Legal marijuana is an all-cash business, because banks and credit card companies won’t service the industry, even in states where it’s legal.

In response, when pot businesses deal with banks, it’s usually in disguise. That’s just one byproduct of the nation’s mismatched drug laws. Washington State has long allowed for medical marijuana, and it legalized pot for recreational use last year. But financial institutions still face intense pressure from federal authorities, because pot is illegal under the nation’s Controlled Substances Act. Banks that deal with cannabis businesses open themselves up to accusations of money laundering, so they avoid it altogether.

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Protest in CA against medical marijuana raids (photo courtesy ASA)

by Phillip Smith, February 20, 2008, 11:00pm, (Issue #524)

In a position paper, a leading American medical association has endorsed the medicinal use of marijuana, called for more studies of its medical uses, and urged the US government to get out of the way. The position paper from the American College of Physicians was released last Friday after being approved by the group’s governing body.

The American College of Physicians (ACP) is the nation’s second largest doctors’ organization, behind only the American Medical Association. It is made up of some 124,000 internal medicine specialists dealing primarily with adults.

The college pointed to strong evidence that marijuana has proven useful in treating AIDS wasting syndrome, glaucoma, and the nausea and vomiting associated with cancer chemotherapy treatments. The college also noted that there is anecdotal evidence for many other medical uses of marijuana, but that research had been stymied by “a complicated federal approval process, limited availability of research grade marijuana, and the debate over legalization.” The science of medical marijuana should not be “hindered or obscured” by the controversy over legalizing the plant for personal, non-medical use, the group said.

“This is a historic statement by one of the world’s most respected physician groups, and shows the growing scientific consensus that marijuana is a safe, effective medicine for some patients, including many battling life-threatening illnesses like cancer and AIDS,” said former US Surgeon General Dr. Joycelyn Elders in a press release from the Marijuana Policy Project. “Large medical associations move cautiously, and for the American College of Physicians to note ‘a clear discord’ between scientific opinion and government policy on medical marijuana is a stinging rebuke to our government. It’s time for politicians and bureaucrats to get out of the way of good medicine and solid research.”

“This statement by the American College of Physicians recognizes what clinicians and researchers have been seeing for years, that for some patients medical marijuana works when conventional drugs fail,” said Dr. Michael Saag, director of the Center for AIDS Research at the University of Alabama-Birmingham. “One of the challenges in HIV/AIDS treatment is helping patients to adhere to drug regimens that may cause nausea and other noxious side effects. The relief of these side effects that marijuana provides can help patients stay on life-extending therapies.”

“This statement by America’s second largest doctors’ group demolishes the myth that the medical community doesn’t support medical marijuana,” said Marijuana Policy Project executive director Rob Kampia. “The ACP’s statement smashes a number of other myths, including the claims that adequate substitutes are available or that marijuana is unsafe for medical use. 124,000 doctors have just said what our government refuses to hear, that it makes no medical or moral sense to arrest the sick and suffering for using medical marijuana.”

While the ACP position paper consists of 13 closely reasoned pages, the group summarizes its medical marijuana positions thusly:

Position 1: ACP supports programs and funding for rigorous scientific evaluation of the potential therapeutic benefits of medical marijuana and the publication of such findings.

Position 1a: ACP supports increased research for conditions where the efficacy of marijuana has been established to determine optimal dosage and route of delivery.

Position 1b: Medical marijuana research should not only focus on determining drug efficacy and safety but also on determining efficacy in comparison with other available treatments.

Position 2: ACP encourages the use of non-smoked forms of THC that have proven therapeutic value.

Position 3: ACP supports the current process for obtaining federal research-grade cannabis.

Position 4: ACP urges review of marijuana’s status as a schedule I controlled substance and its reclassification into a more appropriate schedule, given the scientific evidence regarding marijuana’s safety and efficacy in some clinical conditions.

Position 5: ACP strongly supports exemption from federal criminal prosecution; civil liability; or professional sanctioning, such as loss of licensure or credentialing, for physicians who prescribe or dispense medical marijuana in accordance with state law.

Similarly, ACP strongly urges protection from criminal or civil penalties for patients who use medical marijuana as permitted under state laws.

