Pubdate: Tue, 30 Mar 2010
Source: News Tribune, The (Tacoma, WA)
Copyright: 2010 Tacoma News Inc.
Contact:  http://www.thenewstribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/442
Author: Patrick O'Callahan
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)

DRUG LAWS SHOULD MATTER, EVEN WITH POT

Imagine a drug company manufacturing and selling  uncontrolled doses 
of its pharmaceuticals right in the  owner's house.

Imagine the owner bringing in a doctor on Saturdays and  paying them 
to pass out prescriptions for his product  to lines of customers. 
Both owner and doctor haul in  large sums of cash in this tidy little 
arrangement.

The quantity of drugs on hand violates state law, as do  the sales 
themselves. Both the cash and drugs are crime  magnets. Burglaries 
have become routine. The neighbors  aren't happy.

Were this some normal, FDA-approved prescription drug,  most everyone 
- -- especially medical oversight bodies --  would be screaming to high heaven.

The drug is non-FDA-approved marijuana, though, and the  operation is 
in King County. So lots of people seem  cool with the whole thing. 
Attach the word "medical" to  "marijuana," and it's pure humanitarianism.

This particular situation hit the news two weeks ago  when Steve 
Sarich, a marijuana champion who grows and  sells marijuana out of a 
Kirkland house, fought off  armed robbers (good for him) who were 
after the cash  sitting around at his place. Sarich said it was his 
eighth home invasion since May.

Sarich -- who has a doctor's authorization to use pot  as medicine -- 
says he's no drug dealer. But he's  certainly an entrepreneur.

After the attempted robbery, police say they found  $10,712 in cash 
in his safe and what looked like  records of $14,653 worth of sales 
between March 1 and  5. Also, 116 medium and large-sized marijuana 
plants  and 259 starter plants in the house, plus a load 
of  marijuana products and a small arsenal of guns.

State law allows a medical marijuana patient a maximum  of 15 plants; 
Sarich's live-in girlfriend also has an  authorization, so their 
combined max would be 30.

Sarich -- who was caught with 1,554 plants in 2007 --  readily admits 
he's been providing the drug to numerous  users. Police say he sells 
it to customers who pay up  to $200 to attend his Saturday seminars, 
where his  hired doctor hands out authorizations to use marijuana  as medicine.

Let's cut through the haze: Dispensaries and shill  doctors are not 
what Washingtonians approved when they  legalized medical marijuana 
- -- with strict limits -- at  the polls in 1998. That year's 
Initiative 692  explicitly forbade sales, limited quantities 
and  allowed a caregiver to provide marijuana to a patient  -- but 
only one patient, not dozens and not hundreds.

Weeds must be pulled before they go to seed. Official  tolerance of 
"medical" grow operations insults the  voters, subverts the law, 
fosters de facto drug houses  and invites violence in the bargain. 
Quasi-commercial  marijuana dispensaries are a disease; the cure is prosecution.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom