COUNCIL TO CONSIDER MARIJUANA MEASURE

Group Seeks Initiative to Protect Dispensaries

A group advocating for relaxed enforcement of marijuana laws by
Spokane police is set to appear before the Spokane City Council on Monday.

Citizens for a Sensible Spokane seeks council approval of a ballot
initiative to make marijuana offenses the "lowest law enforcement
priority," below all other felony or misdemeanor crimes. The aim,
organizers said, is to make it easier for medical marijuana
dispensaries to distribute the drug.

"It doesn't make marijuana legal," said Ian Moody, spokesman for the
grass-roots initiative. "But it does take the pressure off
dispensaries so they are able to assist patients more freely."

Proposed initiatives are reviewed by the city attorney's office, who
assists in developing the language of the ballot title and summary,
and offers a legal opinion to the council. The council is then asked
to either put it on the ballot, or have the petition supporters
gather signatures from the public.

The marijuana initiative was filed with the Spokane city clerk on
Nov. 4. Moody said he had just received the city attorney's legal
opinion Friday, and needed more time to make changes to the proposed
initiative before a council vote.

"I was under the impression that ... we would have time to further
revise the language," and Citizens for a Sensible Spokane may ask for
the council to reschedule the vote, Moody said.

Council President Joe Shogan said if anything happens Monday, the
council is likely to give the group its blessing to go out and
collect signatures.

"I really doubt we are going to pass it just on its own," Shogan said.

The initiative was created in response to the September raid of a
medical marijuana dispensary on Northwest Boulevard called Change. It
was the first such police action on medical marijuana dispensaries in
Washington, one of 14 states in the nation with laws governing
medical marijuana use.

Prosecutors and police say medical marijuana dispensaries, which
serve hundreds of people, are illegal. Washington voters approved
medical marijuana in 1998, and the state Legislature set possession
limits last year at a pound and a half per person or 15 plants. The
state law allows a person to provide medical marijuana to one
authorized patient "at any one time."

But how users who don't grow can obtain marijuana legally hasn't been
addressed.

Change owners Scott Shupe and Christopher Stevens were arrested for
felony delivery of a controlled substance after a four-month police
investigation that centered on them providing marijuana to more than
one authorized patient, previous reports show. No charges have been
filed with the courts.

Moody said the cases are proof the system is flawed, and that
"there's a lot larger demand than the system is providing for." The
initiative says the current marijuana policies "needlessly harm
medical marijuana patients," and that "decades of arresting millions
of marijuana users has failed to control use or reduce its availability."

It also states that law enforcement resources would be better spent
"fighting serious and violent crimes," and that Spokane should be in
control of marijuana policies locally, not the federal government.

"I appreciate the arguments that it ought to be this, or ought to be
that, but federally marijuana is still a scheduled drug. Period,"
said Jim McDevitt, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Washington.

McDevitt said his office does not prosecute individual medical
marijuana users, and never has, even before the Justice Department's
directive in October to end federal prosecution of state-authorized
medical marijuana patients and dispensaries.

"I don't have the resources to go after grandpa or grandma who have a
couple of joints of marijuana," McDevitt said. He's more concerned
with larger grow and distribution operations, and organized crime
resulting from it.

"Marijuana is still the biggest cash drug for the Mexican drug
cartels," he said. And Washington ranks No. 2 in the nation for the
number of outdoor marijuana grows.

"Spokane can legislate all day long, it's still a scheduled drug, and
we will still target those who abuse the drug," McDevitt said. "You
can't claim to be the Rite Aid of medical marijuana distribution;
it's not permitted under the law."