Initiative Shifts Drug Laws Permits Medical Use Of Illegal Drugs; Releases Inmates Serving Time For Possession

Voters will decide in November whether use of marijuana, LSD, heroin and other drugs should be allowed for medical purposes in Washington state.

Initiative 685 would also empty state prisons of approximately 500 offenders serving time for simple drug possession.

Future sentences for simple possession would be limited to treatment, education or community service. Prison would not be an option.

The exception would be drug offenders who commit a violent crime. They would become ineligible for parole.

Backers say the measure is a sensible way to retool the war on drugs, taking it out of the hands of politicians and putting it in the hands of physicians.

Opponents call the measure a menace that would reduce children’s wariness of drugs and lead to higher rates of illegal use.

“I would never legalize drugs,” said Rep. Mark Sterk, a Spokane Valley Republican. “I have watched what it does to people’s lives.”

Both sides agree on one thing: The measure is confusing.

It is tough on crime in one respect, but also sets some prisoners free. It allows legal use of drugs for medical purposes, but selling, growing or transporting the drugs would still be illegal.

Seriously ill or terminal patients would be required to obtain written recommendations from two physicians that proclaim use of marijuana, heroin, LSD or other so-called Schedule 1 drugs to treat their disease or relieve pain. The doctors also would have to base their recommendation on scientific evidence.

But patients would then be on their own to scrounge the drugs however they could. In California, where marijuana was legalized for medical use last year, buyers’ clubs have sprung up.

Patients are also allowed to grow their own weed in California, or to designate one other person to do it for them.

In Arizona, which legalized Schedule 1 drugs for medical use last year, doctors may legally prescribe the drugs. State lawmakers largely gutted the measure the following session. Backers of the original measure may petition the re-write to referendum.

The California initiative has already sparked a court battle with the federal government, which controls most drug policy.

Backers of the Washington initiative are frank about their hope to add momentum to a national political movement to change federal drug law.

One state at a time, they hope to put pressure on the feds.

So far nearly all of the $250,000 being spent to put I-685 on the ballot has come from a private Arizona school, the University of Phoenix, and an Ohio insurance executive.

“Once we put this on the ballot and that passes, we hope more states do it, and then the federal government will have to act. They ought to say let states do what they want with marijuana, period. Let the states experiment,” said Jeff Haley, a Bellevue patent attorney and chairman of a steering committee backing the initiative.

Robert Killian, a Tacoma physician, is also leading the charge for the initiative, which he said would finally make sense of Washington’s drug policy.

“We believe the war on drugs has to move from a criminal perspective to a public health model. Take these drugs out of the hands of politicians and put them in the hands of doctors,” Killian said.

“The war on drugs has been getting in the way of effective pain control, and research and treatment of addiction. We do not treat pain adequately in this country. This is an attempt to broaden our choices.”

Politicians will never legalize drug use for medical purposes, so it’s up to the people, Killian said.

“Politicians get a lot of points out of sound bites about being tough on drugs. They lose a lot of points for being soft on drugs. But this problem is much too tough to be dealt with on sound bites.”

For people like Martin Martinez of Seattle, much is at stake.

Martinez has been arrested twice for using marijuana to curb the pain he still suffers from a motorcycle accident 10 years ago. He goes on trial in September on possession charges with a potential sentence of up to 30 months.

Washington’s Supreme Court reaffirmed that medical use of marijuana is illegal just last month.

“It’s more illegal than ever,” said Martinez.

The initiative would help people like him, and doctors who recommend use of marijuana and other drugs, he said.

“But I-685 doesn’t protect production or distribution. It’s rather a big problem. But this is still a small step.”

About 200 Washington patients obtain marijuana for medical use through the Green Cross Patient Co-op, founded on Bainbridge Island. They do so without legal protection. Growers for the co-op are also at risk. Distributing drugs through clubs, the Internet, or other means would remain strictly illegal.

Opponents of the measure want to keep it that way. “They are billing this initiative as medical marijuana and get tough on crime. But they should call it the heroin initiative,” said Lt. Gov. Brad Owen.

“This thing is frightening,” said Owen, a Democrat. “It will decriminalize LSD, heroin and marijuana under the banner of compassionate care for the seriously ill.”

Even though a doctor’s recommendation would be required for legal use, reasons for that use are not spelled out in the initiative beyond treating disease or relieving pain. That’s too broad, Owen argued.

“People could use it for anything,” Owen predicted. “It’s any Schedule 1 drug, for any disease.”

Sterk’s frustration comes more with the release of low-level drug offenders.

“We are sending the wrong message, putting these people back out on the streets,” said Sterk, a city police sergeant running for Spokane County sheriff. “These are the people who are going to have the most influence on and contact with our kids.’

, DataTimes MEMO: Two sidebars appeared with the story: 1. WHAT I-685 DOES: Legalizes possession of illegal drugs by seriously ill patients with doctors’ recommendations. Creates fund for drug treatment and education. Ends possibility of parole for violent drug offenders. Releases people in state prisons serving time for simple drug possession. Limits future drug-possesion sentences to treatment, education or community service. Selling, growing, manufacturing or transporting the drugs would still be illegal. Affected drugs: all Schedule I substances, including heroin, LSD and marijuana. Source: I-685 Staff graphic

2. WEB SITE For a summary and the complete text of Initiative 685 go on-line to The Spokesman-Review’s Web site, Virtually Northwest, at www.virtuallynw.com

The following fields overflowed: BYLINE = Lynda V. Mapes Staff writer Staff writer Robin Rivers contributed to this report.