POT'S LEGAL AMBIGUITY CLOUDS ENFORCEMENT

Medical Marijuana Law Comes With Slew of Concerns for Patients, Officers

A thief kicked in his door, ransacked his kitchen and stole his
8-ounce marijuana stash. So the victim called police.

But the difference between this Spokane man's story and a classic
stupid-criminal tale was a prescription card authorities say is
easier to get in Spokane than ever.

The case, detailed in a search warrant filed this month in Spokane
County District Court, illustrates the dichotomy forming between
medicinal users of marijuana and law enforcement officers trained to
track drug sales and arrest dealers.

"I'd never done a search warrant to try to get a guy his marijuana
back before," said Spokane police Detective Brian Cestnik, who pulled
phone records this month looking for a suspect. "But here's a guy
saying 'Hey, I've got a valid prescription for this stuff and it was stolen.'"

Police dropped the case, Cestnik said, partly because the victim
asked investigators not to contact suspects, which made it difficult
to pursue. Nevertheless, "We're starting to see a lot of these
home-invasion robberies," Cestnik said. "Obviously everyone knows who
has (medical marijuana cards) now."

As more people obtain cards that allow them to possess up to a pound
and a half of marijuana, police are faced with sorting the illegal
from the legal, and determining if a legal user might be illegally selling.

"By and large, law enforcement officials outside of the Seattle area
have not embraced medical marijuana laws with open arms," said lawyer
and civil libertarian Pat Stiley, "even though ... the voters have
decided to pull the sick and dying off of the battlefield of the war on drugs."

In May, the Kitsap County Sheriff's Office agreed to pay a medical
marijuana patient $2,000 for destroyed grow lights after a jury
acquitted him of charges that he grew more medical marijuana than the
law allows.

Spokane police still seek out marijuana dealers, and search warrants
show undercover officers often patrol hydroponic gardening stores
looking for suspected marijuana growers.

"The truth is there are a lot of people who use the medical marijuana
as strictly a cover to continue on with illegal drug dealing," said
Spokane police Sgt. Tom Hendren of the drug investigation unit. "We
attempt to do our best investigation to determine if people are
actually in compliance."

One of the most difficult aspects for law enforcement and medical
marijuana users alike is the ambiguity of state law. Left unexplained
in the medical marijuana law approved by voters in 1998 and adjusted
later by the state Legislature, for example, is how card-carrying
medical marijuana patients can obtain their supplies.

Patients are limited to 15 plants and a pound and a half of fresh
marijuana at a time, and caretakers are allowed to supply marijuana
to one other person.

Nothing in the law addresses how that caretaker can legally obtain
seeds to grow marijuana.

"They made it so somehow along the way, someone has to break the law
in order for the law to work," said David Miller, attorney for Darren
McCrea, founder of the medical marijuana support group SpoCannabis.

Police arrested McCrea for distribution of marijuana last summer, but
no criminal charges have been filed.

Spokane County Deputy Prosecutor John Grasso handles most medical
marijuana-related crimes. Police often consult him before pursuing a
case, he said.

Grasso thinks dispensaries operating in Spokane, including Change, on
Northwest Boulevard, are illegal because they provide marijuana to
more than one person.

But it will take a police investigation to trigger prosecution, he said.

Stiley said police attitudes toward medical marijuana in Spokane have
improved in the last few years.

But he predicted a short stay for pot shops.

"I think they're probably going to come to a rude awakening by law
enforcement," Stiley said.