STATE NEEDS TO CLARIFY MEDICAL MARIJUANA

Despite encouragement to open up the city to medical marijuana
businesses, the Port Orchard City Council decided last week to keep
the door closed -- for a while, anyway.

Last month, the council voted to impose a six-month moratorium on
referral or dispensary medical marijuana businesses. At a public
hearing last Tuesday, council members took no action on the
ordinance, tacitly allowing the moratorium to remain in effect until
it expires in late August.

An attorney representing Tacoma Greenthumb and Greenthumb Medical, a
medical marijuana dispensary and referral center, respectively, said
those firms want to open a joint operation on Bay Street in downtown
Port Orchard. Barring that, he said the business owner wants to open
the referral center downtown, and the actual dispensary on outside
city limits on Mile Hill Drive.

That drew conflicting views from two city officials. The city's
development director says he'll deny any occupancy permit that says
anything about "marijuana." On the other hand, the police chief feels
the referral service -- with no marijuana on the premises -- should be allowed.

In passing the moratorium, the council's hope is that in this
Legislature, a bill will be passed to clarify requirements and
restrictions for operating medical marijuana businesses in the state,
legalized by voters in 1998. A similar moratorium was passed in
Poulsbo, and many other jurisdictions have done the same.

Unfortunately, the Legislature so far hasn't inspired much confidence
in its ability to provide the kind of leadership the cities need. A
Senate bill passed 29-20, and it barely was cleared out of a House
committee with a 6-5 vote. To pass out of the committee, it picked up
a number of changes -- a county-by-county quota of dispensaries,
licenses issued by lottery, and no pot-only physician practices.

What all this adds up to is emotionally and politically tinged confusion.

What's needed instead is a thoughtful, medically and legally based
approach that allows medical marijuana businesses to operate,
appropriately regulated. That's what voters deserve after legalizing
medical marijuana more than a dozen years ago -- and it's what cities
need to enable that will within their jurisdictions.