Nervous in washington state

"Washington State's new medical cannabis law takes effect this Friday, July 22nd. After Governor Christine Gregoire's veto in April of the portions of S. 5073 that would've created state-licensed dispensaries and producers, there's been a lot of nervousness about the coming changes. That's understandable: Change is always nerve-wracking and is doubly so when you have the feds insisting upon the non-scientific principle that medical cannabis has no medical value and the Obama Administration is simultaneously backing off its earlier promises to respect state laws on medical cannabis.

The takeaways of the new law are these: patients and designated providers still have the right to produce medical cannabis and Washington State has the highest plant count in the nation; health care professionals can still authorize the medical use of cannabis and that ability will now have stronger legal protections; patients will now be able to come together in groups of 3 to 10, form what are called collective gardens and produce medicine for themselves; but, many of the dispensaries that have gone above ground in Washington State over the last 18 months or so were not protected explicitly under the new law.

Then again, they were never explicitly protected under the current law. They came above ground because some local authorities were willing to look the other way in anticipation of the State Legislature giving them legal protections - and the ‘Leg did do that, in bipartisan fashion - and that those protections would then be signed into law by Governor Gregoire.

But the Governor capitulated to threats from the federal government, despite the fact that medical cannabis is a clear states' rights issue.

A better law could be going into effect this Friday - although S. 5073 had its share of quirks and warts - so if you see or hear news that you don't like in the coming months, blame Chris Gregoire.

Still, for the patient who can grow for themselves or who participates in a collective garden, not too much will change with the new law. Patients who aren't in a position to grow for themselves will either have to find a designated provider who can grow for them or will have to join one of the many collective gardens which I expect will spring up throughout Washington State. Also, patients can expect many of the former dispensaries to quickly reorganize as collective gardens. There will likely be a kind of rotating membership arrangement, in some cases - at least in the cities and counties that are immediately friendly to the concept.

I'm not in a position to predict much beyond the fact that some dispensaries will close in some parts of the state or be shut down by local authorities (if they haven't been already). Or they'll have to play by different rules, ones to which not everyone will be able to adapt. I think we'll also see a mushrooming of medical cannabis growing classes."
One final prediction: what with all the collective garden moratoriums and partial moratoriums going on, and given the questionable legality of such moratoriums, I fully expect to see someone somewhere file an injunction against a city that enacts a collective garden moratorium. Then it will be up to the courts to decide.
By the way, moratoriums and partial moratoriums are scheduled to be taken up this week by city councils in Shoreline, Mukilteo and Everett (and those are just the ones I know about). Kent, which has already enacted a moratorium against collective gardens, will hold a public hearing on Tuesday.
Other cities such as Issaquah and Snohomish, which recently enacted similar moratoriums, are expected to hold public hearings in the near future.
By: Philip Dawdy, 4E columnist