FEDERAL LAW SHOULD BE CHANGED TO ALLOW ACCESS TO MEDICAL CANNABIS

Bowing to threats from the U.S. Attorney's Office, Gov. Chris Gregoire
vetoed most parts of a bill legalizing medical cannabis on Friday. A
day earlier, as if to reinforce their message that U.S. marijuana law
trumps state law, federal agents raided medical cannabis dispensaries
in Washington state.

For medical cannabis to be legally available to those whose health
would benefit from it, it's clear that federal law must be changed.
Voters in 16 states have legalized medical cannabis. The Washington
State Legislature approved a bill legalizing and regulating medical
cannabis. But federal law doesn't distinguish between medical cannabis
and recreational marijuana. And so, without a change in federal law,
the conflict will continue.

There is a difference between medical cannabis and what Willie Nelson
calls "a fat Austin torpedo." Medical cannabis uses certain chemicals
in the cannabis plant that have been shown to have medicinal value and
can be taken by capsule, extract, spray or smoking. Medical cannabis
has been used to relieve nausea and pain, lower eye pressure in
glaucoma patients, and stimulate hunger in patients with
disease-related weight loss. Federal law should be changed to allow
people to have the same access to medical cannabis as they do other
prescription medications.

Under state Senate Bill 5073, medical cannabis would have been
regulated by the state Department of Health. Production, processing
and dispensing would have been regulated and licensed. A qualifying
patient's medical use of cannabis would have been authorized by a
health care professional and registered with the state.

This bill would have allowed cities to adopt appropriate enforcement,
licensing and zoning for medical cannabis dispensaries within their
boundaries. Lacking such direction from the state, Poulsbo and other
cities have issued moratoriums on medical cannabis
dispensaries.

Mary Clare Kersten, a coordinator of Sensible Washington, which
supports the legalization of cannabis, called dispensaries "an act of
mercy" to those who need medical cannabis but have no access to it.
She said dispensaries are run like pharmacies and require
documentation not unlike a prescription. And they can dispense medical
cannabis in a form that will best benefit the patient's condition.

"It's not a stoner shop. It's a medical marijuana shop," she
said.

Federal law should be changed to reflect, and allow, that.