Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, D-Seattle, today voted against Senate Bill 5052, medical marijuana legislation that she says doesn’t go far enough to reform the broken unregulated medical marijuana market.

“My priorities this session are to ensure access to a safe, reliable, adequate source of marijuana for qualifying patients who require marijuana for their medical condition” said Kohl-Welles, “as well as to provide regulation to an unregulated medical marijuana industry. Unfortunately, with the passage of this legislation, all patients have to look forward to is a bureaucratic, invasive and complex patient registry system.

“Patient privacy is especially at risk with the creation of a registry. Unlike prescription medications, the possession and growing of marijuana remains a federal crime. Being on a published list leaves patients vulnerable to investigation by federal agencies.”

Kohl-Welles is one of Washington state’s leading voices on the legalization of medical marijuana. This session, Kohl-Welles sponsored SB 5519, also known as the Comprehensive Marijuana Reform Act. Under her proposal, the currently unregulated medical marijuana system and that of the regulated recreational marijuana system would be unified to eliminate complex gray areas and dangerous illicit markets.

“The illicit market has mushroomed out of control and the medical market has not been consistent with the collective gardens statute created in my Senate Bill 5073, which was passed in 2011 and mostly vetoed by Gov. Gregoire,” said Kohl-Welles. “The result of those vetoes is the confusing and ineffective situation we have today.”

Under Kohl-Welles’ proposal, anyone 21 years or older would be able to grow up to six marijuana plants per domicile. In addition, marijuana typically used by patients, High CBD/Low THC, would be sold at any store tax free. Patients who require high THC for their medical treatment would be able to apply for a waiver from the Department of Health so they could purchase it tax free. In principal, this formula completely removes the need for a patient registry.

“My bill is truly patient focused,” said Kohl-Welles, “Sharing up to one ounce with a friend or family member is permitted as long as there is no monetary exchange. This guarantees that patients can still get marijuana when they need, especially if six plants meet their medical needs.”

Kohl-Welles offered amendments on the floor that would have added much of her proposed legislation to SB 5052. All of them were rejected. However, her amendment to remove the requirement of a registry was only narrowly defeated.

“We need to take a holistic and multi-faceted approach to this problem. We have to make comprehensive improvements to the system created by I-502 and we need to ensure that patients have access to affordable marijuana that best meets their medical needs,” said Kohl-Welles. “It is puzzling to me that this bipartisan issue has yet to receive a thorough bipartisan discussion. Since the first day of session, I have invited members from both sides of the aisle to join me to create a bill that combines the best of all of our proposals. Sadly, my offer has not been accepted.”