BILL REQ. #:  S-3450.1 

Read first time 01/15/14.   Referred to Committee on Health Care .

     TO THE HONORABLE BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, AND TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE AND THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, AND TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES, IN CONGRESS ASSEMBLED, AND THE ADMINISTRATOR OF THE DRUG ENFORCEMENT ADMINISTRATION:
     We, your Memorialists, the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Washington, in legislative session assembled, respectfully represent and petition as follows:
     WHEREAS, Marijuana is currently listed under the Controlled Substances Act as a Schedule I drug. Schedule I drugs are considered to have a high potential for abuse and have no currently accepted medical use; and
     WHEREAS, Washington state, as well as twenty-one other states and the District of Columbia, recognizes the medical value of marijuana for certain medical conditions. Yet, because marijuana is considered a Schedule I drug, it is unable to be dispensed in a pharmacy by a pharmacy professional; and
     WHEREAS, Recent Department of Justice guidance relating to state legalization of marijuana described the Department of Justice enforcement priorities relating to marijuana, including preventing the distribution of marijuana to minors and preventing the diversion of marijuana from Washington state to other states. Using pharmacists to dispense marijuana and provide advice to their patients would provide robust controls that would be effective on paper as well as in practice;
     NOW, THEREFORE, Your Memorialists respectfully pray that the Drug Enforcement Administration reschedule marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule II or lower in order to allow physicians to prescribe and pharmacists to dispense marijuana for medical use.
     BE IT RESOLVED, That copies of this Memorial be immediately transmitted to the Honorable Barack Obama, President of the United States, the Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration, the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and each member of Congress from the State of Washington.