This Washington
Medical Marijuana Reform Not Dead Yet
The senate ways and means committee just voted out the latest reincarnation of Jeanne Kohl-Welles' (D-36, Seattle) medical marijuana bill. The committee still needs all the members to officially sign the legislation before it goes forward to the senate floor. Legislators have been scrambling to put a follow-up piece of legislation together before the end of the special session after Governor Chris Gregoire vetoed portions of the original bill last month.
The latest version strips out the controversial registry provision entirely, and with it, arrest protection for medical marijuana patients. (Rep. Roger Goodman has an alternate version—no registry—that would provide arrest protection simply through the medical marijuana card a patient gets from his or her doctor) That's a change from the original follow-up legislation, which included a registry. As we reported last week, the ACLU has voiced repeated concern over the inclusion of a patient registry (because a registry is prone to leaks), but was reluctantly supporting the bill as long as the registry was "secure."
Today's amended version puts off the harder decisions until next year when the legislature reconvenes. Until then, it creates a "joint legislative task force on the medical use of cannabis" to consider whether the state should implement a registry and how arrest protection can be established for patients. A pilot program is set up allowing certain cities and counties with over 200,000 residents to opt-in until 2014, where nonprofit patient cooperatives would be legal.
Although the registry is stripped from the latest version bill, the Kohl-Welles amendment is still designed around a system that local states have to "opt in" to, rather than an "opt out" system, as preferred by groups like the ACLU.
We have a call in to the ACLU.
The latest version strips out the controversial registry provision entirely, and with it, arrest protection for medical marijuana patients. (Rep. Roger Goodman has an alternate version—no registry—that would provide arrest protection simply through the medical marijuana card a patient gets from his or her doctor) That's a change from the original follow-up legislation, which included a registry. As we reported last week, the ACLU has voiced repeated concern over the inclusion of a patient registry (because a registry is prone to leaks), but was reluctantly supporting the bill as long as the registry was "secure."
Today's amended version puts off the harder decisions until next year when the legislature reconvenes. Until then, it creates a "joint legislative task force on the medical use of cannabis" to consider whether the state should implement a registry and how arrest protection can be established for patients. A pilot program is set up allowing certain cities and counties with over 200,000 residents to opt-in until 2014, where nonprofit patient cooperatives would be legal.
Although the registry is stripped from the latest version bill, the Kohl-Welles amendment is still designed around a system that local states have to "opt in" to, rather than an "opt out" system, as preferred by groups like the ACLU.
We have a call in to the ACLU.
