I have to give Senator Jeanne Kohl-Welles a large amount of respect. She is among a short list of senators in our state who actually listens to her constituents and fights to fulfill their wishes. I have to give her even bigger props for her most recent draft of a bill she would like to put into action in 2011. As I sat down with my meds, I read the entire bill and took live notes on my facebook.
This bill is fresh news in the cannabis culture and is mostly great news for the Washington state cannabis community, even if it isn't perfect. So far, the only site I could find that is covering this news, is the Cannabis Defense Coalition, based out of west Seattle. Which isn't surprising, since they are usually on top of state cannabis politics. What does this mean? It means that you are getting local cannabis news hot off the presses!
Two of my favorite pass times, are writing about cannabis and doing analysis break downs of political bills. So this will be fun for everyone as we go through the good, the bad and the ugly of this bill.
Senator Jeanne Kohl-Welles is calling it the "Washington State Medical Use of Cannabis Act", and right from the start of reading the bill, many good vibes come screaming out of it. Both the language of the act, and her written goals for this act http://cdc.coop/docs/2011%20Medical%20Use%20of%20Cannabis%20Act%20-%20Overview%20of%20Goals.pdf suggest that she is not only fighting for patient rights, but she is also fighting for the state to start taking a fact based and appropriate stand point on the plant. They are no longer going to be using the slang term "marijuana" that was created by the government to turn cannabis into a dirty deed. All things cannabis will be referred to all things cannabis, as it should be. The whole act is very well written, and it looks like all good intentions were put in, and that she did A LOT of research about the subject. The bill isn't perfect though, and as I am going to point out, though it is next to perfect, there are some parts in it that might need to be revised before pushing it through, otherwise it will be as doomed as her last few attempts. The cannabis community wants to re-legalize, especially in a medicinal sense, but it wants to do it right.
THE GOOD: Okay, lets first cover the good parts of this bill. There are lots of them, and I find it's always best to start on a positive note.
This bill....
#Allows legal cannabis patients protection from arrest, seizure or prosecution from the law
#Allows patient providers protection from arrest, seizure or prosecution from the law
#Establishes licenses for producers (farmers or growers) and dispensers, and gives them protection from arrest, seizure or prosecution fro the law, so long as they are following the rules.
#Gives affirmative protection for those patients, providers, producers or dispensers that have been arrest, had their meds seized or whom are being prosecuted. Basically, if they are wrongly prosecuted, they have protection and can get retribution for the wrongs made against them.
#Establishes rules and acceptance of patient collectives. This bill allows for patient collectives to be as large as 7 people, and to host as much as 99 plants plus dried meds.
#Establishes that a person can be a provider and a patient at the same time.
#Establishes a less ambiguous amount of cannabis to be possessed. Instead of a "60 day supply" and/or fifteen plants plus dried matter, it changes it to up to 24 ounces of med plus 15 plants. Or twice that amount if you are both a patient and a provider.
#Gives some protection to patients whom are here visiting, or whom have just moved her from another state, so long as they have legal medical documentation from their own state.
#Protects patients from being ripped off by their provider, in that it specifically states that a provider may not consume, sell or use any cannabis that is grown for a medicinal cannabis patient.
#Allows for both patient and provider to terminate their patient-provider relationship at any time.
#This is one of my FAVORITE parts. In new section 12, PARENTS who are cannabis patients or providers are finally protected as well! There have been many cases where states (including our own) have tried to take away parental rights simply because a parent was a patient or provider. Section 12 states that so long as the use of medicinal cannabis does not inhibit a parents capability to preform their duties as a loving parent, then there is no cause or reason to take away their child or children. This is an amazing break through in cannabis bills written so far in just about all legal medicinal states. Parents have widely been forgotten about, but in this bill, Senator Kohl-Welles clear shows that she has heard the patient parents who are afraid of losing their children for their choice of a safer alternative.
#There are some protections for providers or patients found to be possessing more than the legal limit, if they an prove then necessity of having extra.
#For the first time ever, this is a bill that will cover medicinal cannabis patient rights to be employed like everyone else. You won't be allowed to work law enforcement or construction, but it's better than nothing. Take that Walmart!
#Takes public use of cannabis down from a misdemeanor to a civil infraction
#A medicinal cannabis regulatory group or committee will likely be formed, to protect patients through regulating the growth of cannabis (to make sure it's organic and properly packaged). The committee will also attempt to develop weights and measurements that can be used legally. Though I don't understand why they don't just use the system already in place.
#In situations where a police officer of inspector finds more than the designated amount, they are only allowed to take the excess, not the whole lot.
