Violence Prompts Debate Over Medical Marijuana

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Violence Prompts Debate Over Medical Marijuana By WILLIAM YARDLEY

SEATTLE — A shooting and a beating death linked to medical marijuana have

prompted new calls by law enforcement officials and marijuana advocates for

Washington State to change how it regulates the drug and protects those who grow

and use it.

In the past week, a man in Orting, Wash., near Tacoma, died after he reportedly

was beaten while confronting people trying to steal marijuana plants from his

property. On Monday, a prominent medical-marijuana activist shot an armed man

who is accused of breaking into his home in a suburban area near Seattle where

he grows and distributes marijuana plants.

On Tuesday, the police arrested five people on robbery charges in connection

with the shooting incident. One of those arrested is in critical condition after

being shot by Steve Sarich, who runs a group called CannaCare out of his house.

Mr. Sarich suffered minor wounds from a shotgun blast fired by the intruder he

shot.

The crimes are the most violent that advocates and law enforcement officials

said they could recall involving medical marijuana in Washington. In both cases,

they said, the victims appear to have been chosen because they were known to

have relatively large amounts of marijuana in their homes. They say the crimes

underscore conflicts in state policy that have become evident since Washington

legalized medical marijuana in 1998.

" Any person making medical marijuana is going to be a target because they have a

valuable commodity, " Sgt. Urquhart of the King County Sheriff's Department

said in an interview on Tuesday.

Under state law, marijuana can be recommended for medical use by physicians but

the state does not play a formal role in regulating and distributing the drug.

While some states allow dispensaries or cafes, most medical marijuana in

Washington is distributed from private homes or small offices that are supposed

to grow or stock only a certain amount of the drug and serve only one patient at

a time.

Though the recent violence has drawn new attention to the issue, robberies have

become more common in Washington over the years. Marijuana advocates complain

that robberies are underreported because law enforcement officials focus more on

confiscating marijuana from the growers than on arresting the thieves. The

authorities, in turn, have noted that some growers are exceeding limits on how

much of the drug they can possess, and say the circumstances of some robberies

are murky.

Mr. Sarich did not respond to an interview request.

A few days before the shooting, Mr. Sarich wrote to State Senator Jeanne

Kohl-Welles, a Democrat from Seattle who has pushed to ease sanctions on

marijuana use, saying growers face dangers both of being robbed and of how they

will be treated by the police.

In an interview, Ms. Kohl-Welles said she and another lawmaker would introduce

legislation next year to protect access to medical marijuana and protect those

who grow it. Dan Satterberg, the King County prosecutor, also called for change.

" By forcing this production to remain underground, " Mr. Satterberg said, " you

increase the risk of violence for everybody and you disburse that violence to

residential neighborhoods and put everybody at risk. "

Some advocates for legalizing marijuana in general say that medical growers hurt

their efforts by not working within legal limits and by not building a

relationship with the police. They say making marijuana legal for the general

population would reduce crime against those who use it for medical reasons.

Even before he was robbed on Monday, Mr. Sarich had complained that the police

were not doing enough to protect him, including after what he said was a robbery

attempt in January. He told The Seattle Times on Monday that he and his

girlfriend were authorized to have up to 50 plants each and had less than 100

plants in the house they shared.

Sergeant Urquhart said that there was " nothing to investigate " in January

because Mr. Sarich had provided little information. Mr. Urquhart also said

investigators had found 385 plants in Mr. Sarich's house after the shooting on

Monday.

" He had baked goods with marijuana in them, frozen goods with marijuana in them,

chocolate goods with marijuana in them, " Mr. Urquhart said. " He had green

butter, which we believe is laced with marijuana. As we interpret state law, he

was not in compliance. "

Law enforcement officers, he said, confiscated " everything over and above what

the prosecutor believes is legal. "

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/17/us/17marijuana.html