Stand up for Your Rights! Yakima Stakeholders Meeting on Tues, 5pm

Posted by 21pc on October 28, 2013

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ASA, along with our Washington Chapter and campaign partners, will be hosting a public stakeholder meeting on Tuesday, October 29 in Yakima. The goal of the meeting is to build a consensus about what patients want to see in the recommendations for implementing I-502. We need a united community to move forward with patient rights protected.

Tuesday, Oct 29, 5:00-7:00 pm
Selah Branch, Yakima Public Library
106 South Second Street
Selah, WA 98942
RSVP on the Facebook Event Page

The future of medical cannabis in Washington State has been uncertain since 2011, when then-Governor Gregoire used her line item veto to strike an ID card system and dispensing center program from SB 5073. Access points have had to conform to a collective model to provide medicine to patients, which is tolerated in some but not all areas of the state. To make the situation even tenser, the DEA continues to raid operators, and Washington’s US Attorneys continue to prosecute patients. Now the medical cannabis community is facing an even more uncertain future, as the state considers recommendations that would effectively eliminate the existing medical cannabis program.

The Liquor Control Board has been tasked with submitting their final recommendation about the future of medical cannabis on January 1, 2014 to the legislature. On October 21, the working group issued initial recommendations that take a very punitive approach to Washington's medical cannabis program.IMG_6225.jpeg

Among the work group’s proposed changes:

  • Ban all personal cultivation and collective gardens
  • Lower possession limit from 24 ounces to 3 ounces
  • Eliminate the affirmative defense for proving medical necessity above possession limits
  • Void all current doctors’ recommendations and require new evaluations under harder-to-meet definitions of qualifying conditions
  • Restrict medical professionals to eliminate specialty cannabis practices and make recommendations equivalent to prescribing opiates
  • Require patients to register with the state and give law enforcement access to registry
  • Eliminate petitioning to add conditions.

Please come to this important meeting to make your voice heard and find out how you can make a difference for patients' rights.

Click here to check out our Health Before Happy Hour Campaign and sign our petition to Gov. Inslee.