Pubdate: Wed, 09 Jul 2014 Source: Seattle Times (WA) Copyright: 2014 The Seattle Times Company Contact: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/409 Author: Erin Heffernan Page: 4 POT DISPENSARIES, PATIENTS WATCH WARILY Will Medical Pot Face New Rules? Users Fear Cheaper System Is in Danger As lines formed outside Washington's first legal retail marijuana shops Tuesday, a quiet waiting room in a downtown Seattle office building filled with another group of people looking to buy pot. The Green Wellness clinic is an alternative-medicine center where business cards say "Medical Cannabis Doctors." Keith Gordon, 61, came to the clinic to get reauthorized for medical marijuana. Despite legalization, he said, he doesn't plan on buying from the retail shops. "Here [in the medical-marijuana system] there are more choices, more flexibility and the price is easier to control," Gordon said. "It's easier to find a supply and go buy it, too, and I don't want it to be that much harder." Once he's reauthorized, Gordon, who says he uses marijuana to relieve arthritis and pain, will be able to buy a variety of marijuana products, from edibles to joints, at an estimated 300 dispensaries throughout Seattle. Compared with the retail shops, which numbered just one in Seattle on the first day, the medical dispensaries are more prevalent, carry a larger variety of products and face far fewer regulations and taxes from the state. The pot is also cheaper. At Green Anne, a dispensary in Queen Anne, one gram of pot costs $10 to $15, according to general manager Phoebe Bizzelle. Compare that to about $20 charged Tuesday at Seattle's first legal retail store, Cannabis City. State regulations on medical growers are also much looser. While every recreational-pot plant must be bar-coded and entered into a tracking database, medicalmarijuana users are permitted to grow up to 15 plants in their homes. But recreational-pot users have greater assurances about the safety and chemical content of the pot they buy at retail stores than the best-educated patients have in the largely unregulated medical system, where testing and accurate labeling are not mandated. Testing shows that some marijuana strains are not what they purport to be in name, chemical content and genetics. This is particularly concerning for patients seeking pot low in intoxicants and high in pain-relieving or other therapeutic qualities. Robert Dotson, a medical consultant at Green Wellness, said the medical-marijuana community is wary that new regulations could be coming, with the medical system eventually brought into the new state-licensed stores. "I would hate to see recreational pot mean that medical marijuana gets derailed to match," he said. "People need this; it is their medicine. For that to be snatched away by things like limiting access, increased taxes and preventing people from growing their own medicine is just criminal." But Bizzell said she is not worried about the immediate business of the dispensary. "Sure, some people might want to wait in line to buy expensive pot," she said, standing at the Green Anne counter. "I really don't think we're going to lose any patients." Information from Seattle Times archives is included. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom