SURPRISE: A RESPONSIBLE MEDICAL MARIJUANA BILL

Sober minds in the state Senate have made crucial improvements to a
medical marijuana bill that originally looked way too much like a
party-hearty measure. But it still needs work in the House.

Here's what sensible legislators have done to what we once called a
Cheech and Chong bill:

* The original would have legalized commercial marijuana dispensaries.
To keep sharks out, the revised version requires that dispensaries be
nonprofits.

* Marijuana advertising would be forbidden.

* Cities and counties could choose whether to allow dispensaries or
not, much like casinos. The original permitted no local control.

* Employers could enforce company-wide anti-drug policies. The original
would have forbidden them from refusing to employ marijuana users.

Most important, the new bill makes a serious effort to prevent hack
doctors from certifying recreational users and abusers as qualified
patients -- a problem that has tainted medical marijuana in general and
the sick people who have a genuine need for it.

It promises to shut down authorization mills -- profiteering clinics
set up chiefly to hand out medical marijuana documents to "patients"
for hefty fees after minimal medical exams.

The final Senate version requires doctors and other
marijuana-prescribing professionals to document treatment and maintain
ongoing relationships with patients; they'd be forbidden from doing
exams "solely or primarily for the purpose of authorizing the medical
use of cannabis."

They would also be forbidden from any financial ties with dispensers
or growers -- a conflict of interest that invites quackery and corruption.

As revised, the bill would be a big improvement on the Wild West
medicine show that medical marijuana has become in Washington. But
three problems remain.

The revised measure still forbids family courts from even considering
medical marijuana use in custody disputes unless the user suffers
"long term impairment" from the drug.

Actually, no kind of impairment -- short term or long term, from any
drug -- should be automatically exempt from scrutiny when the care of
children is concerned. Judges should not be prevented from deciding
custody disputes on a case-by-case basis, taking into consideration
the ages and vulnerability of the children affected.

The bill also continues to ignore the question of professional
qualifications for dispensaries. Even ampicillin prescriptions must be
screened by pharmacists in the world of legal drugs, but the Senate
would require no qualifications whatsoever -- not even a high school
degree -- to hand out marijuana.

Dispensaries need not employ fully licensed pharmacists, but the state
should require -- after a reasonable transition period -- that someone
at the counter have enough documented scientific competence to act as
a check on abuse.

Finally, the bill still proposes to legalize commercial marijuana grow
operations. The feds may not be amused. The U.S. Justice Department
recently threatened criminal action against Oakland officials if they
moved ahead with marijuana farms in that city.

Under President Obama, Justice officials have been outright enablers
of dubious and illegal medical marijuana operations. But even they
have their limits.