Melissa Macourek never expected to be a political activist who would end up testifying at a Tacoma City Council meeting. But that all changed when she was on a camping trip with her 6-year-old daughter late last month. She received a phone call from a relative informing her that her North End house was raided by Tacoma Police Department, as was another home she rented.
Her tenant, Justin Prince, owns Tacoma Hemp Company. Police searched that establishment as part of an investigation into the medical marijuana dispensary.
According to Macourek, an informant who provided information to police apparently fingered her as somehow being involved in illegal activity.
Police found a small amount of marijuana in her home. She will not face charges, as she has authorization from a doctor to use it for medicinal reasons. Years ago she had surgery to remove a brain tumor. Part of her skull was removed and replaced with a mesh material, which she says never completely healed. She suffers severe headaches as a result, for which she uses marijuana to control the pain.
Macourek said she has been in contact with TPD’s Internal Affairs Division, which informed her the search of her home was unusual in that most such searches produce evidence linked to criminal activity.
According to Macourek, her situation could change a TPD policy. When she got home, a search warrant was on a kitchen counter. It contained no phone number to call or a case number. TPD is now considering including such information when they search a home when the occupants are out.
Macourek’s recent ordeal is just another example of the flawed initiative passed by voters in the late 1990s that legalized marijuana in Washington for medical use.
Crafting laws through the initiative process is fraught with peril, because many are drawn up by people who do not take into account the big picture. In the case of this one, it grants permission to people who have a note from a doctor recommending marijuana to alleviate a medical condition to use it and possess it, but spelled out no process for how patients would obtain it.
Some patients have the connections to purchase marijuana through the same channels that non-medical users have, but many others do not. Various cooperatives and dispensaries have sprung up in recent years attempting to connect growers with patients.
These operations exist in a gray area legally speaking. Prosecutors and police suspect some are simply fronts for full-scale drug dealing to those with medical authorization and those without.
The council should examine this issue, with a suitable forum being its Public Safety, Human Services and Education Committee. Police have stated the investigation into Tacoma Hemp came about from complaints about it from members of the public.
This may be something that could be dealt with through zoning. Certain types of establishments are not a good fit in certain areas. For example, the state will not grant a liquor license to someone who wants to open a tavern across the street from an elementary school.
Starting a dialogue among representatives of dispensaries, police officers and staff from the city’s Tax and License office could be beneficial.
Macourek has suggested a moratorium on any more dispensaries until the city can craft a proper policy for regulating them. She has begun collecting signatures on a petition calling for that.
When Macourek began using medical marijuana she never imagined her home would be raided because the voters had approved an initiative. Ideally the Legislature would pass a proper law for medical marijuana that could replace this flawed initiative. Short of that, cities like Tacoma would be wise to address this issue and craft policies.
