MEDICAL MARIJUANA BILL REVISION STOPPED SHORT IN OLYMPIA

Dispensaries May Become Illegal in July

Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, D-Seattle, made it clear on Tuesday, May 24
that efforts to bolster medical marijuana patient and dispensary
rights in Washington are done for the year.

"Regretfully, I have decided not to pursue further attempts this year
to strengthen our state's voter-approved medical marijuana law," Sen.
Kohl-Welles said in a statement.

"Despite having bipartisan support, we were unable to achieve these
objectives," she added. "By far this represents the greatest
disappointment of my legislative career."

For West Seattle and White Center dispensaries that have opened up
over the past year, the news could spell an end to their
entrepreneurial run.

Known as Senate Bill 5073, the bill originally worked its way to Gov.
Gregoire's desk with sections on legitimizing dispensaries in the
state by creating state-controlled licensing. The Governor vetoed the
bill in April, claiming her employees would be exposed to federal
prosecution for licensing businesses still seen as illegal under
federal law.

After the veto, Kohl-Welles pushed a new version of the bill that
would change dispensaries to non-profit cooperatives and leave their
existence up to individual cities and counties, according to her press
release (seen in it's entirety below).

Ultimately, Kohl-Welles said the updated bill "failed to receive
sufficient support to move forward in the remaining days of special
session, mainly due to the overriding focus on the budget."

In an interview with Jonathan Martin of the Seattle Times, King County
Prosecutor Dan Satterberg said, "The commercial dispensaries jumped
the gun, and are out aggressively marketing their services. Whatever
gray area used to exist to allow that is gone now. They are clearly
illegal as of July." The parts of the bill not vetoed by Gov. Gregoire
will take effect in July.

Jordan Schrader, a government reporter for Olympia's News Tribune,
sees the situation differently from Satterberg: "The remnants that
made it into law also contain some vague references to dispensaries
- -- which the industry hopes to use to convince courts they are indeed legal."

The next step is keeping an eye on how Washington cities and counties
react to the bill's demise in Olympia. Earlier this month, King County
Councilmember Joe McDermott was asked by members of the North Highline
Unincorporated Area Council what the county planned to do about the
continued proliferation of dispensaries. McDermott said they would
have to wait and see what happened in Olympia.

More updates will be added as lawmaker and law enforcement responses
arise in the coming weeks.

Here is Sen. Kohl-Welles' statement in its entirety:

"Regretfully, I have decided not to pursue further attempts this year
to strengthen our state's voter-approved medical marijuana law.

"My efforts to make improvements to existing law were motivated by the
need to provide qualifying patients with protection from arrest and
prosecution and access to a safe, secure and reliable source of the
medicine they are legally entitled to use and that has been
recommended to them by their licensed health care provider. I also
sought to increase public safety and provide a bright line for law
enforcement in determining those who are authorized patients,
regulated growers and dispensers.

"Despite having bipartisan support, we were unable to achieve these
objectives. By far, this represents the greatest disappointment of my
legislative career.

"Senate Bill 5073, the medical marijuana legislation I originally
introduced this session, included many key improvements to the status
quo, such as creating a state regulatory system for licensing
producers, processers, and dispensaries and protecting patients who
voluntarily sign up on a confidential, secure state registry from
arrest and prosecution.

"Unfortunately, around the time the bill passed the Legislature with
bipartisan support, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) reinforced
its authority to prosecute those involved with commercial
dispensaries. As a result, Governor Gregoire vetoed the most
substantive parts of SB 5073 out of concern that state employees
involved in regulating medical marijuana would be at risk of federal
arrest and prosecution. Unfortunately, in my opinion, the situation
for patients and their designated providers was exacerbated as a result.

"While the governor did encourage the Legislature to follow-up with a
special session bill, it is apparent there is insufficient time to
pass a bill addressing these problems at this time.

"My original bill was developed over the course of a year, with
significant input from a diverse group of stakeholders, including
groups representing patients, designated providers, advocates, local
governments, state agencies, and law enforcement.

"But it's very difficult to develop complex policy -- especially with
multiple stakeholders -- in the course of a 30-day special session.
And, unfortunately, in the end, it just was not possible to pass a
bill that would address the governor's concerns, while meeting the
needs of patients and local governments in such a limited time frame.

"The governor also specified that the leaders of the four legislative
caucuses agree to move the bill. Unfortunately, that was not possible.

"In addition to my keen disappointment in not being able to improve
access and protections for patients, I also regret our failure to
provide cities and counties with the tools they need to regulate
dispensaries and grow operations. The attached letter submitted by
King County Executive Dow Constantine, King County Prosecutor Dan
Satterberg, Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn, and Seattle City Attorney Pete
Holmes illustrates the challenges faced by local governments.

"My most recent attempt to reform the medical marijuana law would have
scaled back the proposal to a pilot program giving local governments
in counties with populations greater than 200,000 the option of
authorizing and regulating nonprofit patient cooperatives. It also
would have created a joint legislative task force to make
recommendations to the Legislature next December on issues still
needing resolution. But, even this proposal failed to receive
sufficient support to move forward in the remaining days of special
session, mainly due to the overriding focus on the budget.

"While it is clear this issue has stalled for now, we cannot continue
to ignore this issue-- it simply will not solve itself. It is clear
that the needs of patients and local jurisdictions remain unresolved
and will necessitate further legislative efforts."