SEATTLE - How much marijuana is too much? That is the question law enforcement officers and prosecutors across the state have to deal with on a daily basis.
The issue comes to light with two recent violent crimes at two different home medical marijuana suppliers. On Monday morning, armed men stormed into Steve Sarich's Kirkland home. The 59-year-old fought off the intruders and five men have been arrested for investigation of robbery. On Sunday, medicinal marijuana grower Mike Howard died after being attacked at his Orting home earlier in the week. Authorities believe Howard was beaten to death with a crowbar.
In 1998, Washington State voters passed the Medical Marijuana law. The law allows patients to have a 60-day-supply of marijuana.
A decade later, the State Department of Health defined a 60-day supply as 15 plants and 24 ounces of pot. The patient must also have a serious illness as defined by the state law and receive a doctor's certificate authorizing the patient to use the medicinal marijuana. The patient is allowed to have a caregiver grow the marijuana for them but they must post the patient certificate.
When a search warrant was served at Sarich's Kirkland home, King County Deputies say they found 385 marijuana plants.
Sheriff spokesperson John Urquhart says "well over 300 plants. It well exceeds a 60-days supply, which is our opinion and the prosecutors opinion as well."
Deputies say they also found display cases with pipes for sale, baked goods with marijuana and stacks of credit card receipts. The case has been referred to the prosecuting attorney's office. Sarich says he has done nothing wrong.
"I am not a criminal. First, I got shot, then I got robbed by the police who came to investigate," he said.
Urquhart says the Sheriff's Department left Sarich and his girlfriend the state mandated amount of 15 plants each and 24 ounces each of pot.
The Sheriff's Department would like the state legislature to further define the law to make it easier to enforce.
"It's very simple," said Urquhart. "Our job is to enforce the law. If the law is vague, it's difficult to enforce."
"The violence and death that has just happened this week. It's very disturbing... It violated an innocence we had here for ten years," said medical marijuana advocate Dale Rogers.
The Executive Director of Compassion in Action, a 12-year-old medicinal marijuana group, thinks it's time to revisit and redefine the state marijuana law. Rogers says the law has helped thousands of patients in the state with their pain. Rogers is concerned that violence is arriving at the homes of medicinal marijuana growers.
"Maybe now it's time to sit down and rethink this whole situation. Because now it's become a safety issue," he said.
