MEDICAL MARIJUANA IN WA: BUBBLE BATH AND HIGHER EDUCATION

Part 4 of Series

Aside from smoking marijuana, some patients prefer to soak in it.

Sue Watson, who runs the Emerald Cross medical marijuana clinic in
southwest Seattle, praised her cannabis-infused bubble bath.

"I smoke a quarter of an ounce a day and I never get stoned," she
said. "I get in that bubble bath and it puts my whole body into a
state of nirvana."

Watson extracts the psychoactive THC from cannabis to create sprays,
tinctures and lotions: "It will actually stop bruising dead in its
tracks," Watson said of her Emerald Rub. One patient healed his
body-covering bleeding sores with an oral spray, she added.

Watson has been running the clinic for almost a decade. Cannabis
helps treat the after-effects of her spinal cord injury and stroke.

"I take absolutely no pain pills or muscle relaxers," she said.

Another thing Watson has in common with most of the medical marijuana
movement: Knowledge that often leads to activism. Watson speaks at
rallies that can be watched on YouTube. She also co-wrote "The
Feel-Good Cookbook: For Medical Marijuana Patients."

As a self-professed student of the plant, she lives free from
paranoia, thanks in part to protection by Washington state law and
the Seattle police, Watson said.

"I go to school on this every day," she said. "I'm always in search
of new information."

Watson said the biggest obstacle to medical marijuana reform, aside
from federal classification, is the lack of education.

"There's a lot of false information out there. People don't know how
good it really is and how well it really works," she said. "I'm here
to heal the world with marijuana."

Novice Growers

Some patients see a business opportunity, not so much from selling
marijuana, but from turning novice growers into master cultivators.

Armed with a degree in horticulture, a Federal Way patient sees the
potential in helping others maximize their harvests.

"It's hit or miss. I rarely see high-quality grades of medical
marijuana in Washington," said the 40-year-old Federal Way resident,
who asked to remain anonymous.

He even claims to grow the best local cannabis, including a strain he
calls "Couch Lock."

"You don't need $10,000 in equipment," he said. With knowledge of the
cannabis light cycles, the novice grower can produce a quality supply
with a basic setup that costs less than $1,000, he said. Cannabis
requires nutrition similar to tomato plants, he said. A grow light
with high ultraviolet output increases potency, while a high-pressure
sodium light tends to increase the size of buds, he said. With 3,000
watts of growing power at his 3,000-square-foot house, his power
bills are about $500 every two months.

While leafing through a medical marijuana magazine, he points to an
advertisement for seeds from Canada. These mail-order seeds, despite
their illegal status in the United States, have contributed to his
success as a grower, he said. He has gained "access to a good gene
pool" over the years by swapping seeds and plants with bikers or
hippies, he said.

His current crop has yet to reach the flowering stages, but he is
able to show off a different sample. He places an evergreen-colored
bud about the size of a grape on the kitchen table. The bud, covered
in white hairs, can be smelled from across the room.

With a few puffs of his homegrown high-quality cannabis, the resident
can dull chronic pain from gout and rheumatory arthritis.

"The pain is so incredible, I'd rather take a bullet," he said,
noting that he avoids prescription painkillers that "turn me into a zombie."

This patient fears thieves while praising the tolerance of local law
enforcement, which confiscated all his plants one day last year, he
said: "The Federal Way Police Department has been very nice to me and
did a very responsible job in handling me."

Higher Education

Part 3 of this series touched on University of Washington student
Sunil Aggarwal, who earned a Ph.D. in medical marijuana with a 395-page study.

Those who seek a simpler form of higher education can cough up a few
hundred dollars for cannabis college.

"Bob," the Federal Way patient interviewed at the beginning of this
series, completed a short stint at Oaksterdam University in Oakland,
Calif. The school and its nearby medical marijuana dispensaries have
somewhat revived downtown Oakland after years of blight. Tourists and
patients alike are drawn to the area's Amsterdam-inspired tolerance
of cannabis culture.

In a weekend course, Bob learned about laws, rights, politics,
cooking, bud tending and how to run a dispensary in California.
Leftover among his thorough course literature are glossy postcards
for Bay Area clinics as well as a catalog from "Oaksterdam Nursery,"
featuring strains called Blueberry, Hindu Skunk and Jack the Ripper.
Each strain's photo includes a breakdown in type of effects,
genetics, flowering time, height and growing environment.

However, some patients learn some lessons about medical marijuana on their own.

During his pre-medical marijuana days, Bob once served 5 and a half
months in jail for growing marijuana.

"I broke the law. They got me," he said.

In hindsight, the jail sentence helped plant a seed, he said. While
in jail, Bob had access to few books and resorted to reading the
phone book out of boredom. Bob, who served in the U.S. Army, found a
listing that led to contact information for a VA attorney, which
eventually led to information about medical benefits to treat severe
body pain. He credits this Yellow Pages moment for sending him on a
path toward the medical marijuana movement.