KING COUNTY, SEATTLE OFFICIALS ASK FOR OLYMPIA TO FIX MEDICAL MARIJUANA LAW

The top prosecutors and officials in King County and Seattle are
asking the Legislature to quickly untangle the mess left by Gov. Chris
Gregoire's partial veto of a medical marijuana bill.

In a letter to the four top legislative leaders, King County
Prosecutor Dan Satterberg, county executive Dow Constantine, Seattle
Mayor Mike McGinn and Seattle city attorney Pete Holmes said the
medical marijuana law in its current state leaves them with "few good
options" to control and regulate dispensaries.

"In the absence of new legislation, we at the local level will have to
choose between closing down dispensaries and prosecuting the owners
and workers, or allowing them to continue to multiply in an unclear
regulatory environment," they wrote in a letter dated Wednesday. The
letter is here.

Prosecutors elsewhere in the state see less ambiguity. Federal agents
today executed "several" search warrants at dispensaries in Spokane,
said Tom Rice, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney in Spokane. No arrests
were made, nor were dispensary owners arrested in raids on seven
dispensaries on April 29. The intent is to shut down what Rice called
"marijuana stores." Prosecutors were still considering evidence
gathered in the earlier case, he said.

Gregoire veto partially vetoed a landmark bill that would have
legalized dispensaries, which have boomed throughout the state. The
veto gutted dispensaries' best legal defense, putting pressure on
prosecutors like Satterberg.

A new bill introduced in the special session would decriminalize
dispensaries, but it has not been brought to the Senate floor for a
vote after a hearing in the Ways & Means committee. In their letter,
the four King County leaders said inaction in Olympia will cause big
headaches in the coming months.