May 8th, 2007, WA Governor Gregoire signed Bill 6032 to reinforce the original medical marijuana statute enacted in 1998. During the intervening nine years, dozens of medical marijuana cases had been filed in criminal courthouses around the state. The original medical marijuana statute enacted by popular vote had been ignored in some cases, and was undermined by technical flaws in others. Senator Kohl-Welles introduced SB 6032, a legislative update of the 1998 Medical Use Act that passed both Houses with a wide margin after months of Congressional Hearings and revisions. Medical marijuana is allowed in Washington State with specific guidelines for physicians, police, patients, and designated providers.

28 days after the signing of Bill 6032, criminal charges were filed against a 66 year old woman, illustrating one of the serious risks encountered with illegal sources of marijuana. The patient was charged with "delivery of a controlled substance" after obtaining an ounce of black-market marijuana with the help of a man who did not have a medical recommendation. He took the woman's money and went off to make the purchase. When he returned to the car with the illicit marijuana, he asked the woman for a small amount as compensation for his effort. Sharing is a common practice in many illegal drug deals. The elderly patient gave her new friend a small amount, but she was observed and apprehended by police officers who just happened to be in the vicinity. Regardless of her medical condition, the woman had committed a serious crime in the eyes of the law.

A much larger case from California illuminated another potential legal hazard of purchasing black-market cannabis. In this example, the marijuana itself was the culprit. A medical marijuana dispensary was locally approved and even sanctioned as a tax-paying business. But federal authorities raided the medicinal distributor, charging several people with "intent to deliver a controlled substance". Officers in charge of the investigation refuted attacks by local media with evidence of international drug smuggling. DEA agents had simply followed a trail of contraband drugs that began with an illicit pot farm in British Columbia and ended with the grey-market medical provider in San Francisco. Especially since the September 11 terrorist attacks, international drug smuggling is a very serious offense.

Black-market trade is prohibited. However unreasonable it may seem, the US Senate recently voted down a Bill that would allow US citizens to buy prescription drugs from Canadian sources. Most medications can be obtained from distributors in Canada and elsewhere, usually at a huge savings. Whatever medicine is delivered, those transactions are illegal and quite easy to track. Anyone buying drugs from other countries for whatever reason may be prosecuted under US law. The same principle applies to marijuana, obviously.

It is safe to assume international drug smuggling will never be legal. Similarly, it is a felony to deliver controlled substances. A person who shared their personal pain pills with another person would certainly be prosecuted if caught. Regardless of America's multi-billion dollar pot market, medical marijuana is a Schedule I controlled substance. For those who intend to steer clear of police investigation, medical cannabis must be obtained from a legal source, and it must not be shared with or diverted to non-medical users.

The most important way to stay clear of the drug war is to stay away from illegal drug dealers. Any illegal drug sale can be the target of a police investigation. A qualified patient can easily be swept up in a case for simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time. In one high-profile example from the nineteen-nineties, a woman named Renee Bojee fled to Canada rather than face a five year mandatory minimum sentence in the US, maintaining she had merely photographed an illegal marijuana garden possessed by her friend, Todd McCormick. Cancer-survivor Todd McCormick served a five year sentence in federal prison for possession of nearly five thousand marijuana plants. His partner, another patient named Peter McWilliams, actually died from a lack of medical cannabis while awaiting trial. Marijuana patients should clearly understand the potentially devastating consequences of non-compliance with our laws.

A qualified patient may follow the letter of the law to the best of their abilities and still end up in difficult straights. 34 days after Gov. Gregoire signed Bill 6032, a Seattle man got a sharp knock on his door. The man's neighbor had learned he was a marijuana patient, and had chosen to notify the police. The patient was completely within his rights. He was totally up front about his medication, and even complied when the cop asked to see the marijuana. But the cop's reaction took him by surprise. The officer accused the patient of procuring the marijuana illegally, solely because the cannabis was contained in plastic baggies instead of in a labeled prescription bottle. The police officer had over-stepped his authority. He had no legal justification for demanding that medical marijuana be contained in a prescription bottle, though he apparently knew that Seattle's legitimate marijuana patient groups do package the herbal medicine in prescription bottles. For people who suffer from life-threatening medical conditions, one arrest can cause irreversible health problems. It is extremely important that marijuana patients do not even appear to be involved in illegal activity.