“The richness of modern medicine is to carefully evaluate new treatments. Marijuana has been in a special category because of, I suppose, its abuses and other concerns,” Dr. David Dale, the group’s president and a University of Washington professor of medicine, told Reuters in a phone interview.

An uncharacteristically terse David Murray, chief scientist for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, could only appeal to science in an interview with Reuters. “The science should be kept open. There should be more research. We should continue to investigate,” he said.

Dale Gieringer, executive director of California NORML had a few nits to pick with the ACP’s statement, but approved overall. “This is an important step,” he said. “But when they say they support the existing federal supply system, it suggests they are unaware of all the systematic blockage of independent research caused by the NIDA monopoly and DEA interference.”

Similarly, said Gieringer, while government licensing and regulation of medical marijuana makes sense, that doesn’t mean we have to maintain the existing NIDA monopoly. “It just doesn’t make sense to do that,” he said.

Where Gieringer was pleasantly surprised was with the ACP’s call to end the criminal persecution of medical marijuana patients, providers, and doctors. “They came out really forcefully against criminalization,” he noted. “That’s very impressive. No one else has been willing to address that. All of these apologists for the government run around saying you can’t have unregulated medical marijuana, but that doesn’t mean you need to throw patients and doctors in jail.”

The medical community’s embrace of medical marijuana has been timid and hesitant, with a number of important organizations, including the American Medical Association, lagging behind. This policy statement by the nation’s second largest medical association should give that process an important boost.

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FILE – In this Nov. 7, 2012 file photo, Jake Dimmock, co-owner of the Northwest Patient Resource Center medical marijuana dispensary, works with flowering plants in a grow room in Seattle. Congressional lawmakers from both parties are working to change U.S. marijuana laws, including altering tax codes to let marijuana dispensaries deduct business expenses on federal taxes, and changing banking laws to make it easier for marijuana-related businesses to get bank accounts. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)

By GENE JOHNSON

— Feb. 4 4:26 PM EST

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Originally published January 30, 2013 at 4:21 PM | Page modified January 30, 2013 at 4:21 PM

Washington needs creative thinking and bold leadership to ease access to banking for a legal marijuana market.

Seattle Times Editorial

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In a storage area at the Herbal Connection Club, owner Paul Lugo stores a few marijuana plants for some of his growers. Lugo doesn’t produce any at his shop.

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2013/feb/10/marijuanas-hazy-future/

Thomas Clouse The Spokesman-Review

Among the antique stores and other shops of Spokane’s historic Garland District is a door painted with a happy snowman. Inside, the merchant is peddling medical marijuana while harboring hopes of soon expanding into the recreational market and cashing in on what many are calling the next great economic frontier.

The Herbal Connection quietly sells marijuana to card-carrying medicinal customers, as do nearly a dozen other medicinal pot shops currently operating in the Spokane area. The commerce continues despite raids and warnings in 2011 by federal agents that closed more than 40 medical marijuana dispensaries across Spokane.

Now, however, the merchants are openly preparing for a market that soon will include more than just medicinal use.

Emboldened by the voter-approved Initiative 502, which allows Washington residents 21 and older to possess an ounce or less of marijuana for recreational use, the new batch of pot entrepreneurs are hoping that federal agents will finally back off and respect the state’s decision to legalize pot even though Congress still considers it illegal.

“The last time, it got really big really fast,” Herbal Connection owner Paul Lugo said of the medical marijuana dispensary industry before the 2011 raids. “If one guy comes in and screws it up, the feds will be back here. But if you keep it low-key, say one shop per ZIP code, that would be more than enough space for everybody.”

Lugo said he chose the Garland location among the row of shops to comply with restrictions put in place by I-502 that prevent marijuana sales within 1,000 feet of schools, playgrounds or parks. The state is trying to figure out how to regulate the legal production and sale of marijuana and must have a system in place by Dec. 1.

Lugo and his colleagues are trying to navigate the ocean of unanswered questions surrounding Washington’s pioneering foray into marijuana legalization. The latest effort to bring clarity comes Tuesday as the state Liquor Control Board holds a forum at Spokane City Hall to gather information from the industry that largely has been forced to remain underground.

