Call to action: Peaceful Protest at Tacoma City Hall

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This weekend, a legal shot was fired from the City of Tacoma at the heart of the emerging medical marijuana cooperatives. Friday, Tacoma cooperatives operating in the open were just issued letters ordering them to cease dispensing marijuana by October 24 or face fines and criminal charges!

If this goes unchallenged, Tacoma medical patients will be forced back to the black market to get their medicine and years of progress will be lost. We need your help quickly.

Weâ??re calling on everyone, and we mean â??everyoneâ?�, to gather your friends and family and come join us for a â??fight for our rightsâ?� protest at the next Tacoma City Hall meeting on Tuesday at 4:30 PM. We need hundreds of people to come and say no to the City of Tacoma.

We will show up with as many people as possible to let the city know that itâ??s immoral and dangerous to the health of Tacoma patients to close down cooperative storefronts.

Please forward this email far and wide and help us recruit â??everyoneâ?� to show up Tuesday night at 4:30. Can we circle the building with peaceful protesters? â?? Only if you get on your email and get on your phone and start recruiting. Tacoma patients really need your urgent help.

Download printable â??Call to Actionâ?� flyers for the Peaceful Protest at Tacoma City Hall.

If this move by the city stands, other cities across the state may take similar actions. We have to effectively fight this right here and now. Tacomaâ??s order to cooperatives is a threat to the medical marijuana community statewide.

What: Peaceful protest at Tacoma City Hall

When: Tuesday, October 19 4:30 â?? 7:00 PM

Where: Tacoma City Hall, 747 Market Street, Tacoma

Feel free to call our central phone line at 206-774-0725 or email [email protected] if you have questions or to let us know you are coming and how many people you are bringing.

Thank you all for your great work and weâ??ll see you Tuesday in Tacoma.

In solidarity,
Ezra Eickmeyer
Interim Campaign Coordinator
Sensible Washington

I guess these council members aren't running for election? I'll be there in spirit, its time this cannabis war came to an end for medical patients and responsible adults alike. :twocents:

I'll be there. I hope many, many others of you will be, too!

Also, if you're on Facebook, the Sensible Washington has created a FB event that you can confirm your attendence at the meeting with, so we can get an idea of how many people might be coming:

Urgent, Call to action, Tacoma to shut down patient cooperatives | Facebook

Please, spread the word and let *anybody* you know who might be concerned about safe access to MMJ in Pierce County and Tacoma know about what's going on! Use the PDF attached to this message, print, make copies, and hand them out.

I am coming from Bellingham we must band together and show these idiots we will not stand for this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Video at KIRO site.

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Tacoma Tells Co-Ops To Stop Dispensing Medical Marijuana
TACOMA, Wash. -- The city of Tacoma has told eight co-ops to stop dispensing medical marijuana, based on the cityâ??s interpretation of state law, KIRO 7 Eyewitness News has learned.

The cityâ??s claim, detailed in a letter sent out to the co-ops last week, is that the co-ops are acting illegally by dispensing marijuana to more than one person. The city claims that under state law, a designated provider of medical marijuana can only help one patient at any one time.

"â?¦In these businesses, thatâ??s not the case; itâ??s a business supplying it to many patients," said Rob McNair-Huff a city spokesman.

But Jay Berneburg, a lawyer for The C.O.B.R.A. Medical Group, one of the co-ops targeted by the city, has disputed that claim and said the co-op is complying with both the letter and the intent of the law.

Every patient who comes in to C.O.B.R.A. signs a form designating C.O.B.R.A. as their provider, Berneburg said. After receiving their marijuana, the patients immediately sign the form again, removing C.O.B.R.A. as their provider.

"And that means the designated provider who can only be a designated provider to any one person at a time is now available to be somebody elseâ??s designated provider," Berneburg said.

Tacoma has told the co-ops that if they donâ??t stop dispensing marijuana by Oct. 24, they could face fines or criminal prosecution.

C.O.B.R.A. deals with about 800 patients, Berneburg said.

"These people are real medical patients; their history is documentable," said Emiel Kandi with C.O.B.R.A. "We verify all of them in writing with their doctors."

Thousands more people could be affected if the co-ops were to be shut down, KIRO 7 was told. Many of them are planning a rally at the next city council meeting, at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

"Theyâ??ve drawn the line in the sand, theyâ??ve declared war and I choose to accept the gauntlet," Kandi said.

C.O.B.R.A. and the other co-ops have 10 days to appeal the order.

Tacoma Tells Co-Ops To Stop Dispensing Medical Marijuana - News Story - KIRO Seattle

I will see some of you there, stop and say hi and introduce yourself...

Craig

facebook - Legalize America

Tacoma to wait for state Legislature to clarify medical marijuana law

Tacoma to wait for state Legislature to clarify medical marijuana law | Tacoma - The News Tribune

Tacoma: It wonâ??t act against dispensaries until lawmakers meet
LEWIS KAMB; Staff writer
Last updated: October 20th, 2010 10:57 AM (PDT)

Seeking to head off a controversy over medical marijuana, the Tacoma City Council Tuesday agreed to a plan that would allow established medicinal pot dispensaries in the city to continue selling to patients until state lawmakers clarify the law.

