Pubdate: Tue, 22 Oct 2013
Source: Seattle Times (WA)
Copyright: 2013 The Seattle Times Company
Contact:  http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/409
Author: Bob Young
Page: A1

MEDICAL POT MAY GET NEW RULES IN STATE

Concerns of Competition With Recreational Market

Medical marijuana would face new taxes, and patients would be limited 
to smaller supplies under rules proposed Monday by three state 
agencies. The rules also would tighten definitions of qualifying 
conditions and forbid home growing.

The recommendations were requested by state lawmakers trying to 
reconcile the largely unregulated medical system with the new tightly 
controlled recreational pot market, which seeks to undercut illicit dealers.

Lawmakers are concerned the medical system, which they see as a 
fiction to some degree, will be a rival that undercuts the 
recreational system's ability to collect tax revenues.

The proposals, which kick off a period of public comment, could 
dramatically change the medical system, steering patients into new 
recreational-pot stores, where they could receive a tax exemption.

The recreational system only serves people 21 and over, and allows 
adults to possess an ounce of weed. The medical system can serve 
minors and allows patients a 60-day supply of 24 ounces. The 
recreational system is heavily taxed, the medical system is not. 
Seattle now has about 200 medical dispensaries, but has been allotted 
just 21 recreational stores.

Recommendations for medical marijuana, from the state Liquor Control 
Board and departments of Health and Revenue, include:

Allow those age 18 to 20 to possess medical marijuana with proper 
authorization, and require those 17 and younger to have consent from 
a parent or guardian. Require authorizing doctors to have frequent 
exams and follow-ups with child patients.

Establish a mandatory registry for all patients, maintained by the 
Department of Health. Make it available to law enforcement and 
Department of Revenue, but exempt from public-disclosure information 
that could identify patients.

Define "debilitating" and "intractable pain" - two of the most common 
qualifying conditions - in a way that can be objectively assessed and 
evaluated.

Reduce the amount a patient can possess from 24 ounces, a 60-day 
supply, to three ounces, a one-week supply, with additional limits 
for pot-infused products, such as edibles or tinctures.

Eliminate home growing and collective gardens.

Require labeling to include levels of THC, the main psychoactive 
ingredient, and cannabinoids, the more analgesic chemicals in marijuana.

Create a single licensing system for medical and recreational 
producer and processor licenses. Allow only approved recreational 
stores to sell to qualified medical patients.

Use the same tax structure as the recreational system - 25 percent on 
sales at each of the producer, processor and retail levels - but 
exempt state and local retail taxes for qualified medical patients.

Kari Boiter, a current patient, graded the recommendations as a 
C-minus, or D-plus.

"It's going to make it a lot more difficult for patients to get their 
medicine," said Boiter, who is active in Americans for Safe Access, 
the largest national advocacy group for medical marijuana.

Boiter, 33, has Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a genetic disorder that 
affects skin, joints and blood-vessel walls. But that isn't a 
qualifying condition under state law. She's authorized for medical 
marijuana because of intractable pain and was taking prescription 
painkillers before, which she said made her "highly dysfunctional."

Boiter said she wants a regulated, licensed system for medical 
marijuana and she's not opposed to close monitoring for child 
patients. She's also in support of basic business taxes on commercial 
medical storefronts. But she disagrees with a number of recommendations.

She argues that any registry should be voluntary because federal law 
enforcement may have access to it. She maintains that the current 
amounts patients can possess were approved by state officials after a 
public process and shouldn't be changed. And she believes that 
recreational-level taxes at the producer and processor levels would 
just be passed on to patients.

"And where's all the research," she asks, "showing all these patients 
are bogus?"

Boiter said she would support something like SB 5073, a bill that 
would have more tightly regulated the medical system, but was vetoed 
by then-Gov. Chris Gregoire in 2011.

Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, D-Seattle, was the primary sponsor of that 
bill. Kohl-Welles has vowed to be involved in changes to the medical 
system next year.

She is in China and responded by email that she had mixed thoughts 
after a quick reading. She liked pesticide disclosure, tighter rules 
for authorizers and access for qualifying minors.

But she'd prefer a voluntary registry for tax exemptions and 
home-growing by designated providers. "Collective gardens should be 
phased out," she wrote.

Nov. 8 is the deadline for written comments on the recommendations. 
Final recommendations are due to the Legislature by Jan. 1.

Recommendations call for a new medical system by Jan. 1, 2015.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom