Amid State Flip-Flopping, Judge to Call Medical Marijuana Case

Amid State Flip-Flopping, Judge to Call Medical Marijuana Case : Top Stories : Kitsap Sun
While state Department of Health officials continue to contemplate just what a 60-day supply for medical marijuana patients should be, attorneys in a case brought against a Bremerton man argued over that question as well.

Robert R. Dalton’s pot crop on Sand Dollar Road was deemed too big under the law by detectives with the West Sound Narcotics Enforcement Team last August. The 61-year-old’s property was raided and he was charged with manufacturing marijuana. But his lawyers contend that Dalton was growing within the limits allowed in a 60-day supply.

Deputy prosecutor Coreen Schnepf said in the trial’s closing arguments Thursday that Dalton had violated the medical marijuana law because she said he’d made remarks to WestNET detectives that he’d supply it to others. She cited a specific passage of the law that states marijuana as medicine must be for the “exclusive benefit of a qualifying patient.”

But one of Dalton’s attorneys, Douglas Hiatt, argued that under state law, Dalton can become a “primary provider” and distribute pot to other card-carrying patients.

The case will be decided without a jury by Kitsap County Superior Court Judge Anna M. Laurie on Sept. 19.

Dalton’s case comes at a time when the state Department of Health, mandated by the Legislature, is working to define just what a 60-day supply is. Earlier this year, health officials were set to recommend 35 ounces of dried pot and a 100-square-foot growing space as the limit. But Gov. Chris Gregoire said that was too much and asked the health department for a second opinion.

They countered with a maximum of 24 ounces and up to six mature plants and 18 immature plants — currently Oregon’s law — which irked medical marijuana advocates at a health department meeting in August.

How much do ten dogs weigh?

That was a question posed by Dan Monnat at the Aspen Legal Seminar this last April.  it highlights the medical marijuana laws that create an absurd distinction between patients who can use a legal herb and criminals who can be imprisoned for an illegal drug.  Such absurd distinctions force states to come up with plant and possession limits, such as Oregon’s limit of six mature plants, to separate the “medicine” from the “drugs”.

How much medicine do six plants produce?

Depends on how good a grower, what strain, indoor/outdoor, hydro/soil, mites/fungus/mold, etc.  I know a grower here who regularly produces 16 ounces per plant.  I know another who can barely get three.  So, just like you can’t know how much ten dogs weigh without knowing if they’re chihuahuas or bull mastiffs, you can’t know how much medicine six plants will produce.

Worse, though, is Washington’s “60-day supply”.  Now you have the undefinable “how much medicine does a plant produce” crossed with the undefinable “how much medicine is 60-day’s supply”.  You might as well ask “how much dog food do you need to feed ten dogs for sixty days?”