Sensible Spokane Alliance

Steve Salvatori - City Council Candidate District 3

Recieved Monday, October 24 at 9:27pm

Response to cannabis policy pledge: 

"Thanks for sending the background information and the pledge. We recently lost my wife’s sister brain cancer. Between her surgeries, chemo and radiation treatments, it was a horrible year for Jeannie, right up till the day we finally lost her. One of the few things that gave her any meaningful relief was marijuana. She lived in North Carolina, so this was not a Washington issue at the time. My wife spent many weeks back there with her during her illness. She was given many pain killing prescription medications, and several others to help offset the impact of the chemo and radiation treatments, that we hoped might save her.

To a truly ill person, let alone someone who is terminally ill, medical marijuana seems to offer multiple therapeutic benefits, with little or no side effects, at a fraction of the cost. If it was discovered yesterday, it would be a blockbuster Rx drug today.

I fully support Medical Marijuana, and believe it should be treated like any other controlled Rx product, and be available with a doctor’s prescription at any pharmacy. I am not supportive of the idea of it being a local enterprise or sold through head shops or other non medical outlets, where there are little or not safeguards, and my support for Medical Marijuana is tempered by wanting to keep a crystal clear difference between this and legalizing recreational use.

I find our Federal laws on Medical Marijuana to be illogical, inconsistent, and indefensible. I support safe access to cannabis for qualifying patients. I have had several conversations with Darren McRea, a local Spokane advocate for the use Medical Marijuana, as well as numerous discussions with local law enforcement and individuals associated with the Federal Prosecutors Office to try and see if there is anything I can do to move the needle on our current situation.

You may definitely count me as a supporter of access to Medical Marijuana for qualifying patients. But I have problems in signing your pledge. For one thing, until Federal policy is changed, nothing we do locally or at the state level can prevent the Federal Prosecutors Office from continuing their raids. I think those raids are a horrible waste of government resources, but it is a federal decision, not a city one. Secondly, I am open to an Policy Oversight Committee being created, but how can I agree to support it’s recommendations before I know what those recommendations are? I can promise that I will work for safe access to medical cannabis for qualifying patients. But I believe to make that happen, we need to clearly create some space between medical use and recreational use, and the way this issue has been approached in the past has not done so, and I have no idea whether I would agree with a committee’s recommendations or not, without knowing what they are!

I have already publicly stated that I believe adult marijuana offenses should be a low priority enforcement, and I believe you can find that in the Spokesman.com Candidate Questionnaire responses. You also have my permission if you would like to use this e mail as evidence of my public position on access to medical cannabis, or the enforcement priority issue. But I cannot sign a pledge to support recommendations that have not been determined yet."