“The state has never had to go to the people they didn’t want to talk to before,” said Jen Lorz, co-owner of Northside Alternative Wellness Center. “It’s just one step in the beginning of many steps forward.”

However, those steps may be halted depending on the reaction of the U.S. Department of Justice.

“We are just waiting for the Justice Department to make a decision on how we are going to proceed,” said U.S. Attorney Mike Ormsby, the top federal prosecutor in Eastern Washington.

Ormsby ordered the 2011 raids that shut down numerous marijuana dispensaries and sent letters to commercial landlords advising they risk losing their property if they rent to dispensary operations.

Several defense attorneys who work with marijuana legalization advocates say they would advise against openly operating marijuana dispensaries at this point.

“If Mike Ormsby hasn’t changed his mind, they are in peril,” said Seattle attorney Doug Hiatt. “Until the Justice Department gives more reliable direction to the U.S. attorneys, I think it’s a bad mistake for anybody” to operate a medical marijuana dispensary in Spokane.

Jenny Durkan, the U.S. attorney for all of Washington west of the Cascades, has allowed medical marijuana dispensaries that follow state law to continue to operate. But those same businesses have been raided in Walla Walla, Spokane, Stevens and Whitman counties, Hiatt said.

“The law should be the same in Spokane as it is in Seattle. But it isn’t being enforced in the same way,” Hiatt said. “I don’t think there is a state, to my knowledge, where you have such a stark contrast. It really is an issue that should be straightened out so that people aren’t misled into thinking they are safe when they are not.”

Local attorneys Doug Phelps and Frank Cikutovich both said their phones have lit up with calls from potential clients who want to get in on what they believe are huge profits to be made under the state-operated stores outlined in the voter-approved I-502.

“I’ve met with no less than five clients a week since 502 passed,” Cikutovich said. “They are hoping to be the first. They are all interested in taking advantage of it. I have to explain … however, the federal government may say no, and there is no answer to that.”

A similar legal quandary occurred in 1998 when Washington passed a law allowing medical marijuana.

Cikutovich, whose clientele includes many people prosecuted for marijuana violations, said he thought he’d be “out of business” after the law went into effect.

“But it created more business than you can imagine because it confused everybody,” he said. Marijuana purveyors “are not intending to break the law. They just want to know what the rules are.”

For her part, Lorz, who operates the medical marijuana business on North Market Street, said she hopes federal agents recognize how well the existing businesses follow state law.

“Now with 502 … hopefully we’ll have a little leeway for our patients,” she said. “It is wanted by the people of this state. We are willing to be here because we feel so strongly about it.”

Unlike others, Lorz said she and her business partners are not looking to expand into commercial sales regulated by the Liquor Control Board. She said she is meeting soon with the Spokane City Council in an effort to get support for capping the number of medical marijuana dispensaries.

“It shouldn’t get out of control again. We don’t want them like Starbucks,” she said.

Both Lorz and Lugo have businesses with professional-looking waiting rooms. Patients can watch a flat-screen television and help themselves to free coffee.

“We are good partners for the community,” Lorz said.

Green, owner of Pacific Northwest Medical, set up shop in a two-story steel building on Houston Avenue, just to the northwest of the intersection of Frances Avenue and Nevada Street. The business sign is a banner hooked to a chain-link fence across the street from another building wallpapered with gang graffiti.

Green, 31, who once worked as a real estate appraiser out of the basement of his home, opened a dispensary in Shoreline, Wash., two years ago. He’s now opened a similar business in Spokane.

Green said he plans to attend the Liquor Control Board’s forum on Tuesday. He has either attended or will attend every one of the forums throughout the state.

“At this point, I wouldn’t consider running a place that is not 502-compliant,” he said. “I-502 is what we are moving toward.”

Lorz said the voters of Washington have shown that it’s time to shed many of the stereotypes of the typical stoners and recognize that a new time has come.

“There needs to be room for both” medical and recreational sales, she said. “I’m glad I’m living in this time to see it.”

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A United Food and Commercial Workers union (UFCW) Local 770 Union Shop sticker is pictured in the window at the Venice Beach Care Center in Los Angeles, California February 6, 2013.

(Reuters) – The medical marijuana shop next to a tattoo parlor on a busy street in Los Angeles looks much like hundreds of other pot dispensaries that dot the city.

