention."

The state report said group growing, dispensaries and government
supply could increase patient access.

But it also said safety and diversion -- the potential for marijuana
getting into the hands of those who aren't medical marijuana patients
- -- could be a challenge for group operations. It said security
procedures and government regulation could reduce the safety and
diversion risks.

Sen. Kohl-Welles said access to safe, reliable sources of medical
marijuana is critical. She said more needs to be done to provide
that, and she plans to work with advocates and the Department of
Health to come up with legislation next year that addresses these issues.

Kohl-Welles said some in the Legislature have discussed increasing
government regulation by adopting a state registry as long as there
is absolute assurance of privacy.

Dispensary envisioned

Locally, Biggerstaff wants to improve access for the hundreds of
medical marijuana patients in the Tri-Cities by setting up a
group-growing operation and a storefront dispensary in Richland.

But he said the keys to having a successful collective include
transparency, public education and city support -- which he says so
far hasn't come.

"There's absolutely no reason that the city shouldn't help with
this," Biggerstaff said. "We're not going to open a storefront before
we have the city on our side."

But Richland City Attorney Tom Lampson said Washington's law doesn't
touch on the legality of group grows and dispensaries, so Richland
cannot support Biggerstaff's vision unless the law is amended.

"I haven't seen anything that allows it," Lampson said. "If the law
changed, certainly we would look at it again."

Stanford, of The Hemp and Cannabis Foundation, said, "It also doesn't
prohibit it, so it's up to local authorities."

He said getting local government support "dramatically" helps medical
marijuana patients. "I think it's needed. Patients need a safe,
reliable source."

"I think it's the community's responsibility to regulate that and not
force it underground," Stanford added.

Corsi said he hopes the Legislature better defines the law, but until
then his department will continue to uphold the law as his department
and the Benton County prosecutor interpret it.

"The laws need to be defined on these group things," Corsi said. "I
really think if they're serious about it, they really need to go back
to the Legislature."

Safety a big concern

Biggerstaff said safety is one of the main reasons he wants the city
on board. Medical marijuana patients who grow their own high-quality
plants are at risk for violence and burglary. Group grows and
dispensaries also are at risk for crime, the state report said.

"I have some major concerns with everything," Corsi said. "You've got
safety and security of the grow -- who's going to protect that? Who's
going to rip them off?" He added he also worries about patients
getting high and then driving.

If the collective could work with the city to get strong security
measures in place, Biggerstaff said, the group grow could be secure,
and city police would know it was a grow specifically for legal
medical marijuana patient use.

"You've got hundreds of small grows going on and that doesn't make
any sense," he said. "It makes perfect sense to put our plants together."

The state report also said large gardens could draw federal attention
- -- marijuana use of any kind is not allowed by federal law --
although the current administration and recent Supreme Court rulings
have backed state laws.

Biggerstaff said the Three Rivers Collective -- which he envisions as
someday being a nonprofit run by a board of patients, law enforcement
and health care providers -- has strict regulations, including a
screening process to become a member.

"There really isn't any leeway on the rules. There is no bending
them," he said.

There are about three dozen members or people in the process of
becoming members of the collective, he said.

Biggerstaff said the collective provides medical marijuana patients
with support and education. That includes helping set up grows,
finding caregivers or donating excess medication to those too sick to
produce it themselves.

The Three Rivers Collective meets at 2 p.m. Saturdays at Richland
Community Center. More information can be found at
www.meetup.com/Three- Rivers-Collective.

"It's all underground, it's just the top layer has been scraped off
so you can see the top of it," Biggerstaff said. "The most important
(goal) right now is access and education for our local area."