If arrested, a patient may need to show that they do not posses more than is necessary for their personal sixty day supply.
The American Civil Liberties Union believes that police and prosecutors should be flexible when evaluating whether or not a patient or caregiver meets the sixty day supply limitation. If a patient underestimates his/her limitation, then his/her caregiver may be forced to make up the difference by purchasing marijuana off of the streets. It is not in the interest of law enforcement to drive patients to the illegal market. It is also not in the interest of the patient because they will not be aware if the marijuana is safe or not, as it may be laced with other, more harmful recreational drugs.
The Institute of Medicine ruled, after a wide range of scientific studies, that marijuana can be effective as medicine. Evidence to support this includes statistics such as; 44% of oncologists said they had recommended marijuana to their cancer patients, 54% said they would recommend medical marijuana to their patients if it were legal. Several studies have shown that marijuana is effective in reducing nausea and vomiting and patients undergoing chemotherapy have found smoking marijuana to be more effective than pharmacy medications like Marinol. Marijuana is smoked by thousands of AIDS patients to treat nausea and vomiting associated with both the disease and AZT drug therapy because it stimulates appetite. "Wasting" is countered allowing AIDS patients to gain weight and prolong their lifetime.
The Medical Marijuana Act was designed to protect patients from prosecution for medical use of marijuana. Primary caregivers are people who may have contact with the medicinal marijuana for somebody who is too ill to prepare it themselves.
The Medical Marijuana Law does not cover all terminally ill or debilitating medical conditions. The law itself lists; cancer, HIV, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy or other seizure disorders, or spasticity disorders, intractable pain, glaucoma, and any other medical condition duly approved by the Washington State Medical Quality Assurance Board.