Except for one thing: On the glass door – under a green cross signaling that cannabis can be bought there for medical purposes – is a sticker for the United Food and Commercial Workers union (UFCW), the nation’s largest retail union.

The dispensary, the Venice Beach Care Center, is one of three medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles that are staffed by dues-paying union members. Another 49 in the city plan to enter into labor agreements with the UFCW, the union says.

Together, the dispensaries are a symbol of the growing bond between the nascent medical marijuana industry and struggling labor unions.

During the last few years, unions, led by the UFCW, have played an increasingly significant role in campaigns to allow medical marijuana, now legal in California, 17 other states and Washington, D.C.

In the November elections, UFCW operatives also helped get-out-the-vote efforts in Colorado, where voters approved a measure that made possession of one ounce (28.3 grams) or less of the drug legal for anyone 21 and older. Washington state approved a similar measure and both states require regulation of marijuana growers, processors and retailers.

Union officials acknowledge that their support stems partly from the idea that the marijuana industry could create hundreds of thousands of members at a time when overall union membership is shrinking.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported last month that union members – who accounted for 11.8 percent of the workforce in 2011 – now make up about 11.3 percent of all American workers, the lowest percentage in nearly a century.

Retail unions such as the UFCW are fighting the rise of part-time workers and a steady drop in real wages over the last two generations. Organized labor also has been under pressure from Republican governors such as Wisconsin’s Scott Walker, who led an effort to curb collective bargaining rights for public workers in that state.

Union officials say there are now 3,000 UFCW members who work in the cannabis industry, a tiny fraction of the union’s 1.3 million members.

Industry advocates acknowledge that the legal marijuana industry’s potential to produce jobs is difficult to project. One reason: uncertainty over how the U.S. government will deal with an industry whose product is illegal under federal law but increasingly accepted by state laws.

Since Colorado and Washington state voted to legalize marijuana on November 6, President Barack Obama has said his administration will not pursue recreational pot users in those states.

However, the president has not said whether the U.S. government will allow widespread sales of the drug that would be legal under some state laws but not federal law.

PLANNING FOR A BOOM

Despite such uncertainty, the marijuana industry’s growth potential intrigues unions and retailers, among others.

An analysis by Sea Change Strategies, a research firm for non-profit organizations, estimated that the medical marijuana market could grow to $8.9 billion by 2016.

A study by Washington state’s Office of Financial Management said legalization could result in $1 billion in sales per year in the state, which is home to about 2 percent of the U.S. population.

For people like Dan Rush, who leads the UFCW’s cannabis division, the numbers hint at big things to come for the marijuana industry.

“Since Election Day, we’ve had a rush to join the union” in states where marijuana is sold legally, said Rush, who has become a key player in the union’s efforts to promote the legal use of the drug. “I can’t keep up,” he said. “That’s a direct result of the best poll in the world being Election Day.”

Rush said that if the industry expands, as he and others hope, it would support jobs across the country, from growers to truck drivers to carpenters to retail clerks.

The scale of the business could rival that of a major U.S. crop or the alcohol industry, according to UFCW officials who estimate that 100,000 workers could be added to their union in California alone.

By joining a union, marijuana workers could have more sway in pressing for higher pay and benefits such as healthcare.

Unlike business owners in other industries who typically view unions warily, some legal marijuana retailers welcome the prospect of a unionized workforce – for now, at least.

Marijuana retailers have invited the UFCW into their shops. They think the union could give legitimacy to their business and support against competitors who, the retailers say, undercut the industry’s standing by operating outside the law.

“It’s the difference between being – I hate to use the term – but a street dealer and being a legitimate business operator,” said Brennan Thicke, 38, one of the founders of the Venice Beach Care Center.

RESISTANCE IN COLORADO

Other marijuana business owners aren’t as enthusiastic about unions being involved with their enterprises.

Perhaps the toughest staging ground for the UFCW’s marijuana efforts has been Colorado, where an individualistic spirit guides many of those who have tried to get a toehold in the medical marijuana business.

The retailers there say they are conflicted – grateful for the legitimacy that labor’s involvement could bring their businesses, but worried that the support could undermine the already shaky financial footing of their small operations.

