>Sender: >To: >X-Original-Message-ID: <178401bf3a70$429c2220$9acf69cf@pacbell.net> >From: "Peter McWilliams" >Subject: and yada, yada, yada... >Date: Mon, 29 Nov 1999 05:47:21 -0800 >X-Mozilla-Status: 8001 >X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000 > > >Easing Into Medical Marijuana Law > >The Associated Press >Nov 27 1999 5:52PM ET > > >ABERDEEN, Wash. (AP) - ``Jack,'' a 67-year-old former paratrooper, had never >smoked pot when voters in Washington approved a new medical marijuana law a >year ago this month. > >Since then, he's been diagnosed with a tumor in his lower back that has left >him in agony, barely able to move. > >Now, as doctors and law enforcement grapple with the measure, he has two >words for anybody who dares interfere with his effort to seek relief by >smoking an occasional joint - back off. > >``There are a lot of us going through some severe pains, and my government >ain't doing nothing for me,'' he declared. > >``I need it. I have to have it,'' he added before lighting a joint in his >Aberdeen home. ``It makes you forget your problems and your pain.'' > >That Jack and a friend who delivers his marijuana both asked that they not >be identified illustrates the status of Washington's year-old medical >marijuana law. > >Initiative 692 passed with 59 percent of the vote. Despite predictions it >would lead to a movement to legalize drugs and cause a surge in marijuana >use, neither has happened. > >Instead, physicians and law enforcers are developing professional >guidelines. The state recently added Crohn's disease, a painful bowel >disease, to the list of qualifying ailments that includes AIDS, multiple >sclerosis, glaucoma and ``intractable pain,'' and it is considering a >request to add hepatitis C. And it appears that few - if any - patients have >been prosecuted. > >But serious obstacles remain. > >The federal government has not relented in its opposition to legalizing >marijuana for medicinal uses. The Justice Department is challenging >voter-approved laws in Alaska, Arizona, California, Oregon and Washington. >Maine voters approved a medical marijuana law earlier this month. > >Authorities in Washington still don't know how to define a vague provision >in the state law that limits patients to a 60-day supply of marijuana. >Prosecutors are waiting for the courts, the Legislature or scientists to >figure out how much pot is in a reasonable 60-day supply. > >``We would love to have a (dosage) standard,'' Pierce County prosecutor John >Ladenburg said. ``We're playing it by ear and trying to do the right thing >by what the people wanted.'' > >Physicians at the University of Washington and Harborview Medical Center in >Seattle are working on recommended guidelines for doctors, but Washington >physicians still have legal concerns when it comes to prescribing marijuana, >said Dr. Thomas ``Mac'' Hooton, medical director of Harborview's HIV-AIDS >clinic. > >``Marijuana is still classified as an illegal drug,'' Hooton said. ``We have >been warned by lawyers that we need to pay attention to that and be careful, >even though the initiative attempts to give us some protection.'' > >The most positive news from the federal government was a report earlier this >year by the Institute of Medicine, a federal advisory panel, that said >marijuana can help fight pain and nausea and should be tested further in >scientific trials. > >JoAnna McKee, co-founder of a Seattle-based underground marijuana clinic >called the Green Cross Patient Co-op, believes more physicians will >recommend marijuana use once the experts finish the guidelines. > >``I think we're better off than we were a year ago,'' she said. > >Jack, the former paratrooper with cancer, credits marijuana with curbing his >nausea, restoring his appetite and helping him sleep. But despite the >year-old law, he asked that his real name be kept secret for fear state >government would cut off payment for his regular medicine. > >Law enforcers are also frustrated because groups like the Green Cross that >deliver marijuana are still breaking the law - it is a felony to deliver a >controlled substance - but the initiative is so vague that it makes >prosecution difficult, said Ladenburg, the Pierce County prosecutor. > >His office declined to press charges against a blind AIDS patient and his >mother who were arrested in January after Tacoma police found three >marijuana plants in their home. > >Four months later, it filed charges against a Tacoma man who said the 157 >marijuana plants found in his home were supplying pot for 11 patients with >illnesses covered by the initiative. > >Prosecutors in Seattle's King County are still waiting for the right >``test'' case that will help set boundaries for law enforcers, said Dan >Satterberg, chief of staff to Prosecutor Norm Maleng. > >``So far, we've been able to make the law work as the voters intended,'' he >said. > > > > >================================================================ > >This message is sent to you because you are subscribed to > the mailing list . >To unsubscribe, E-mail to: