Washington legalization...

[blockhead411]

Has anyone even considered who is spending a shitload of money to back 502? An insurance CEO and I wonder why...think of the money that will be generated! All of those bullshit DUIs!!!!! .05 ng? Are you kidding? Thats lower than Colorado and it failed miserably! And LEO is supporting 502 also...because of the money generated from the DUI's. .05 ng is a very low amount that hasnt even been tested! They say that they can fix that later, but it wont get fixed..All you have to do is look at who is backing this bill. Its disgusting. If it does pass, the legal weed part will get tied up by the feds, but the DUI part will stick around. Why would ANYONE vote for this miserable excuse for a bill??!!

 

[vta]

Has anyone even considered who is spending a shitload of money to back 502? An insurance CEO and I wonder why...think of the money that will be generated! All of those bullshit DUIs!!!!! .05 ng? Are you kidding? Thats lower than Colorado and it failed miserably! And LEO is supporting 502 also...because of the money generated from the DUI's. .05 ng is a very low amount that hasnt even been tested! They say that they can fix that later, but it wont get fixed..All you have to do is look at who is backing this bill. Its disgusting. If it does pass, the legal weed part will get tied up by the feds, but the DUI part will stick around. Why would ANYONE vote for this miserable excuse for a bill??!!

It looks like you don't know...Peter Lewis has helped, with millions of dollars, fund many initiatives across this nation of ours. He gave money to prop 19...which did not have a dui threshold. I suggest looking past your conspiracy theory and learn a little bit about the man. Shit he gave 15 million to the aclu. Ever heard of MPP (marijuana policy project)?? I don't give to norml or asa as they are politically motivated...MPP is not and get my donations...Peter Lewis gave them $3 million in one year alone.

Oh and by the way....currently....if you get pulled over and they find ANY thc...you get a dui (zero tolerance!). I don't agree with the .05 dui bs they put in there...but at least you have a little coverage (meaning you can have .01, .02, .03, .04ng of thc in your system). So, in reality...it allows for more then the current laws.

 

[DIDM]

I'm pretty damn optimistic

did you know Oregon legalized alcohol before the FED did?

we are THE UNITED STATES. Each state governs it's self, this is how it always was and should always be.

 

[DIDM]

I cant wait for a state to take the lead on legalizing cannabis..We all know that our state laws wont protect us from the DEA.. We need an all out fight in the courts. The state of Washington vs the DEA. Until we get cannabis rescheduled its always going to be a problem for us all...Even if Washington votes in the legalization of cannabis.. I see a new DEA office opening in that state if it passes. We all do what we believe is the right path to take. Do it all by the book vote it in. That's great and I support any state that does this.. Unfortunately the DEA will be our biggest fight. They dont want to lose the cash they get for exterminating cannabis and would also lose jobs if they dont have to worry about cannabis like they do today. I think cannabis is there cash cow..

wouldn't it be nice if the DEA focused on DRUGS and not herbs? maybe send a few billion a year into schools instead of collecting innocent folks to put in jail cells

 

[DIDM]

winds of change blow hard thru WA...
and the vote will tell......

here in OR medical marijuana actually BALANCED the budget, they doubled the price of a card and "fixed" a budgetary hole

full on legalization with the tax revenue generated, may actually get our schools back on track, making the future a better place for all of us

I doubt OR will pass but I have faith in WA and CO

once one does and the others see tax revenue, oh man, dominoes will fall

 

[narniachronic]

http://youtu.be/BRcJv5F-yyI

 

[vta]

Approve I-502, Legalize Marijuana

By Evan Wood and David Bratzer
Source: Seattle Times

cannabis Seattle -- Are you aware that passing Initiative 502 is one of the best ways to reduce international gang violence? Like the violent cartels gripping Mexico, British Columbia is affected by the organized-crime groups which control its huge marijuana industry. These gangs produce and export BC Bud to American consumers, including the 6.8 million residents of Washington state.

British Columbian gangs are competing for the revenue they generate from the marijuana-export industry. Economists have estimated the local market to be worth up to $7 billion annually. The fight for these riches explains why Seattle’s former top federal prosecutor, John McKay, has said, “British Columbia-based gangs smuggling high-grade pot are the dominant organized crime in the Northwest.”

In our roles as a public-health physician and a police officer, we have spent most of our careers at the forefront of anti-drug efforts in British Columbia. We have witnessed the bloody aftermath of shootings, stabbings and other violent confrontations that are common in British Columbia’s marijuana industry.

The level of violence that is now accepted as the new normal in British Columbia is staggering. In 2009 alone, there were no fewer than 276 incidents of drive-by shootings in the province. Local police described these shootings as often occurring “without regard for public safety.”

While Canadian laws allow for the use of medical marijuana, possession of the drug for recreational use, even in small amounts, remains illegal. We do not condone illicit-drug use, but our experiences providing medical treatment in hospital-emergency rooms and investigating gang activity have galvanized our interest in reducing violence connected to the illegal-marijuana trade.

