Pubdate: Thu, 15 Dec 2011
Source: Seattle Times (WA)
Copyright: 2011 The Seattle Times Company
Contact:  http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/409
Author: Jonathan Martin

LAWSUIT FILED OVER SEATTLE'S MEDICAL-MARIJUANA ORDINANCE

Seattle's Effort to Bring Medical-Marijuana Dispensaries Under the 
Wing of City Ordinance Was Challenged As Unconstitutional Wednesday 
on Grounds It Would Require an Admission of Illegal Activity.

A lawsuit, filed by longtime marijuana defense attorney Douglas 
Hiatt, accuses the city of legal hypocrisy by requiring dispensary 
owners to get licenses, pay taxes and abide by zoning laws while the 
city is also enforcing drug-nuisance laws.

The lawsuit exposes intrafamily fighting among marijuana-legalization 
advocates Seattle City attorney Pete Holmes, whose office championed 
the ordinance, and Hiatt, who views most regulation as de-facto 
admission that operating a marijuana dispensary is a federal crime.

"I think a lot of people are being misled" into thinking the city's 
ordinance protects dispensary owners, Hiatt said. "Those are all 
admissions of guilt in federal prosecution, and even in state prosecution."

Seattle's ordinance, passed in July, was the first municipal attempt 
in the state to regulate the medical-marijuana dispensaries that have 
blossomed - with an estimated 80 in Seattle alone - over the past 
several years.

Among the 16 states allowing medical marijuana, Washington has one of 
the most chaotic regulatory schemes because a bill in the 2010 
Legislature to legalize and regulate dispensaries was mostly vetoed 
by Gov. Chris Gregoire.

She allowed municipalities to go their own way, resulting in 
patchwork local regulation, which funneled so-called "pot shops" into 
the most progressive cities.

Philip Dawdy, spokesman for medical-marijuana trade group Washington 
Alternative Medicine Alliance, said the lawsuit undermines efforts by 
Holmes and Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn, who is also an advocate of 
marijuana legalization.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom