SEATTLE — A legislative effort to expand and clarify
the state medical marijuana law has ended for the year, potentially
spelling the end — for now — of dispensaries that have boomed throughout
the state.
Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles of Seattle announced Tuesday
that her yearlong effort to reform the 1998 voter-approved medical
marijuana law was over. She got a landmark bill through the session only
to see Gov. Chris Gregoire mostly veto it in April.
“By far, this represents the greatest disappointment of my legislative career,” she said in a statement.
King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg said that
dispensaries, which had operated in a “legal gray area,” will clearly be
illegal because of language Gregoire did not veto.
“The commercial dispensaries jumped the gun, and are
out aggressively marketing their services. Whatever gray area used to
exist to allow that is gone now. They are clearly illegal as of July,”
when the new law takes effect, he said on Tuesday.
Satterberg said he prefers to use civil actions
instead of criminal sanctions to address dispensaries, but said his
office would closely review criminal cases brought by local police.
“What happened in Olympia is a significant step
backward. It puts cops and prosecutors back in the business of making
the medical marijuana law work. I don’t think that’s fundamentally the
law that cops and prosecutors should be in. It should be a medical
issue, not a law-enforcement issue,” he said.
Cities, police and patients had sought legislation
this year to clarify who can have medical marijuana and how they can
access it. Patient groups sought arrest protection and legalized
dispensaries; police sought a statewide patient registry and
criminalization of dispensaries; and cities simply sought clarity on
ways to approach the booming dispensary market.
How the new law is going to be enforced is likely
going to vary. Tacoma has sent cease-and-desist letters to 42
dispensaries, but held off enforcement pending the legislative session.
Tacoma city spokesman Rob McNair-Huff said it is unclear how the city
council is going to proceed.
Kent City Attorney Tom Brubaker said the city would decide how to deal with its four or five dispensaries soon.
“We’ve told these dispensaries that they’re illegal,
but haven’t taken any stiff enforcement action” pending action in
Olympia, he said. “I’d just as soon they weren’t in my town.”
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