Arrest challenges pot law

By Lisa Patterson -- Daily World writer

Sunday, March 24, 2002

MONTESANO - Bruce Buckner sweats so much he changes shirts three or four times a day. He feels like he's riding an emotional roller - coaster - crying one minute, burning with rage the next. The 48 - year - old says he's lucky to get an hour of solid sleep at a time.

Those are side effects of the prescription drugs the former Ocean Shores resident was given to treat Crohn's Disease, an incurable condition that destroys the intestines and causes severe cramping, diarrhea, nutritional deficiencies and a wide range of other problems.

He says he's been able to manage the symptoms fairly well for the last 29 years - since he was in college and a doctor suggested that smoking marijuana might give him some relief. That all changed last November when the Grays Harbor Drug Task Force busted him.

Buckner says he didn't think he was breaking the law, since Washington voters approved Initiative 692 in 1998 permitting doctors to "recommend" the use of medical marijuana. In 2001, he got a note from a clinic saying that marijuana may be beneficial for him to use.

"For the first time in my life, I wasn't going to feel like a criminal," Buckner said.

But that is exactly how investigators and prosecutors see him. Buckner was charged with manufacturing marijuana and possessing one gram of illegal psilocybin mushrooms. Trial is set for May 29, at Grays Harbor Superior Court.

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