One marijuana business owner in Denver said he considered aligning with the UFCW but eventually backed away. He said he was worried that having a union shop would hurt the value of his business by driving up employment costs.

“Colorado isn’t a big union state anyway,” said the owner, who asked not to be identified. “I was surprised that they put so much focus and money in here in the first place.”

‘IT WAS A STRUGGLE’

The UFCW’s Rush, a thick-shouldered 52-year-old with a laugh turned to gravel by Lucky Strike cigarettes, is based in Oakland.

The city became a major hub for medical marijuana after California became the first state to allow marijuana for medical treatment 17 years ago. Marijuana is prescribed as a pain reliever for a range of maladies.

Cannabis businesses, Rush said, have helped to revitalize the downtown and have put millions of dollars in tax revenue into Oakland’s coffers.

He recalled that when the union was deciding in 2009 whether to get involved with the legal marijuana industry, not everyone in the leadership was sold.

“It was a struggle,” Rush said. “Folks were not ready to hear it.”

Eventually, he helped to persuade enough labor leaders that the same union that organized Hostess bakery workers could represent people who made pot brownies.

“Whether it was semolina or cannabis, this happens to be where our industry is growing,” said UFCW spokesperson Dawn Le.

A major goal of the union’s marijuana effort involves Obama – who enjoyed broad union support in winning re-election in November – to stop federal crackdowns on pot dispensaries that are legal under state laws.

Last year, federal authorities in California targeted more than 200 medical marijuana businesses, including the first in the country to unionize, in a show of force that highlighted the gulf between federal and state marijuana laws.

Union leaders say they aim to help businesses navigate the difficult legal climate and pressure lawmakers for change.

In Los Angeles, UFCW Local 770 is pushing a ballot measure that would set zoning and safety standards for medical pot dispensaries. For years, police and residents have complained about the impact that less-than-reputable medical marijuana dispensaries have on some neighborhoods.

Dispensary workers and owners who have aligned themselves with the union say that some competitors undermine prices and security by flouting labor laws and avoiding taxes.

“I feel safer with the union around,” said Ayrn Taylor, 23, an employee at the Venice Beach Care Center.

UFCW gathered enough signatures for a local ballot measure in May that would limit the number of dispensaries in Los Angeles to fewer than 130.

The 50-plus dispensaries with union ties would be allowed to stay in business, said Rigo Valdez, an organizing director with UFCW. One city councilman estimates there may be as many as 900 dispensaries now open in Los Angeles.

If the union-backed initiative is successful, it would put most of those dispensaries out of business – and could make the UFCW a dominant player in one of the nation’s most important markets for legal marijuana sales.

(Jacobs reported from Washington; Dobuzinskis from Los Angeles; Editing by David Lindsey, Christopher Wilson and Eric Walsh)

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http://www.komonews.com/news/local/Moldy-marijuana-makes-Seattle-man-sick-190331991.html?tab=video&c=y

By Matt Markovich Published: Feb 7, 2013 at 11:25 PM PST Last Updated: Feb 8, 2013 at 6:44 PM PST

SEATTLE — Everything about medical marijuana is based on trust.

Michael Van Ditto had been a card carrying medical marijuana smoker for years. It gave him respite from his the emotional pain he was suffering after his son died in a tragic plane accident.

“I started smoking it when I became depressed and it helped me tremendously,” Van Ditto said from his north Seattle apartment.

But nearly a year ago, he said he stopped smoking his comfort weed after becoming very sick.

“I’ve never been so sick in my life,” he said. “I had total weakness, inflamed lungs, total disorientation and I could only get out of bed for an hour or two for almost 12 weeks.”

He suspected his sickness was brought on by fungus that may have been in the marijuana he bought from the North Seattle Medical Collective, a new dispensary he had started to use.

“I only became ill when I started shopping at this particular marijuana medical shop,” Van Ditto said.

He said his doctor couldn’t identify his illness, but his symptoms where akin to fungal pneumonia. For people with compromised immune systems, fungus in pot could can lead to a deadly infection call Aspirgoelosis, a condition where the fungus begins growing in a person’s lungs.

