Two Spokane medical marijuana advocates, doing business as University of Spokamsterdam LLP, say they've leased space near downtown where they plan to base educational programs about using the drug in compliance with the state's Medical Use of Cannabis Act.

The University of Spokamsterdam will occupy 2,500 square feet of space at 127 W. Boone, says Darren McCrea, who plans to open the cannabis-counseling venture with partner Mike Levers on Dec. 3.

McCrea says the courses will inform patients and designated providers about legal issues regarding Washington state's medical marijuana law. It also will instruct patients and designated providers on setting up grow rooms, caring for marijuana plants, and harvesting and curing cannabis, he says.

"These are issues people are interested in, but don't know how to find the information," says McCrea, who adds that he uses medical marijuana as an alternative to painkillers and as a supplement to anti-seizure medications.

State law allows qualifying patients to use marijuana on the written recommendation of a health-care professional in the course of treatment of cancer, HIV, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, or other seizure and spasticity disorders in which muscles tense reflexively and resist stretching, McCrea says. The state law also allows patients to use marijuana for certain other conditions including glaucoma, Crohn's disease, hepatitis C, and diseases that result in nausea, appetite loss, cramping, seizures, and muscle spasms, and spasticity, if those conditions can't be relieved by standard medical treatments, he says.

Such patients or their designated providers are allowed to possess up to 24 ounces of usable marijuana, including up to 15 live marijuana plants, McCrea says.

Federal law, though, prohibits manufacturing and distribution of marijuana, even for medical purposes, and a recent federal crackdown on medical marijuana dispensaries here and elsewhere have forced many of them to shut down.

Levers says the University of Spokam-sterdam has no plans to dispense or possess marijuana at the site.

The courses will hold up to 100 people and will be held at various times to accommodate schedules for patients and providers.

Levers and McCrea will be the only people on the University of Spokamster-dam's initial staff, although they plan to bring in consultants as needed to lead some courses, McCrea says.

They haven't set course prices yet, although they are considering charging $50 for an initial course in which a legal consultant would explain some of the nuances of the medical marijuana law.

The University of Spokamsterdam also has an option to lease the remaining half of the 5,000-square-foot building on Boone Avenue.

The building had been owned and occupied by The Arc of Spokane, which bought a 21,000-square-foot building formerly occupied by Inland Power & Light Co., at 320 E. Second, east of downtown in 2009 and moved there last year.

The Arc of Spokane sold the building on Boone last year to its current owner, My Man Godfrey LLC, headed by Roger Whitten, of Oakesdale, Wash.