Washington State Medical Marijuana Update

Yesterday, the Department of Health held a follow-up meeting to discuss how to establish medical marijuana limits. This meeting was called because the Governor (and law enforcement) did not like the initial proposed limit of 35 ounces that came from a series of workshops the Department of Health conducted around the state. Carol Ostrom writes about yesterday's meeting in the Seattle Times:

State health officials met with representatives of law enforcement and medicine Monday, another step in their legislatively mandated mission to define the "60-day supply" of marijuana granted in state law to patients with serious health conditions.

The Department of Health allowed about a dozen medical-marijuana advocates, some in wheelchairs and walkers, to listen to the "informal conversation." Some had vowed earlier to disrupt a closed meeting.

The discussion table included invited representatives from police and sheriffs, prosecutors and the American Civil Liberties Union, a lone doctor, a medical-marijuana patient advocate, and the sponsor of the bill mandating a limit.

One of the medical-marijuana advocates who was there was Steve Sarich from CannaCare. Sarich is the primary reason why much of this is happening. He was able to obtain the preliminary figures from the Department of Health and was able to expose the fact that the Governor interfered with the process. However, I've already gotten one email today from someone who is accusing Sarich of secretly colluding with the Governor on this. Such is the paranoia that surrounds this issue. Of course, when law enforcement officials want to arrest you and throw you in jail for trying to use medicine that works, some paranoia is justified.

Ostrom continues:

Although the health department sought public comment in an unusual set of workshops around the state before drafting a rule — which will start the clock on a set of formal hearings — Gov. Christine Gregoire directed it to seek more comment from law enforcement and the medical community, which were barely represented among the hundreds who spoke at the workshops.

For an hour and a half, the participants wrestled with the task.

"This is a medical decision. It should be determined by physicians," said Don Pierce, executive director of the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs. But the number shouldn't be so big that "anybody involved in cultivation and sale could hide behind it."

Earlier this year, health officials told the governor they planned a limit of 35 ounces and a 100-square-foot growing area.

I've covered Don Pierce and his illogal and uninformed nonsense before, but he's hitting upon an even more absurd argument by saying that "anybody involved in cultivation and sale could hide behind" a 10ft by 10ft growing area. Is he kidding? We're talking about the state's #1 cash crop. Someone with a small patch of plants in their basement isn't even a drop in the bucket to the overall supply of illegal marijuana in this state. According to the article linked above, law enforcement seized just under 300,000 plants in this state last year, and even that didn't put a dent in the supply anywhere in Washington.

The question here, and I brought this up in the last post, is why the Governor continues to believe that someone like Don Pierce should be involved in this process? He has no expertise in medicine, he clearly has no clue what he's talking about, he's intentionally being misleading, and he has a strong incentive to keep getting paid with taxpayer money to do something that the citizens of this state have repeatedly indicated (through the ballot box and from polling) that they don't think he should be doing (arresting medical marijuana patients). The Governor is often accused of being a pawn for the state's unions over the good of the overall public. I don't always agree with that assessment, but in this case, there's really no other conclusion to draw.

UDPATE: Steve Sarich has more here.

UPDATE: Fixed above. Steve Sarich WAS NOT the patient advocate invited to the meeting yesterday.