Van Ditto considered the medial pot he bought a health hazard and wanted it tested by authorities. But he quickly realized a predicament facing all medical marijuana users: There’s no public agency he could turn to for help because he allegedly got sick using an illegal drug.

Van Ditto asked for help from the KOMO Problem Solvers.

Since he no longer had the marijuana that he believes got him sick, he went back to North Seattle Medical Collective to buy some more for testing.

In a December visit, Van Ditto bought a small amount of marijuana called Grand Daddy Haze. He let the attendant at the Collective make the suggestion on what to buy and Van Ditto bought it.

The Problem Solvers asked the Washington state Department of Health if it tests marijuana. The Department of Health is charged with protecting state residents from health hazards.

“The Department of Health has no authority to inspect or check quality of marijuana,” said Donn Moyer, the spokesman for the department.

The Problem Solvers went to the Washington State Liquor Control Board, the agency that will be overseeing the rule making for Washington’s new recreation use of marijuana. Language in Initiative 502, which decriminalized the possession of one ounce or less of a marijuana, provides some form of consumer safety and protection from bad pot.

“We are supposed to set quality standards, making sure consumer safety is involved in this,” said Pat Kohler, administrative director for the WSLCB.

But Kohler admits there’s no protections the state can offer for medical marijuana users, many whom are sick and may need the medicinal effects of marijuana the most.

“The state has no responsibility in the regulatory functions of medical marijuana and initiative 502 doesn’t impact medical marijuana either,” Kohler said.

“It’s sending a wrong message to people,” said Douglas Hiatt, an attorney representing users and growers of marijuana.

He blames the mixed messages on conflicting and poorly-written laws. He said marijuana is flat-out illegal in the eyes of the federal government, and because of that the state won’t get involved in pot testing.

“You’re subjecting state employees to federal criminal law,” Hiatt said.

Concerned marijuana users are leaving it up to a growing industry of private laboratories like Analytical360 in Seattle’s Wallingford neighborhood to perform quality testing on pot.

“There is an issue of things being tainted,” said Randy Oliver, Chief Scientist for Analytical360. “You can’t tell what it is by smelling it, by tasting it. You have to have a chemical analysis done.”

John Brown, the Chief Technical Officer for the lab, said Van Ditto’s marijuana exceeded the acceptable range of fungus for therapeutic marijuana, but was in the acceptable range for recreational standards. The results suggest that sick people with compromised immune systems should not be smoking it.

In January, Van Ditto went back to the Collective and bought another sample for testing. This time the attendant suggested a strain called A-Train. Analytical360 performed the same series of microbial tests as they did on the Grand Daddy Haze.

Once again, the lab says the results shows fungus at levels above the acceptable range for therapeutic marijuana, but at lower levels than the Grand Daddy Haze.

The Problem Solvers email links to Analytical360′s results the collective. The lab has a full transparency policy. All of its test results are posted on its website so marijuana users can see the quality of product circulating the market.

“We inspect all the product, it seemed ok to us and we smoked it. Obviously, we try everything” says Lisa Dank, spokeswoman for North Seattle Medical Collective.

Dank said all of the product the collective sees from its growers undergo testing for fungus and mold using a ultra violet light.

“If there’s anything that’s moldy it would show up green,” she said.

But after viewing the results online of Analytical360′s testing, Dank said the collective has pulled Grand Daddy Haze and A-Train from its product line.

“It’s no longer available and growers have been alerted,” she said. “It’s not acceptable”.

Dank defends the product the collective sells as being the highest quality available. She said customers who have compromised immune systems should not be smoking anything at all, let alone marijuana.

She said buying marijuana is like buying fresh blueberries from a farmers market.

“You going to find a few bad berries because that’s what happens with plants. Marijuana is the same way,” she said.

Van Ditto never told the Collective he believe the marijuana he bought from it got him sick.

“We operating on certain level of trust with the patient,” Dank said. “If there’s something wrong or they are experiencing a negative side effect, they come and tell us”.

Because of the test results done by the Problem Solvers, Dank said the collective will now offer full microbial testing on all of its fresh products.

“Trust is what our business is about,” Dank said.

Van Ditto said he’s not going to smoke marijuana anymore, at least not until there’s a quality control system in place that he trusts.

“I don’t want to take the chance of getting deathly ill again,” he said.

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