September 14, 2009 in City

Protesters ask to keep medical marijuana dispensaries open

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Dispensary owner Chantel Jackson joins dozens of people Monday, Sept. 14, 2009, to protest the Spokane Police Department’s recommendation to close of all the city’s medical marijuana dispensaries last week.
(Full-size photo)

Some have HIV. Others suffer from cancer or chronic pain from car accidents and job injuries. One man burned most of his body in a gas explosion as a toddler and wasn’t expected to live.

All have a prescription to use marijuana in Washington, and all gathered Monday outside the Spokane County Courthouse to protest the legal battle brewing between law enforcement and the medical marijuana dispensaries that police recommended be shut down last week.

“For the ones that it helps, we need to find a way to get them their medicine,” said lawyer John Clark, who does free legal work for marijuana dispensaries. “I have some acquaintances who are going through chemotherapy. For some people, it’s just a miracle drug.”

The warning to the dispensaries came at the heels of the first police raid in the state of Washington at a medical marijuana dispensary, Change on Northwest Boulevard. About 11 dispensaries still operate in the Seattle area.

Change owners Scott Shupe and Christopher Stevens face charges of felony delivery of a controlled substance after a four-month police investigation that centered on them providing marijuana to more than one authorized patient.

The law allows a person to provide medical marijuana to one authorized patient “at any one time.”

Prosecutors and police say that means dispensaries, which serve hundreds of people, are illegal. Voters approved medical marijuana in 1998, and the state Legislature set possession limits last year at a pound and a half per person or 15 plants. But how users who don’t grow can obtain marijuana legally hasn’t been addressed.

About 100 people gathered outside Spokane Regional Health District and the courthouse Monday to ask officials to change that.

“Where are we supposed to tell our patients to go?” said Rhonda Duncan, coowner of the dispensary Club Compassion. Club Compassion, which specialized in marijuana-based food products, closed after Thursday’s raid at Change.

“All of my clients want to comply with the law and run it like any other pharmacy,” said Clark, who works with Club Compassion. “We’re just hoping that reasonable guidelines can be hammered out so the responsible dispensaries can stay within those guidelines.”

Police investigated Shupe and Stevens knowing it could trigger a lengthy court battle, which police said is needed to clarify a law even pot advocates say is confusing.

Their investigation was fed by Shupe and Stevens’ blatancy in selling marijuana to more than 1,000 medical marijuana patients at Change since April, according to a search warrant.

Drug detectives started watching them after seeing a TV news article in May about the for-profit business, according to the warrant.

The men spent about a day in Spokane County Jail before a judge released Stevens on his own recognizance and Shupe, who’s facing felony marijuana charges in Oregon, posted $10,000 bond.

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Eight comments on this story so far. Add yours!

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  Stephen Eugster on September 14 at 8:46 p.m.

  Someday the nonsense about the illegality of marijuana will all be history. One wonders, do we focus on this rather harmless mood enhancer which is a real benefit to many because pursuit of real crime is more complicated?

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  spoketucky on September 14 at 9:07 p.m.

  Steve: The “nonsense” of prohibition of marijuana won't end soon, considering the ongoing subsidies directed towards big cotton. I believe it was legislators from cotton producing states who introduced the original legislation who didn't want another fiber producing plant (that can be cultivated in almost all climates) competing with cotton. They employed racist/xenophobic tactics to convince the U.S. citizenry of the dangers of “reefer madness” storming across the border from Mexico.

  The results of these misguided policies are jails packed with non-violent offenders and countless disrupted families.

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  primitivedreamer on September 14 at 9:29 p.m.

  It's good to see that all the murders, rapes, assaults, arsons, burglaries, robberies, frauds, and crimes of violence have been solved so that Spokane can concentrate on this nonsense, while at the same time depriving patients of an effective needed drug.

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  cryss T on September 14 at 9:43 p.m.

  let the Police Dept provide & sell the confiscated marijuana to those with a medical need. the money raised would help the police budget, the people with the medical need get their marijuana and there's nothing to dispose of (recycled so to speak or truly green). a win for both sides. it could be provided at local COPS stations.

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  kemplam on September 15 at 2:21 a.m.

  lengthy battle to hammer it out while people go to jail. Thats the way I would do it guys. Oh, Maybe we should patition, Call our reps in high places, Call our gov. and beg for all these people to do the right thing..Call today.

  also post comments and vote on everything you see to do with our cause.

  Police do not even have a clue as to how many of us there are out there…lets give em a little idea.

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  Betty on September 15 at 6:12 a.m.

  Thanks to Councilman Allen for asking some incisive questions but there must be a lot of profit taken from this for so many to think of themselves as “pharmacies” dispensing “medicine” to “their patients”. the one thing he didn't ask was since they can pay the huge fines, how profitable is setting up this business to prey on the needs of the “sick”????
  Wish you had gone a bit further Mr. Allen as they all seemed to be open to answering but sure could rant on over their alloted 3 minutes. Are the owners also users?

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  Ninch on September 15 at 7:13 a.m.

  Hmmm…. So Spokane police are now arbitrary interpreters of the “intent” of the law (aka judge and jury)….and which apparently is directly contrary to what law enforcement in the rest of the state is doing. Or is Rocky T. advising the police department on this? It could be a ploy to take the attention off his ethical/legal problems with the Zehm case. Also remember, Rocky was the one who long ago could not drop the Gypsy “no warrant” raid (see 4th amendment) that went clear to the State Supreme court losing all the way and costing the city millions. Or is this dispensary cutting into rogue Spokane cop business?… noting that there is a long history of missing seized evidence as well as undercover cops using such drugs for their own pleasure (of which I once personally witnessed and reported). As stated above, the Spokane Police (and their attorney) need to get their act together before venturing into new questionable law enforcement activity that will involve even more wasted tax dollars to prosecute for non-threatening activity that will ultimately be deemed legal (e.g. California).

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  spoketucky on September 16 at 8:17 a.m.

  I don't know why this isn't left in the hands of the black market. I know, as a smoker of weed, that the quality has greatly increased in the past several decades while prices have remained relatively stable, as has availability, despite draconian prohibition measures. The last thing I want is the government and Big Pharm getting control of my stash. If history is any indicator, those days are not far down the road.

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