â??The Tacoma City Council is not opposed to safe and legal access to medical marijuana for patients with legitimate need,â?� Tacoma Mayor Marilyn Strickland said Tuesday.

Under Stricklandâ??s proposal for stemming a controversy ignited when the cityâ??s Tax and Licenses manager issued cease-and-desist letters to eight medical marijuana dispensaries, the city will agree to suspend taking any action as long as each of the dispensaries files an appeal to the letters.

The city will delay setting hearings on those appeals until the end of the 2011 state legislative session, during which lawmakers are expected to clarify portions of the medical marijuana enacted in 1999 after citizens passed a ballot measure.

â??The way the current law is written is confusing,â?� said Strickland.

But whether state lawmakers actually can accomplish such clarity is another issue.

Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, D-Seattle, who has sponsored bills to clarify the medical marijuana initiative every year since it was passed â?? and will again next session â?? said perennial obstacles exist to stymie such efforts.

â??A lot of legislators are worried about voting on anything involving marijuana,â?� she said. â??Thereâ??s not a cohesive community of activists.â?�

Cohesive or not, medical marijuana supporters packed Tuesday eveningâ??s council meeting after learning of the cityâ??s letters, prepared to testify against the crackdown. Stricklandâ??s first order of business was to announce the compromise, news of which caused the activists to erupt in cheers.

Most of the overflow crowd then poured out onto Market Street, where they held an impromptu celebration.

â??This was a peaceful victory, a victory won in truth and numbers,â?� said Ezra Eickmeyer, a lobbyist for the newly formed Washington Cannabis Association.

In an interview, a spokesman for a group seeking to legalize pot in Washington called the councilâ??s late-breaking compromise â??mildly encouraging.â?�

But even with the cityâ??s commitment to suspend closing down dispensaries, â??thereâ??s still latitude there for law enforcement abuses,â?� said Philip Dawdy, spokesman for Sensible Washington.

â??The law is big enough for that (wiggle room), and clearly, there are people on TPD that are enforcing it pretty damn tight,â?� he added.

Among other things, Strickland and council members noted that Tacoma police still could take actions against dispensaries over reported illegal pot sales outside of those for legitimate medical use.

The city also would seek to impose a moratorium on business licenses for applicants seeking to establish dispensaries until after state lawmakers clarify the issue.

Strickland said she met with Tacoma Police Chief Don Ramsdell and others to discuss the compromise, after medical marijuana and pot legalization proponents from across the state announced Monday they would converge on Tacoma City Hall on Tuesday night to protest the cease-and-desist letters.

Sent by city Tax and Licenses Manager Jodie Trueblood, the letters â?? dated Oct. 14 â?? came with the subject line: â??Notice to Cease Dispensing Marijuana.â?� The notices specifically cite part of the stateâ??s medical marijuana law, noting that designated providers are allowed to serve â??only one patient at a time.â?�

Pot proponents argued that the cityâ??s interpretation of the law was far narrower than in other jurisdictions, including Seattle, which generally allows such dispensaries to operate.

â??The Cityâ??s reading of the law is inconsistent with what Washington voters approved in 1998,â?� said Sensible Washington chair and medical marijuana attorney Douglas Hiatt. â??Itâ??s also inconsistent with how the same law is read by King County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg and Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes.â?�

City Council members said they were caught off guard by the city notices â?? and the controversy they stirred.

â??It was a bit of a surprise,â?� Councilman Marty Campbell said.

Assistant City Manager Rey Arellano apologized to council members for staff members sending the letters without consulting the council.

Medical marijuana has been a hot topic in Tacoma since a dispensary â?? Club 420 â?? was raided in mid-May and two men arrested on a slew of drug-related charges. Both have pleaded not guilty.

After the raid, dozens of residents and business owners showed up at a City Council meeting to express concern about wasting city resources and making it more difficult for patients to obtain medicine in a safe manner. Strickland later suggested the city include language in the its legislative policy manual that encourages state lawmakers to clarify the medical marijuana law.

â??The reason these letters went out is you have a few of these alleged providers that are dealing drugs, and theyâ??re ruining it for legitimate providers,â?� Strickland added.

Even as protesters began to arrive Tuesday afternoon for the rally at City Hall, Strickland and the council were in a ninth-floor meeting room discussing the proposed compromise and consulting with City Attorney Elizabeth Pauli.

â??The best solution would be to have the Legislature get in there too and to make things clear for everyone,â?� Pauli said.

Lewis Kamb: 253-597-8542
[email protected]
blog.thenewstribune.com/ politics

Great job by everyone that showed up there. This is democracy at its best. I've got to cut some things lose so I can get my ass to some of these events.