Does The Legislature Believe MMJ Is Medicine?

We have seen numerous occasions in the recent past where actions by the Washington Legislature would make one wonder if the majority of the lawmakers actually consider MMJ a medicine. Medical cannabis is not well understood by the general public and that goes for the legislators as well. The battle that rages at the state capital is complicated. If it were just about cleaning up or refining our decade-old MMJ law the process would not be so urgent or shrill. But, unlike past years where attempts to refine the state’s MMJ law have ended in reasonable compromises only to meet a guber veto, this year there is a forcing mechanism. (Governor Gregoire’s veto of an MMJ rewrite still causes heads to nod and unanswered questions to swirl regarding motives)

Refine It Or Lose It

There are formal and informal communications to policy makers that Washington best “clean up” it’s MMJ law or there will be impact. Without refining some of the aspects of the medical cannabis regulatory platform, the hopes and dreams of the recreational cannabis experiment will be compromised. All evidence points that authorizations (prescriptions) can be had online, growing is essentially unregulated, and present law is silent on retailing MMJ. There is no provision for a dispensary, or medical retail outlet.

Washington’s MMJ community has been identified as a mixed bag at best. The bulk of the loose coalition is a professional, caring, and organized group of patients and business types. The fringes are loud and less sophisticated. Not that other interest don’t have similar factions, it’s that the criticality of bringing the recreational and MMJ platforms into harmony adds the Feds, the Liquor Board, the entirely new recreational business community and finally legislators and general public anxious to spend the millions of dollars of revenue promised by I-502, Washington’s recreational cannabis use initiative.

Let’s Put A Face On True MMJ Community Concerns

Below is an open letter/email to Washington lawmakers from a long time activist and patient. You can see what the policy makers face in the final half of the session.

Urgent?

Without a reasonable refinement of the MMJ law the Feds will move in and do their job, users may continue to abuse MMJ access for recreational use, revenue will be lost, Department of Justice required product control will be in jeopardy and all the eyes on Washington may only see a mess instead of a civic experiment in state’s rights. And most important, for those patients who know the healing and pain management abilities of certain strains of cannabis at certain doses it could mean a life changing if not life threatening future.

Letter Here:

To the Honorable Legislators of Washington State,

Please consider the following.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 5.
http://dlr.leg.wa.gov/billsummary/default.aspx?Bill=2149&year=2013

This section is going to be pretty much the end for medical cannabis for most people. It would for me.

(2) A health care professional may authorize the possession or
purchase of more than three ounces of useable marijuana for a
qualifying patient if the health care professional attests to the
department:

(a) That he or she is the primary health care professional treating
the patient’s terminal or debilitating medical condition that is the
basis for the issuance of the valid documentation;

Veterans who use VA primary care doctors and others like myself who rely on social security disability have to use primary care doctors through the main hospitals and clinics, which rely on federal funding. They won’t write the authorizations (for medical cannabis) because of it’s status as an illegal, schedule one drug! A few have been willing to do referrals to doctors that will. Most won’t even do that.

(b) That he or she maintains an ongoing medical relationship with
the patient that includes regular visits with the patient at least
every three months;

This is completely unnecessary as anyone with a debilitating condition is going to be seeing their doctor as per their doctor’s orders. There is no need for 3 month visits.

For patients like myself, I don’t need to go see my doctor every 3 months. They are happy with seeing me once a year. I’ve had epilepsy since the age of 14. Making me go see a doctor for a condition that will never change is a waste of everyone’s time and resources.

(c) That alternatives to marijuana for medical use have been
attempted with the qualifying patient and have been unsuccessful and
that the use of marijuana in amounts that would allow for possession of
less than three ounces of useable marijuana has been attempted and has
been unsuccessful; and
(d) That he or she maintains documentation of efforts to use
alternatives to marijuana for medical use and marijuana in amounts that
would allow for possession of less than three ounces of useable
marijuana.

Again, I have had this since the age of 14. All the alternative treatments for it were tried back in the 1970s and 80’s. We tried one final drug in the early 90s. And it was in the early 2000’s when they finally gave up and said it was either cannabis or experimental brain surgery. Forcing me to document all this would be impossible as my medical records are gone as some of the clinics and doctors no longer exist. I saw military doctors until I was 18. Forcing me to re-trace my steps and document every alternative would be near impossible. Plus I refuse the alternative: experimental brain surgery to remove the pineal gland and a large area of the short term memory section in my brain. This is NOT a viable alternative to me, but this language would seem to mandate it. I refuse to be turned into a Charles Manson.

Cannabis should be a first line defense in epilepsy, not the final option after everything else has failed. This section is both CRUEL and UNUSUAL.

As for a registry, like I said…this is nothing more than an effort by the small group of people within the LCB, DOH and to document the doctors and reduce their ability to write authorizations in order to protect their recreational model (and the coming big pharma model). It’s that simple and needs to be rejected.

PLEASE REJECT 2149 OUTRIGHT!

Many of you are now getting to the point where you are beginning to understand the complexities on this issue. Some of you have even stated that you now know what it is you don’t know about this issue. With so much at stake and obviously more to learn, please just STOP and wait until everyone has a good understanding before passing any more laws.

I can’t even begin to tell you how stressful this is to patients like myself. Every year we as patients have to become full time legislative analysts in order to figure out if this will be the year we lose access to this critical medication. PLEASE, LEAVE US ALONE to suffer and die with our dignity.

Thank you for your consideration to this matter.

Sincerely,

John Novak

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