nurse mimi @128 from your post at the link: "And now NORML sends it’s minions to personally attack patients, both collectively, and by also individually singling out the most vocal members with personal attacks, in order to back an initiative that solidifies NORML’s stance on cannabis patients."

I defy and challenge Nurse Meiwes to produce a single instance where I have called her a name or attacked her personally. Anyone familiar my posts over the years knows that that is not my style. I have never found name calling and personal attacks to be an effective strategy for winning hearts and minds. Name calling and personal attacks represent a lack of technique or discipline. It is not effective advocacy.

The most critical thing I have said about Nurse Mimi is that Mimi "as the spokesperson [for her initiative] is the best thing that could happen for I-502, but unfortunately a disaster looming for medical cannabis users and public relations."

However, all over the internet I have been the recipient of personal attacks by Nurse Mimi.

Below is what Nurse Mimi wrote about yours truly on January 3 here at The Stranger. After crowing that she has discovered that "notSpicoli" is really Dominic Holden (the same assertion that Dr. Mobley made), which I considered a compliment, but is untrue.

Apparently convinced that I'm not Dominic, she then made another wild (bordering on delusional) claim:
"Yeah, [not] Spicoli, that’s why when you were finally outed you screamed like a little kid to facebook about it, right? Said I got personal info off of another site and outed you, but you were a dumb ass and admitted it too, and now everyone knows you are Solomon Schecter (you have outed me a number of times, so all IS fair), dumb ass without a single bachelor’s degree who happens to make medibles and SELLS to patients!...What a hypocrite. I should have figured it out that first time, when you were asked to leave that booth because you were going off on people for no good reason, at least none we could figure out. But you were going off on people as NotSpicoli, only they knew you as Solomon...Your lies are catching up to you and now YOU get tangled in your own web."

On another site she replied to me, "You are a joke."

On October 30 she issued a malediction, "Your selfish outlook is telling, and I do hope someday you will suffer as those who are disabled do, and that it is more difficult for you than it is for me."

Here's one that is inexplicable but seems like a personal attack, "Stop being such a hypocrite and grow a vagina! (Balls are way too delicate)" and a dismissive, "Screw you."

On December 20, in response to one of my posts her reply, "You really are an idiot!"

Other examples abound and include labeling me "bad," "disgusting," "cruel," "uncaring," and "ignorant."

With the feds commitment to wipe out safe access to medical cannabis in our nation and the growing public perception that there are significant numbers of users of medical cannabis who do so in order to skirt the law, one would hope that the medical cannabis community would do whatever it could to make and maintain friends.

Prior to her intemperate remarks against me and her decision to work against I-502 as much as to put forth an accommodation initiative, not only would I have signed her initiative, I would have collected signatures and given some dollars. And I sure that many other I-502 supporters would also have supported her initiative as well. (Even though I feel that the DUI-C section is merely a restatement of current law.)

As a final example of how not to treat friends, Nurse Mimi has been critical of Peter Lewis, the retired CEO of Progressive Insurance, for his contribution to I-502 and even alludes to financial motives on his part--an attempt to sell high priced insurance rates for those convicted of DUI-C.

Who is a greater friend of medical cannabis and marijuana reform than Peter Lewis--a medical cannabis user himself? He just gave $526,000 to virtually finance the medical cannabis ballot initiative in Massachusetts. He's virtually financing the medical cannabis initiative in Ohio.

Making enemies of friends is a terrible strategy for effective reform.

@172 wrote: "To answer your earlier question about why legislation was introduced to require ACTUAL PROOF OF IMPAIRMENT, it was done to proactively remedy the flaws in I-502, something NAW itself has been unwilling to do."

This is patently false. Please reread post #157.

The reason the legislature removed the added language to the proposed MUCA bill was because it was unnecessary as it is simply a restatement of current law.

I was involved in working on tying to get this accommodation introduced. My intention was not motivated by trying to fix a deficit in I-502. It was an attempt to do what I could to bring us together.

It was an attempt to codify, makes explicit, spell it out--solely for the benefit of easing the concerns of those who use cannabis medicinally--that which is already assumed and required by the current law and under I-502.

I-502 "does not lessen the legal requirements under Washington law that there be: (1) probable cause for an arrest and (2) reasonable grounds to believe a driver is impaired before a breath or blood test may be administered."

My intentions was to unite us in common purpose toward the goal of ending marijuana prohibition by overcoming a perceived hurdle. I thought if the legislature actually wrote out that DUI for medical cannabis users be based, primarily on evidence of actual impairment (as is the expectation under current law and under I-502), then we could unite and face our real opponents, the federal government and the prohibitionists, instead of fighting among ourselves. I find myself somewhat embarrassed at my naiveté and that those efforts are now being misinterpreted and used against I-502.

I remain convinced that the DUI provision is not going to be a problem for medical users who don't drive impaired--which is virtually all of them. The FAQ's at the New Approach Washington website lay out their position pretty well. However, if actual problems arise post I-502 with medical users and the DUIC limits, HB 2454 is an example of a relatively simple and quick legislative fix.