Thursday morning, medical marijuana patient Sharon Tracy will enter a re-sentencing hearing in the Skamania County Courthouse. The Washington State Supreme Court reluctantly ruled last November that Tracy, who suffers chronic pain from degenerative spinal discs and congenital hip deformities, must face up to 90 days in jail for growing four plants. A Superior Court judge later insisted she serve the full term.

At this hearing, the same judge shall decide whether she will be taken into custody or granted leniency. Her husband has voiced concern that her health could be compromised in jail because the nearest hospital is over 25 minutes away by ambulance (she has twice required urgent medical attention for heart problems). Activists and patients plan to “pack the courthouse” to encourage the judge to commute her sentence.

Even though Tracy, 51, has a qualifying condition and was growing a quantity within the legal limit, she lost an affirmative defense because her medical marijuana authorization wasn’t signed by a physician licensed in Washington. She obtained her authorization, while caring for her mother who was ailing from cancer, from a doctor licensed in California.

The Washington legislature is under pressure this session to repair the state’s Medical Use of Marijuana Act – as urged in the Washington Supreme Court’s Tracy ruling. Rep. Sherry Appleton (D-23) introduced a House bill last Thursday that would provide reciprocity to patients with authorizations from physicians licensed in any state with a medical marijuana statute. Meanwhile, Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Wells (D-36) is expected to introduce a Senate bill that would provide reciprocity and other protections. (Federal law, which doesn’t acknowledge a medical marijuana defense, rarely is applied to marijuana cases in Washington.)

If the bills fail, more patients like Sharon Tracy who are trying to abide by the state’s medical marijuana law will get ensnared on technicalities and face precarious legal battles. But if the bills pass, sick and dying people will finally get laws that more closely reflect what Washington voters wanted when they passed Initiative 692, in 1998.