Pubdate: Tue, 18 Dec 2012
Source: Herald, The (Everett, WA)
Copyright: 2012 The Daily Herald Co.
Contact:  http://www.heraldnet.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/190
Author: Philip Dawdy
Note: Philip Dawdy is political director of the Natural Medicine
Alliance, a medical cannabis industry group. He's an award-winning
journalist who was heavily involved in crafting Washington's current
medical cannabis law in 2011.

MISGUIDED 'NUISANCE' PROPOSAL IGNORES LAW

Everett voters approved marijuana legalization by a healthy margin
last month, but now it's December and the City Council is about to do
something that will make all those voters quite unhappy.

Council is set to enact a so-called "nuisance ordinance" that would so
drastically limit where medical cannabis collective gardens might
locate that it would create an effective ban on safe access for
patients in the city. It would also likely ban any Everett marijuana
retail locations for recreational users that the State Liquor Board
might wish to license when it begins to issue licenses for those in
about one year. Many thousands of Everett voters will find council's
action a nuisance, but, rest assured, black market pot dealers will be
thrilled.

This is no way for Everett to end the current moratorium against
collective gardens, and adopting the ordinance would place the city at
variance with state law. All of that in an environment in which
President Barack Obama said that the federal government had "bigger
fish to fry" than to go after Washington and Colorado's historic
initiatives that made recreational use legal for adults.

My hunch is the president is even less concerned about medical
cannabis.

I realize that Everett officials think their hands are tied by federal
laws that schedule cannabis alongside heroin, and that if they allow
access in the city, then they might put federal contracts in jeopardy.

That logic doesn't fly any longer because not a single city in this
state that has permitted medical cannabis collective gardens, which
are allowed under state law, has lost a single dollar in federal
funding of any kind. Not in Mukilteo or Shoreline or Issaquah or
Seattle and certainly not anywhere in Colorado. That state has a far
more aggressively regulated medical cannabis law than our current
patchwork left after Gov. Christine Gregoire's espicially wrong
partial veto of S. 5073, which would have legalized and regulated
state-licensed dispensaries along the lines of Colorado's system. The
feds have stayed hands-off with Colorado cities cooperating with state
law, so there's no reason to think that would change if Everett does
allow for collective gardens.

What's more, last week President Obama also said it was time to start
a conversation about how to reconcile the conflict between federal and
state laws on cannabis.

Not exactly Drug Warrior talk.

When the collective gardens model became law in 2011, the City Council
voted in a temporary moratorium. After that hearing, one City
Councilmember told me, "Show us a model that works." I'm happy to let
City Council know that there is a model out there that works --
collective gardens -- and it's been working in other Washington cities
for 18 months.

The city of Kent passed a ban on collective gardens earlier this year,
but it was recently stayed by the Washington State Supreme Court while
it reviews an appeal of the ban. That should give the City Council
pause because its nuisance ordinance would fly in the face of state
law and the intent of our state Legislature when it passed S. 5073 in
2011. The law does not allow for bans on collective gardens and it
does not allow cities to make such tight zoning rules that no one can
site a facility within its boundaries. I know because I helped the
Legislature craft S. 5073, and its intent was not to create spotty
access around the state. State law also does not allow cities to
tinker with the definition of collective gardens, as the proposed
ordinance does. It does allow for safe access for medical cannabis
patients and it's time for the City Council to get in step with state
law and stop harming the thousands of medical cannabis patients who
live in Everett.

City Council members should reject the proposed nuisance ordinance and
get to work on enacting local regulations that allow for access in
Everett. Otherwise the city will likely face a lawsuit, one that it
will eventually lose. Taxpayers deserve better than that.

Besides, I bet that, just like President Obama, the city of Everett
has bigger fish to fry.

Philip Dawdy is political director of the Natural Medicine
Alliance, a medical cannabis industry group. He's an award-winning
journalist who was heavily involved in crafting Washington's current
medical cannabis law in 2011.
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D