Questions cloud (WA State) medical-pot law | SeattleTimes

[Ediacara]

Monday, January 19, 2004 - Page updated at 12:03 A.M.

Questions cloud medical-pot law

By Carol M. Ostrom
Seattle Times staff reporter


Monica Ginn, a 53-year-old Olympia woman, believed she had her doctor's blessing to legally use marijuana to relieve chronic back pain.

But last week, a Thurston County judge barred her from presenting a jury with evidence that she qualified under the medical-marijuana law passed by voters in 1998.

She went to trial essentially without a defense and was convicted of possession and distribution of marijuana. Now, she faces up to five years in prison.

The case is the latest in a string of arrests, pending prosecutions and convictions of patients who claim to be legally qualified to use marijuana as medicine under Washington's law.

For lawyers who defend these patients, the sentence facing Ginn has pushed them over the edge. They insist the law must be clarified and have begun work on a petition for direct review, asking the Washington State Supreme Court to end the confusion.

More at the Seattle Times