Wash.: Urge your senator to send SB 5073 to Gov. Gregoire

Published: April 18, 2011

Last week, after Washington’s U.S. Attorneys told Governor Chris Gregoire the federal government could go after state-regulated providers if she signs SB 5073 into law, Gov. Gregoire announced that she would not sign a bill that would rein in unregulated and legally suspect medical marijuana dispensaries by explicitly allowing for dispensaries under specific guidelines. Please email your senator today, and ask her or him to stand up for Washingtonians by sending this bill to the governor’s desk, despite her statement that she cannot sign the bill.

The Obama administration has made it clear: the Justice Department should not prosecute individuals who are in "clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state laws." In jurisdictions with medical marijuana laws that clearly allow for regulated medical marijuana dispensaries – Colorado, New Mexico, Maine, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Arizona, and Washington, D.C. – the federal government has neither cracked down on dispensaries, nor have they threatened to do so. Why should Washington be any different? Ask your senator to send Gov. Gregoire SB 5073, a bill that would clearly allow for regulated medical marijuana dispensaries.