Pubdate: Fri, 19 Oct 2012
Source: Seattle Times (WA)
Copyright: 2012 The Seattle Times Company
Contact:  http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/409
Author: Sumi Hahn
Note: Sumi Hahn, a community volunteer, and her husband, winemaker
Mike Almquist, own Book Bindery restaurant.

BUYING MARIJUANA FOR MY PARENTS

IF you think marijuana is something other people do, then you're in 
the same boat I was a year and a half ago.

That's when I found myself buying pot for the first time in my life - 
with my 70-something immigrant parents.

The experience turned this minivan-driving mom of three into a 
staunch supporter of Initiative 502, a ballot measure on the Nov. 6 
ballot to legalize marijuana.

My mother, a cancer patient, needed a better way to manage her pain. 
So I asked her oncologist about a prescription for cannabis.

Because of marijuana's legal limbo, medical professionals are not 
allowed to suggest it as an alternative to the dangerous and 
addictive opiates usually prescribed. Once we opened the door to that 
subject by ourselves, however, the paperwork was straightforward.

But where to get the stuff? Neither the doctor nor the nurse could say.

So I went online. I chose a store near my parent's house.

I had to pick up the kids from school, so my folks went by themselves.

They called from the dispensary. It sounded like a frat party. My 
father anxiously asked me what they were supposed to get. The cookies 
they bought - at $6 each - didn't do much for my mother's pain.

We would have concluded that medical marijuana was a myth, had it not 
been for an attentive nurse who asked whether the herb was providing 
any relief.

I explained what happened.

She looked us over carefully. "A colleague of mine is very involved 
in the medical cannabis movement. I'll let her know where you're going next."

A smiling woman approached us in the waiting room of the chemo ward. 
She sat down and explained that most dispensaries failed to follow 
the inadequate legal guidelines that currently regulated them.

"There are very few dispensaries in Seattle that I'd trust," she 
said, "And Green Buddha is the best of the best."

The previous dispensary had not even asked for my mother's 
prescription. The woman who answered the phone at Green Buddha 
wouldn't even talk to us until the doctor's office had faxed over the 
necessary forms.

"Are you a caregiver?"

"Yes."

"Are you going to accompany your mother?"

"Yes." My palms started sweating.

"You'll both need to bring your IDs and the medical authorization."

When we arrived at the unmarked storefront, the door was locked. The 
woman who opened it was the same person who had vetted our call.

She reviewed the fine print of the prescription. Green Buddha was one 
of a handful of dispensaries that had never been raided, because she 
insisted on operating above the letter of the law. She also required 
that her patients stay within legal bounds.

"It is illegal to transport marijuana on federal roads, and all 
interstates are federal roads, as are ferries. ... Put your medicine 
in your car trunk and lock it. ... Keep one copy of your medical 
authorization on your person at all times. ... "

It was a long litany. I was impressed. My mother, terrified.

We decided to get some cookies and candies. The cookies from Green 
Buddha, aptly named Snickerdoodles, smelled far more strongly of 
marijuana than the cookies from the first dispensary.

After a year and a half, my mother has finally overcome her fears 
about using an "illegal" drug. Instead of taking pills for her pain, 
constipation, nausea and lack of appetite, she nibbles on a quarter 
cookie twice daily.

"How can something so helpful be illegal?" asks my father, a retired 
anesthesiologist. "It makes no sense!"

Law or no, pot - like tobacco and alcohol - is never going to go 
away. So let's take it off the streets and put it into legal 
storefronts, away from criminals and into the hands of regulators and 
tax collectors. Remove the fear and social stigma, and educate the 
public about this beneficial plant. Ensure that those in need have 
access to products that are reliably sourced and responsibly sold.

Yes on 502.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom