In Washington State, the issue of how much marijuana a patient needs remains one of the most contentious parts of the law voters passed in 1998, which allows patients with certain chronic, fatal and debilitating diseases to legally possess a 60-day supply of marijuana with a doctor's authorization.

But a state Health Department proposal that medical-marijuana patients be allowed more than 2 pounds of pot, (thats over a kilo) every two months took law enforcement by surprise and prompted the governor to tell health officials to start over.

Allowing people to use home-grown cannabis is the safest option

Patients or caregivers could possess up to 35 ounces of cultivated marijuana and be allowed a plant-growing area of 100 square feet.

Which lets face it, puts the UK governments claims of just how dangerous cannabis actually is, firmly into perspective.

Don Pierce, executive director of the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs, said he's been invited to an upcoming "stakeholder" meeting by the Health Department. He said the amounts originally proposed by the department "fly in the face of reasonableness from our perspective."

At 35 ounces, the amount of usable marijuana the health department planned to recommend is the same weight as a bag of sugar — 2.2 pounds — Pierce said. "That's a lot."

Cowlitz County Sheriff Bill Mahoney says the whole issue is now "very, very difficult for law enforcement to deal with" because nobody knows what constitutes a 60-day supply.

"From my standpoint as a sheriff, I just need the state to step up and define it. I don't care what the number is."

But, he adds: "Most of our cops, if they were forced to come up with a number, they'd say 3 ounces."

So in the opinion of the Washington Police, around 3 ounces per month, of top grade, herbal cannabis, (we in the UK may know it better as "Skunk" cannabis) is a safe, agreeable limit. But an acedemic from the University of Washington, disagrees.

Sunil Aggarwal, a University of Washington medical and doctoral degree student who studies "medical cannabis" there, says the department's calculation used an incorrect multiplier.

Because "oral administration" of medical marijuana is much less efficient than smoking, the limit should be about 71 ounces for 60-day supply, he has told health officials.

71 ounces a month? Even I have to admit, "Thats a lot"!

The 35-ounce amount is more than permitted in some places that allow medical marijuana use, but less than others.

For example, Oregon allows 24 ounces of usable marijuana and six mature plants per patient, while limits in California counties and cities range from 8 ounces to 3 pounds in Humboldt, Santa Cruz and Trinity counties, the Health Department's memo said.

The federal program, called the "Compassionate Investigational New Drug" program, see's the federal government in the US, supply a limited number of patients with 300 to 450 "joints" per month, or about 9 ounces, according to department research.

Which all begs the question? If marijuana is so widely available from the government in the United States, how can our politicians get away with lying to us about the supposed "lethality" of the same varieties of herbal cannabis the government actually supplies in the US, to people suffering the same illnesses as people are suffering here in the UK?

This government has slowly but surely alienated many different demographics in the UK, and just yesterday we hear the British police service, the "Queens Men & Women", threatening to go out on strike, after having lost trust and faith in the government generally, and the Home Secretary specifically, over a pay deal Jacqui Smith allegedly went back on?

But don't take my word for it;

"You cheated and now it's time for you to pack your bags and leave," Mark Crake, a Metropolitan Police officer told her.

Ian Pointer from Kent Constabulary asked: "Did you deliberately set out to anger and alienate the entire police service?"

Jan Berry, the Police federation chairwoman, let Ms Smith know that the officers were aware she had a bit of previous - with a pointed aside mentioning her admission that she tried cannabis as a student.

"Your recent crimes," said Mrs Berry, "have been more for the Serious Fraud Office than the drugs squad."

"How was it that the government found 2.7 billion pounds to dig itself out of a tax hole in advance of a by-election, but couldn't find 30 million pounds to honour our pay deal," Berry asked, referring to Thursday's by-election in Crewe.

"It was a monumental mistake and I do not say this lightly when I say you betrayed the police service," she said.

Strong stuff indeed.

The reclassification of cannabis is an unjust, one-sided 'opinion' which has absolutely no scientific grounds for a change of law. As a result of this upwards of 4 million citizens of the United Kingdom are also feeling betrayed right now.

But that doesn't seem to matter to Gordon Brown, Jacqui Smith et al. And as a result, thousands of people will receive a criminal record, for committing a "victimless crime", and thats just not right.

Join us at The Canna Zine, and help stop this needless reclassification, which was (lets not forget), wholeheartidly advised against, by the governments own council of medical and drug experts.

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