By every measure, marijuana prohibition has failed to achieve its stated objectives. For example, the U.S. National Institutes of Health concluded that over the last 30 years of marijuana prohibition the drug has remained “almost universally available to American 12th-graders,” with between 80 percent and 90 percent consistently saying the drug is “very easy” or “fairly easy” to obtain.

U.S. government data also shows that, since 1990, the potency of marijuana has increased by 145 percent and the price has decreased by 58 percent, suggesting that the market for marijuana has become oversaturated. In short, marijuana has become more accessible to young people today than alcohol and tobacco.

Action is long overdue, but Canadian lawmakers have been slow to consider cannabis-policy reform, citing the possibility of retribution from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency and the White House. In this context, Canadians have taken a great interest in Initiative 502 and the real likelihood that Washington state will vote to tax and regulate the adult use of marijuana.

From a public-health and community-safety perspective, since marijuana remains illegal in Canada, Initiative 502 has the potential to take away local organized crime’s biggest cash cow.

Starving the local marijuana-industry gangs could have the same impact as ending Prohibition had on Al Capone and others.

In the face of corruption, violence and widespread disrespect for the law, British Columbia voted to repeal alcohol prohibition in 1920. This set an example for Washington state, which followed suit in 1932. With respect to the harms of anti-cannabis laws, Washington state voters could set an example for Canada, while also ending a system where demand for cannabis directly contributes to organized crime and gang violence.

We are hesitant to intrude on the affairs of another nation, yet so many lives are at stake. Initiative 502 is a rare opportunity for the citizens of Washington state to demonstrate international leadership in the field of justice reform. Your northern neighbor, and indeed the entire world, awaits your historic decision.

Dr. Evan Wood is a professor of medicine at the University of British Columbia and founder of Stop the Violence BC. David Bratzer is a Canadian police officer who serves on the board of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. His personal views do not represent those of his employer.

 

[Marquis de Sod]

asked my MMJ Dr. how are laws changed for those that have a mmj card like myself. This was the answer.I thought you might be interested .


Date: Wed, 14 Nov 2012 10:07:13 -0800
Subject: Re: NEW LAWS
From: althealththc@gmail.com
To:
Hello

Nothing has changed with the Medical Marijuana law. Patients are still allowed 24 ounces and 15 plants. The only thing effected for us by the law is the DUI pro se law. It now establishes the law that a police officer has the right to test your blood if they feel you are driving under the influence of cannabis. If your blood level tests above the 5ng limit (which any patient that is a regular cannabis user will be above that limit for at least a week), then you may receive a DUI charge.

The I-502 only establishes recreational use for anyone over the age of 21. However, the cannabis must be purchased from one of the stores controlled by the State Liquor Board. Citizens are limited on only an ounce and no growing. If the ounce does not have the credentials of coming from the State store, then it is still illegal.

The liquor board sent out a memo stating it will be a good year before we see retail stores open for business. http://www.liq.wa.gov/publications/Marijuana/I-502/11-7-12-Board-Statement-I502.pdf

 

[2uptown]

sounds as if washington is gunna have alot of dui's

 

[Hammerhead]

that's not good.. I see this being a big problem.. I'm sure Leo will milk it for all its worth..

 

[SCF]

dont be so pestimistic. They have to prove that you are beyond a doubt you are a risk on the road. And most people who use medication, can drive, as long as they are use to the effects and are not Wasted. So on the medical aspect dont get too worried.

I think people who are willing to try marijuana, are the scary ones, that should not drive, and at least have that fear, so they can make plans to stay the night where ever they smoke at, or they leave there car. Now how long, untill that person can drive. is a good question. We grow some bomb weed, remember!

Respect VTA !

SecurityComesFirst

 

[LeeROI]

Tacoma News Tribune:

Pot dealers ponder life in legitimate business
"I’ve been a drug dealer for more than 30 years." Before Election Day this year, making such a statement in public could have been considered unwise. But when Jeff Gilmore says it now, there’s pride in his voice.
ROB CARSON; Staff writer
ROB CARSON The News Tribune
Published: Nov. 25, 2012 at 10:09 a.m. PST — Updated: Nov. 25, 2012 at 10:10 a.m. PST

“I’ve been a drug dealer for more than 30 years.”
Before Election Day this year, making such a statement in public could have been considered unwise.
But when Jeff Gilmore says it now, there’s pride in his voice.
Next year, when the state starts handing out applications for marijuana-growing licenses, Gilmore hopes his extensive experience with grow lights, fertilizers and irrigation systems will give him a leg up on competitors.

Gilmore, 59, a longtime Thurston County resident, said he’s been growing and selling pot since shortly after he graduated from the University of Washington back in the Vietnam War era.
“I’m an independent farmer, and I believe in small business,” Gilmore said recently. “I want to create 10,000 jobs in Washington in the cannabis industry.”
Gilmore is one of an army of black-market pot purveyors who, with the passage of Initiative 502 legalizing up to an ounce of pot for all adults, hope to make lateral transfers into the legitimate market.

The potential rewards are enormous.
If the federal government allows Washington to proceed with its social experiment, retail marijuana sales in the state could top $1 billion a year, according to the state’s Office of Financial Management, which studied impacts of I-502 before the Nov. 6 election.
Annual consumption, not including sales to out-of-state consumers who come here to take advantage of legal weed, could reach 94 tons, according to the agency.
Because the state will limit the number of growers, processors and retailers, some are regarding the licenses as permission to print money.

