MEDICAL MARIJUANA CO-OP OPENS IN DOWNTOWN BELLINGHAM

BELLINGHAM - The city's first medical marijuana storefront opened
downtown Friday, April 1, but the prosecutor's office says it's
breaking the law.

Northern Cross medical marijuana co-op opened Friday at 1311 Cornwall
Ave., as a place where patients whose doctors have recommended
marijuana can go to find the drug.

While legislation is in place that allows patients to grow and use
marijuana for medical reasons, places that dispense marijuana to
those patients are not authorized by the law in Washington.

"At this point they would be operating a place that would have some
real potential legal problems," said Mac Setter, chief criminal
deputy for the Whatcom County Prosecutor's Office. "The first thing
I'll do is call the Bellingham Police Department and ask them to stop
by and talk to them about this. It's a violation of the law, and
we'll enforce violations of the law."

When contacted Thursday, April 7, Bellingham Police spokesman Mark
Young hadn't heard about the co-op, and Chief Todd Ramsay didn't
return a call for comment.

Northern Cross owner Martin Nickerson said he has been involved with
medical marijuana issues for more than a decade. Manager Michael
Briceno said they didn't talk with the prosecutor's office before
opening, but they have been working with lawyers who specialize in
medical marijuana co-ops. They were told that two of the three judges
in Bellingham didn't take action on cases like theirs, but they also
understand the risk.

"Laws are important, but what about ethics?" Briceno said. "Someone's
got to step out there and take a stand for these patients. If we're
not going to do it, who will? We're prepared to do whatever it takes
to lawfully, safely give people what they need."

This is how the co-op works:

The co-op has a lobby that is walled off from the area where the
marijuana is kept. Customers can go up to the window and give their
medical marijuana authorization and identification. A volunteer then
calls the doctor to confirm that the customer is authorized. The
volunteer from the co-op then becomes that customer's designated
provider, and the customer has access to nearly 20 varieties of
marijuana for a suggested donation price, which is competitive with
street prices. The shop also sells bongs and pipes.

It's the designated provider aspect of the dispensary that seems to
be in a legal gray area. Medical marijuana patients who can't grow
for themselves are allowed to find a designated provider, but that
person can provide for only one patient. At the dispensary,
volunteers work with one patient at a time, but that patient probably
isn't the only person they work with throughout the day.

"The law is up for interpretation, but the interpretation that I
think is the mainstream one is that one person can be a designated
provider for one patient, period," said Donn Moyer, spokesman for the
Washington State Department of Health. "You can't provide for me for
15 minutes and then become another person's provider for 15 minutes."

Medical marijuana has been a complex issue for Washington state, said
Philip Dawdy, spokesman for the Washington Cannabis Association. He
hopes that a bill now in the Legislature will clarify the issue for
dispensaries throughout the state.

"If the state wants the people to be able to have this medication,
then they should also have places where they can have access to it,"
Briceno said. "That seems ludicrous to appear to be compassionate and
at the same time deny them access in the easiest, most responsible,
safest way possible."