Washington State: Medical Marijuana Users To Get IDs; Police Open to Idea
Compassion in Action is a Washington State-based organization that
distributes medical marijuana plants to patients authorized under state law
to use marijuana medically
The organization now plans to begin issuing photo-ID cards to identify the
patients it serves, who are qualified medical marijuana users. The idea is
to protect them from unnecessary (and unlawful) police harassment. The card
will include a copy of a doctor's or caregiver's authorization, as required
under state law.
Washington State voters approved marijuana use for some medical patients in
1998. A patient or a caregiver for a qualified patient may possess a
"60-day supply." But there is still considerable disagreement over what
constitutes a 60-day-supply.
Leo Poort, Seattle Police Department legal adviser, said a photo-ID would
be helpful to police.
"I think that's a very good way to go," he told the Seattle Times. "Then
our officers can start thinking about the situation they're confronted with
in a different way."
Poort said that police across the state would benefit from having a "quick
and sure exchange of information at the point of contact."
Because the 1998 law did not specify how patients were to get marijuana,
there has been considerable confusion. Some patients obtain marijuana from
organizations like Compassion In Action -- which describes itself as a
"medical-marijuana-access service" -- or Green Cross. Others patients grow
their own.
After one patient's plants and growing materials were confiscated in a raid
last spring, prosecutors declined to pursue the case, and the patient's
insurance company covered the loss.
Compassion in Action also plans to offer a 24-hour phone number for police
to verify if a person is a qualified patient.
Lt. Mike Sanford of the Seattle police vice and narcotics section says
police "want to avoid a true medical-marijuana patient being bothered by
the police. We have no interest in putting true patients through a
stressful situation."
(Source: The Seattle Times, Thursday, March 2, 2000)
"No army can withstand the strength of an idea whose time has come."
-- Victor Hugo (1802-1805)
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