#A strange addition to this bills says that if you are loading packaged cannabis into a vessel or vehicle, it is not allowed to be inspected by an officer or inspector, if it risks contaminating the cannabis.
#Protects patient rights to confidentiality because their name will need to go on a list
#Cities in Washington are not allowed to write laws that go against this bill if it is enacted, meaning that cities cannot ban medicinal cannabis usage in this state and must allow safe access for patients.
#This bill doesn't try to put medicinal cannabis in liquor stores! Yay!
#Specifically and clearly states that doctors and police officers will not discipline or discriminated against for their role in medicinal cannabis patients lives.
#They have somewhat covered fraud in that they have made it illegal to make fake papers, or to back-date a recommendation.
THE BAD:
This bill...
#Does not say anything about how many plants our ounces a producer or dispenser is allowed to possess, nor does it explain at all about how many patients a dispenser may dispense too.
#Claims that cannabis is in the Moraceae plant family, when it is actually a part of the Cannabacaea family.
#Because of ambiguous writing, they have included industrial hemp products in the amount of cannabis that a person can have. This is not okay, since industrial hemp usually carries less then 1% THC, and is not considered to be a drug or medication once it is processed into a salve, lotion, edible or other item for use.
#Does not specify if the 15 allowable plants per patient or provider, include starter plants, or plants that have been uprooted and are being dried.
#Does not include language to cover if fresh buds on a plant are included as part of the 24 allowable maximum ounces that a patient or provider is allowed to have at any given time. This has come up with the current medical cannabis laws. Do wet buds that are still attached to the plant, count as dried meds? Patients should not have to guess, that's how people get wrongfully arrested.
#Does not include volunteers in with the "staff" of a producer or dispenser. This is suckish because a dispenser has to be a non-proft org, meaning most of their efforts are completed by volunteers. Are cannabis volunteers not protected by the law?
#This is a newer issue, but still important. The bill does not have any language to cover underage patients who have serious medicinal conditions that require the use of cannabis.
#They would like dispenaries to include some confetti or some sort of product that would allow for easy identification of stolen medicinal cannabis, though this poses a risk of contaminating the medicine.
#They have said that a medicinal recommendation must be a valid "paper", when it should be a valid "document", because a plastic medicinal card is not paper and wouldn't be counted.
THE UGLY:
#In section 8, where it says that patients have the right to terminate their provider at any time; it says that providers may only provider for one patient in a 90 day period, and that if they are terminated from providing for their patient earlier then the 90 day period, they must wait out the remain days in the period before they can provide for another patient. There are several vary large problems with this. The first being that a patient might simply decide to go to a dispensary or collective and not terminate their provider for anything they did wrong, leaving them high and dry. The other, and more important issue, is that if a person is a provider one day, and then the next their patient decides to disown them, they that provider automatically becomes a felon. That is not going to work at all, and is waaaaay ugly.
#This bill specifically says that as a cannabis patient you must allow an officer or inspector to search your grow or stash area to make sure you are under the legal limit of cannabis, even without a search warrant. They do offer brief and small protection for patients or providers who refuse inspection, but this is still VERY ugly. Patients who use pharma are not put under these searches to make sure they don't have extra meds, and for no other reason would an american have to allow a police officer to come into their home at any time. Why does being a cannabis user mean you have to give up some basic civil rights?
#There is no provision in this bill that says that if a patient or provider is wrongfully arrested or has their crop seized or destroyed, that they will be reimbursed for their wrongful losses. Unwarranted raids have happened so often in the past, and when the patient or provider went through court and proved their innocence, they were not able to get help to get their meds back.
#Allows for the use of DUI for any patient found driving, even if they are not "medicated" while driving. This would be fine if there were a measurable way to tell if a person was high while driving, or if they were a danger on the road, but this bill seems to allow for a patient or provider to be claimed for driving under the influence, simply for being a patient or provider. NOT COOL.
#The Dept of Agriculture is allowed to inspect producers or dispensers at any time, unannounced, so long as they do it within normal business hours. This is not valid, in the sense that all non-cannabis businesses are not required to follow this sort of treatment, and are at least afforded a few hours of notice first.
#Licensed producer fines for violating the law can get as high as $1000 per violation! Ouch!
#This bill does not clarify what taxes the state can collect from dispensers or producers, which is a current upcoming problem in our state. Without this clarification, the battle could continue.
This doesn't cover the complete bill, because I want you to read it for yourself. Take the time to pick through it and think about it all. Are you willing to compromise with the Ugly and Bad things included in this bill?
To read the bill, and get more info, check out this page on the CDC website:
http://cdc.coop/2011_legislation
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