Crackheads vs. Potheads, And Guess Who Wins?

Philip Dawdy at the Seattle Weekly posts a dispatch from the drug wars, in a state where voters have actually approved relaxations on medical marijuana. The law's vague enough to encourage growers, while allowing neighbors with axes to grind - like in Dawdy's lead, a bitter crack dealer - to call in the fuzz and make a bust.

Around the state, neighbors tattle on neighbors smoking pot. Still.

At times, the police rush in and seize all the pot and cash in the house. Patients have little defense at times like these: The authorized "recommendation" form (a quasi-prescription) that many carry means little to many cops.

Last week, prosecutors in Lewis County filed charges for growing pot and possessing paraphernalia against the mother of a Chehalis teen, a medical marijuana patient with a doctor's recommendation--in this case, from a University of Washington clinical professor. Her son has severe brain trauma and physical pain from an accident and spends his days in a wheelchair. His mother is his appointed caregiver, and she had a few plants in a backyard shed. Sheriff's deputies raided the small grow.