Marijuana: Patients need access, not charity

Re: “Can’t pay for your medical marijuana? A new fund might help,” (TNT, 12/6).

As a highly-qualified medical cannabis patient, I was incensed by this article. It described a charity fund, managed by the Washington Cannabusiness Association. WACA founder Vicki Christopherphersen, said: “there are people having a difficult time accessing their medications.”

But nobody has done more than WACA to destroy access for qualified patients. During their effort to secure market-share and sell the cynically named Cannabis Patient Protection Act , WACA lobbied for such extreme rules for four-person gardens that today there are only two in the state, leaving many patients without options.

WACA pushed a patient registry so flawed that only 15,000 participate (compared to 113,000 in Colorado).

If WACA really wants to help, it should advocate for self-reliance and dignity, not charity. Advocate for excise tax reductions that have kept so many Colorado patients out of the black market. And produce products that have been tested for pesticides and heavy metals.

As with most chronically ill people, my condition has made me poor. I could use help. But begging for alms from WACA is not the way to repair our access. I say, “Thanks, but no thanks.”

This story was originally published January 5, 2017 at 6:56 PM with the headline "Marijuana: Patients need access, not charity."