MOUNTLAKE TERRACE REJECTS MEDICAL MARIJUANA DISPENSARY

With Mountlake Terrace Officials Chilly to the Idea, the Proponents
Threaten to Sue After the City Rejects Their Business Application to
Sell Medical Marijuana From a Storefront Office.

MOUNTLAKE TERRACE -- Two men may file a lawsuit if city officials
don't allow them to open a medical marijuana dispensary.

Todd Madison, 56 and Aaron Panagos, 29, applied in September for a
business license to open Botanical Urban Dispensary Service in a
1,700-square-foot commercial office at I-5 and 220th Street SW in
Mountlake Terrace.

They say they've been using medically authorized marijuana to manage
pain for years and have run their business out of their homes since
the beginning of the year.

The city, however, rejected their business application, arguing that
possession or sale of marijuana is illegal within city limits and
that the state's medical marijuana law doesn't specifically authorize
a storefront dispensary.

Officials also rejected Madison and Panagos' request for a hearing to
appeal. City regulations don't allow appeals of rejected business
license applications.

"The city's not interested in getting into whether (marijuana) should
be legalized or not legalized," city manager John Caulfield said.
"The city's simply following the law."

Both men say they're the victims of a gray area in an 11-year-old
state law that allows physicians to authorize patients to use
marijuana. It doesn't specify how the substance, which cannot
otherwise be legally grown or used, should be obtained. Currently, 13
states allow the medicinal use of marijuana. Nonprofit dispensaries
have cropped up to meet the demand.

In September, police in Spokane raided and shut down a dispensary
called Change.

"We do have a state of Washington business license," Madison said.
"It seems kind of weird that the state of Washington says we can be
in business but the city says we can't."

The Washington State Medical Marijuana Act became law after voters in
1998 approved Initiative 692. The law allows physicians to authorize
- -- but not prescribe -- use of marijuana for up to 60 days for a list
of conditions including glaucoma, AIDS, cancer, chronic pain and nausea.

The Washington Administrative Code specified that patients can
possess a 60-day supply of 24 ounces of marijuana. The law also
allows patients to grow 15 plants.

Nonprofit medical marijuana dispensaries operate statewide. Madison
said he and Panagos want to start what they claim would be the first
for-profit storefront medical marijuana dispensary in Washington.

Susan Connor, owner of the office building the men would like to
lease, said it's unfortunate the city rejected their application.

"They're not asking to run a speakeasy," she said. "It's a medical facility."

She said she recently lost two tenants because of the recession and
needs to replace the lost income.

"I need tenants," she said. "My property taxes were still due on the
31st of October. It's hard finding tenants right now and I think this
a great thing, because it's a medical use."

Madison said he has a doctor's OK to use marijuana for chronic pain,
stemming from a motorcycle accident. Before he began using marijuana
for the pain seven years ago, he'd been prescribed various
painkillers, including morphine, which he said left him unable to function.

Marijuana, he said, allows him to have a normal life.

"Without it, I don't sleep," he said.

Panagos said he also has medical authorization to use marijuana for
chronic pain and nausea. He said he switched to marijuana after being
prescribed a variety of painkillers.

"Having all the nausea and everything else, I pretty much had an
allergic reaction to all the painkillers," he said.