POT BILL TAMPED DOWN

Governor'S Partial Veto Keeps State Workers Free From Federal
Scrutiny

OLYMPIA - State workers will not be licensing medical marijuana
growers or dispensaries, and patients will not be able to sign on to a
registry that could save them from arrest.

Gov. Chris Gregoire vetoed most of a bill Friday afternoon that would
have established a state structure for the production and sale of
medical marijuana, saying she feared state workers involved in the
system would face federal prosecution.

"We cannot assure protections to patients in a way that subjects state
employees to prosecution," she said. "That is not acceptable. It is
not workable."

She left intact a few of the bill's provisions, including a section
that says medical marijuana patients don't lose parental rights and an
organ transplant can't be denied for medicinal use of the plant. But
she vetoed most sections dealing with "dispensaries," which are the
subject of a federal crackdown in Spokane.

A spokesman for Washington medical marijuana businesses said
Gregoire's action makes operating a dispensary even more difficult,
because she left in a section that requires a provider to wait 15 days
between patients. Ezra Eickmeyer, of the Washington Cannabis
Association, said dispensaries believe they currently comply with the
law by serving only one patient at a time. He acknowledged, however,
that defense didn't work in a recent criminal prosecution in Spokane;
that conviction is being appealed.

Gregoire said she was urged by some to assert state's rights, because
Washington voters legalized marijuana for medical uses in 1998. But
marijuana remains illegal for all uses under federal law, she said.

"State law does not trump federal law," she said. "Is it a state right
to violate federal law? Is it a state right to put state employees at
risk?"

Gregoire based her decision in large part on a letter from U.S.
Attorneys Mike Ormsby in Spokane and Jenny Durkan in Seattle, who said
state employees could face prosecution under federal statutes for any
involvement with marijuana. The bill called for the state Department
of Agriculture to license growing and processing operations, and the
Department of Health to determine the number of dispensaries in a
county and regulate them.

Greg Devereaux, executive director of the Washington State Federation
of Employees, sent a letter Friday urging her to veto the bill to
protect state workers. Hugh Spitzer, a University of Washington law
professor and constitutional scholar, sent a letter Thursday urging
her to sign the entire bill to prevent "bullying" by federal officials.

She declined to speculate on whether Thursday's raids on dispensaries
in Spokane were some signal from federal prosecutors. In the absence
of state standards, cities would be free to craft local rules on
medical marijuana, she said. They could also initiate their own crackdowns.

"I leave that to them. There is not unanimity" among cities on medical
marijuana, she said. Currently, there is nothing in state law that
says medical marijuana dispensaries are legal.

Medical marijuana patients can grow their own supplies or join in a
cooperative growing arrangement under a section that remains after
Gregoire's selective veto.

Although the special session is supposed to focus on budget issues,
Gregoire wouldn't object if the Legislature made another run at a
medical marijuana bill and brought her new legislation. The best
solution for the clash between the states and federal government over
medical marijuana may lie in a change to federal law, she said. States
that have medical marijuana laws should work to have the federal
government move the drug from Schedule 1, which makes it illegal for
all uses, to a Schedule 2 drug, which would allow some legal
applications.

Shankar Narayan of the American Civil Liberties Union said he
considered some of Gregoire's arguments about putting state employees
at risk "specious." A change in federal law could take months or
years, he added.

Vetoing the bill means marijuana remains legal for some but no laws
spell out legal ways to obtain it, he said. Right now, the state has
some shady dispensary operations and others that are doing their best
to be legitimate businesses.

"Without a law, you can't tell which is which," Narayan said.