The use of marijuana with a doctor's recommendation has been legalized in more than a dozen states. At the same time, the US Supreme Court has recently upheld the federal ban on cannabis in two separate cases. This unprecedented paradox between state and federal laws has created an ongoing assault on medical marijuana providers in California and elsewhere. While it may appear unfair or unjust to target marijuana patients who have medical recommendations, it is the role of police officers to thwart criminal activity. Narcotics officers cannot be blamed for enforcing the laws they were sworn to uphold. Clearly, the only safe alternative for medical marijuana patients is complete compliance with state laws governing controlled substances. Even high school kids have remarkably easy access to pot, which helps to explain why qualified patients who wish to live free of arrest and seizure must exercise their rights with strict adherence to the laws designed to protect them from America's war on drugs.

The first draft of Senate Bill 6032 included a section on "co-operative gardening". If a marijuana grower were to maintain a number of plants grown for various qualified patients simultaneously, that would be a co-operative garden. The co-operative principle is decidedly similar to the legal definition of a "designated provider" who may grow medical marijuana for a qualified patient. The difference is, a designated provider is limited to growing cannabis for only "one patient at any one time". The co-operative gardening clause was deleted from SB 6032 after the first Senate Hearing due to objections by state prosecutors. Co-operative gardening is allowed in some parts of California, but is not legal in Washington. The only way a patient can legally obtain medical cannabis in Washington is to grow it, or to entrust a "designated provider" to grow it for them. This limitation was intended to prevent large-scale gardening operations that could be diverted to non-medical users. However, in practice, the time, labor, and expense required to produce medical-grade cannabis places the process far out of reach for many disabled people. In Washington, the list of qualifying illnesses limits marijuana patients to those with "terminal or debilitating conditions". The greater share of those who are allowed to possess medical marijuana are physically unable to support themselves, let alone support an indoor garden. For someone who is too sick to eat properly, or too crippled to lead a normal life, the huge cost of indoor lighting, ventilation, and drainage systems, combined with the strenuous physical labor that must be performed every day or so for three or four consecutive months, are insurmountable obstacles. Frequently, those who are most needful of medical marijuana are those who are least able to produce it.

In a legal situation fraught with paradoxical complication, in a social climate where open disclosure can be the cause of robbery or arrest, in a world of misunderstanding and alienation, where any "public display" of medical marijuana is strictly forbidden, the most needy and vulnerable marijuana patients frequently turn to the only friends they have–each other. Marijuana patient groups have formed through mutual necessity.

The word "cooperative" is derived from the farming industry. When farmers join in a common marketing organization to control the supply and prices of their goods, it is called a "co-operative". The word "collective" also refers to an agricultural practice. When farmers actually farm together with no outside market, that group is called a "collective". In other words, if Patient A is allowed to grow his or her medical marijuana, and Patient B is also allowed to grow his or her medical marijuana, there is no reason why they cannot do so in unison under Washington State law. When marijuana patients band together, joining forces to operate a single p-patch-type garden space, that is called a "collective". Both the original Medical Use Act and the 2007 legislative update to existing law, Bill 6032, are completely silent on this crucial issue. There is no legal stipulation to prevent qualified marijuana patients from pooling their resources at a single location.

The benefits of this mutual endeavor are profound. Henry Ford is well-known to have invented the assembly line in his automobile factories nearly a hundred years ago. Indoor gardening demands high-voltage lighting and other industrial hardware that is expensive to purchase and expensive to operate. Collective gardening provides a low-cost alternative for patients who do not have a whole room in their home that can be refitted as an indoor garden-site. Collective gardening also provides the opportunity for all patients to contribute whatever they can to the effort, while other members provide additional support. This truth is well-known: "many hands makes light work".

According to the DEA, illicit cannabis is worth more than its weight in gold. To severely ill marijuana patients, cannabis may seem to be an invaluable commodity, but for many patients, this life-saving herbal medicine is just too costly. A properly managed collective splits its burdens among the membership, allowing each member to share in the benefits without incurring enormous costs.

A final note on the importance of closed-system collective gardens: marijuana is surely one of the most diverse botanical species on earth. Millions of growers have been hybridizing new strains of cannabis for generations untold. The proliferation of clandestine gardens since 1937 when medical marijuana was first prohibited has further diversified the gene pool. A quick review of illegal seed dealers around the world uncovers thousands of different strains available today.