POT PIONEERS
“Think of the novelty of this,” said Tacoma attorney Jay Berneburg. “You will be one of the first people in the entire world to legally sell marijuana. You will probably make a million dollars your first five days in business. People will be buying it just because they can.”
Over the past few years, Berneburg has become the go-to-guy for marijuana-related legal representation in the South Sound.
His clients include owners of 65 medical marijuana outlets, he said, and nearly all of them have expressed an interest in moving into the legitimate trade once the state Liquor Control Board completes its rule-making process.

“Most of my clients have expressed a desire to apply for licensing under I-502,” Berneburg said. “We’re looking ahead to as to what they might do.”
Interest is so high, Berneburg said, he’s scheduled a workshop on Saturday for his clients who want to apply for a license.
The Liquor Control Board is at least a year away from handing down the rules that will define the new industry, and that’s if the federal government doesn’t stop the whole enterprise in its tracks before then – a huge if, according to some.
The board has a new I-502 implementation page on its website, but it offers few hints about what the new rules might look like, other than to say the marijuana system will be similar to the one used to control alcohol. It also said it expects to take every bit of the time allowed — until Dec. 1, 2013 — to complete the rules.

Still, cannabis candidates are getting their papers in order.
Berneburg knows the exercise is speculative at this point. Even so, he said, it makes sense to be prepared.
“We’re putting together pre-licensing dossiers for people interested in going forward with this,” Berneburg said.
Nobody knows at this point what the Liquor Control Board might require of its applicants, but Berneburg is using the state’s old liquor license requirements as a likely template.
“That way,” he said, “as soon as it does come down, they can immediately apply and be first in line.”

CHEECH AND CHONG?
For some, the idea that Washington’s grand experiment with marijuana could be staffed with a cast of characters from the Cheech and Chong days is less than reassuring.
The most idealistic of I-502’s supporters see the change as a precedent for the rest of the country and even the world. If the plan proceeds without the courts stopping it, attention will be riveted on how well it turns out.
The bill’s backers want to make sure it works.

Alison Holcomb, the attorney who ran the successful I-502 campaign, is back at her regular job as ACLU of Washington’s drug policy adviser, and she and the rest of the ACLU organization will maintain their attention, said Doug Honig, ACLU of Washington’s director of communications.
“We’ll be watching it closely to ensue that the law is fully and fairly implemented,” Honig said. “We’ll provide input as appropriate.”
I-502 contains some safeguards. It bars people with felony convictions from owning any of the new marijuana stores. If it wants to, the Liquor Control Board could expand that restriction to include all growers and processors.

Still, Berneburg said that need not be a barrier. As the state moves toward implementation, he said, a new cottage industry has arisen for cleaning up the criminal histories of potential applicants who, “when they were kids, may have committed some indiscretions.”
After a certain amount of time crime-free, it’s possible to ask a court to “vacate and exonerate” former felons.
“In that case,” he said, “they are allowed to say they have never been convicted.”
Medical marijuana retailers, some who have invested large sums in their businesses, are particularly eager to find roles in the new regime because chances are good the new state-licensed stores will put many of them out of business.
“Why would anybody buy a (medical marijuana) authorization anymore if marijuana is legal?” asked Muraco Kyashna-tacha, founder of the medical marijuana dispensary Green Buddha Patient Co-op in Seattle.

Kyashna-tacha said she expects the number of dispensaries now doing business, some 160 in Seattle and about 45 in Tacoma, to drop to perhaps fewer than a dozen when legal marijuana shops open.
“I think they may shift into more of a service-type industry,” she said.

BLACK MARKET CONCERNS
The current concern about black marketers stepping into or subverting the legal market closely parallels concerns at the end of alcohol prohibition in Washington 80 years ago.
“It’s very nearly identical,” said William Rorabaugh, a University of Washington professor of history who has written at length about alcohol and drug policy.
In 1932, Washington voters repealed all of the state’s prohibition laws, Rorabaugh said, meaning alcohol was unregulated by the state, even though it continued to be illegal under federal law.

“People who had been bootleggers were suddenly in the business of selling beer,” he said.
As now, the Liquor Control Board was the entity designated to sort things out, Rorabaugh said, and its chairman, retired Navy Adm. Luther Gregory, handled it effectively by giving a license to nearly everyone who wanted one — even though he knew their ranks included “many scofflaws and scurrilous characters.”
But if they broke the rules, they were out forever.
“Gregory essentially said, ‘We’re going to license you, but if you violate any of the terms of the license, the penalty will not be a 10-day suspension, but entire revocation,’” Rorabaugh said. “He said, ‘We’re going to call the shots and we’ll be tough about it.’”
Then, as now, the concern was that if the bootleggers were not included in the system, they would undercut it and doom it to failure.

Gregory’s solution to that, Rorabaugh said, was to start out with minimal taxes to keep prices low. After the bootleggers were out of business, the state cranked up the taxes.
“By 1940, