GREGOIRE SET TO VETO PART OF MEDICAL MARIJUANA BILL

OLYMPIA -- The Senate gave final passage this morning to a bill that
attempts to regulate medical marijuana production and sales, setting
up a possible showdown with the governor, who opposes provisions for
state employees regulating different aspects of the system.

On a 27-21 vote, with members of both parties coming down hard on
both sides, the Senate approved amendments to the system adopted by
the House earlier this month. That agreement, known as concurrence,
sends Senate Bill 5073 to Gregoire.

This is an important step forward compared to the status quo," Sen.
Lisa Brown, D- Spokane said. The current system, set up by a 1998
initiative that allows medical marijuana but sets up no system for
patients to obtain it, is unfair to patients, neighborhoods where
dispensaries are springing up and legitimate businesses that could
provide the product, she said.

The rules in the bill, such as one that allows a patient to grow 15
plants, and three patients to form a co-op and grow 45, are too lax,
argued Sen. Jeff Baxter, R-Spokane Valley. "It is a gateway drug," he said.

SB 5073 requires the state Department of Agriculture to license
control the production and processing of medical marijuana, and the
Department of Health to license dispensaries. A letter from U.S.
attorneys in Seattle and Spokane warned Gregoire that federal law
still lists marijuana as an illegal drug, and state employees could
be arrested for any activities that involved marijuana.

Because of that, Gregoire has said she would not sign a bill that
puts state employees at risk, even though she believes the state's
medical marijuana law needs clarity. (For more on the controversy
over the U.S. attorneys letter to Gregoire, click here.)

An hour after the bill passed, Gregoire indicated she would veto at
least part of it: "I asked the Legislature to work with me on a bill
that does not subject state workers to risk of criminal liability. I
am disappointed that the bill as passed does not address those
concerns while also meeting the needs of medical marijuana patients,"
she said in a prepared statement. "I will review the bill to
determine any parts that can assist patients in need without putting
state employees at risk."

Today's action by the Senate was no compromise. It approved the same
language that passed the House before U.S. Attorneys Mike Ormsby and
Jenny Durkan responded to a request for guidance from Gregoire.

The warnings from Ormsby and Durkan were dimissed by some supporters
of the bill. "You could look at this as a state's right," Sen. Jerome
Delvin, R-Richland said. "Tell D.C. to butt out."

Opponents said the group that lobbies for local police and sheriffs
oppose the bill, too.

But far more time was spent debating a basic conflict over medical
marijuana that predates the voters' approval of an initiative in
1998. Supporters said it's a humane product for cancer patients and
some other medical conditions, and people who want to use it should
have a system of legal access to a reliable product. "Are they
supposed to just find a dealer on the streets?" Rep. Karen Keiser,
D-Kent, said. With the bill "patients weill be certain that the
product they're using is safe."

Opponents said it's a precursor to other drugs and a stepping stone
to complete legalization of marijuana. Some agreed marijuana may be
appropriate for a small, and possibly shrinking, number of patients
as other treatments become available. But doctors' recomendations are
too easy to come by, they said, and overall use becomes more
prevalent and acceptable because of the growth of medical marijuana.

"You are voting for something that is on the cusp of legalizing
marijuana for everyone," Sen. Mike Carrell, R-Lakewood, said.

Sen. Cheryl Pflug, R-Maple Valley, said the current system of
unregulated medical marijuana is the bigger problem, because it's too
hard to tell what's legal and what's illegal. "This is a vote between
maintaining the status quo and trying to establish a bright-line,
enforceable framework Law enforcement is not cracking down on the
dispensaries. Now is the time when illegal users are hiding behind the law."