This Washington
ACLU Urges Action on Medical Marijuana Legislation
The ACLU of Washington sent a letter to members of the senate ways and means committee today urging them to pass state Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles' (D-36, Ballard) follow-up medical marijuana legislation. Governor Chris Gregoire's partial veto
of Kohl-Welles' original proposal, gutted key provisions, including a patient registry that Gregoire said would put state employees at risk of federal prosecution for managing the program.
In the letter, ACLU's legislative director Shankar Narayan said his group supports the bill because "it allows safe access to medical cannabis for patients, local control and regulation of that access, and improved ability for law enforcement to maintain public safety." He wrote that "the previous bill as a whole was well thought through—but without the vetoed sections, it takes us backwards in terms of patient access and community safety."
Kohl-Welles' new legislation would create nonprofit patient cooperatives and authorize collective gardens in places where local jurisdictions chose to "opt in" to the statewide system. It also includes a "voluntary" registry for patients and producers in order to receive arrest protection.
The ACLU is behind the new legislation but they do have a couple of reservations:
That registry provision also included in the original vetoed bill has been a point of contention for groups like the ACLU. Narayan, told PubliCola this afternoon that his group was reluctant to support the registry aspect of Kohl-Welles' new legislation. He said that ideally, "patients shouldn't have to be on a registry to receive arrest protection," but that the ACLU was supporting the provision as long as the registry was "secure" from leaks.
Narayan admitted, however, that despite supporting the Kohl-Welles legislation there may not be political momentum to move forward with it in a special session that is supposed to be dedicated to budget-related work. To do that, legislators need agreement from the "five corners," Narayan says, "it's not clear that there is the support for that right now."
In the letter, ACLU's legislative director Shankar Narayan said his group supports the bill because "it allows safe access to medical cannabis for patients, local control and regulation of that access, and improved ability for law enforcement to maintain public safety." He wrote that "the previous bill as a whole was well thought through—but without the vetoed sections, it takes us backwards in terms of patient access and community safety."
Kohl-Welles' new legislation would create nonprofit patient cooperatives and authorize collective gardens in places where local jurisdictions chose to "opt in" to the statewide system. It also includes a "voluntary" registry for patients and producers in order to receive arrest protection.
The ACLU is behind the new legislation but they do have a couple of reservations:
New language in the registry provision of this bill may make it more difficult to protect patients’ medical privacy. We are working with the University of Washington’s Computer Science & Engineering Security and Privacy Research Laboratory to pinpoint potential problems and solutions.
Local governments should not have to adopt ordinances authorizing the operation of nonprofit patient cooperatives within their jurisdictions. Instead, they should be allowed to “opt out.” As we have seen from councils taking swift action to pass dispensary moratoria, opting out of providing access through cooperatives likely would not be difficult.
That registry provision also included in the original vetoed bill has been a point of contention for groups like the ACLU. Narayan, told PubliCola this afternoon that his group was reluctant to support the registry aspect of Kohl-Welles' new legislation. He said that ideally, "patients shouldn't have to be on a registry to receive arrest protection," but that the ACLU was supporting the provision as long as the registry was "secure" from leaks.
Narayan admitted, however, that despite supporting the Kohl-Welles legislation there may not be political momentum to move forward with it in a special session that is supposed to be dedicated to budget-related work. To do that, legislators need agreement from the "five corners," Narayan says, "it's not clear that there is the support for that right now."
