Local Pot Thieves Draw Attention of Old Gray Lady

...robberies have become more common in Washington over the years. Marijuana advocates complain that robberies are underreported because law enforcement officials focus more on confiscating marijuana from the growers than on arresting the thieves. The authorities, in turn, have noted that some growers are exceeding limits on how much of the drug they can possess...

So reads the New York Times story, "Violence Prompts Debate Over Medical Marijuana." The story is based on all of two violent incidents involving medical marijuana growers, so it may be a little early to call this a trend.

Steve Sarich's case may also be an outlier, since King County Sheriff's Department investigators claimed they found 385 "plants." That size of an operation may be more tempting to thieves than the typical 15-plant allotment provided for by state law. At least one of the robbery suspects, anyway, is a authorized medical marijuana user. (The comprehensive Seattle Times story is "Medical-pot grower plans to sue over shootout fallout.")

Sarich argues that many of his plants were just rootless cuttings stuck in pots, but Washington's medical marijuana law was not, it appears, drafted by a horticulturalist. It just says "plants," without a definition of what exactly that is.

This vagueness--combined with a letter-of-the-law spirit on the part of law enforcement--is part of what drove the I-1068 initiative filers to move beyond medical marijuana to legalization. Their Facebook status says, "KCSO narcotics detectives took 17 hours before executing a search warrant on his house, which contains only starter plants. Why are legal medical marijuana providers being harassed? Why is KCSO spending taxpayer dollars this way?"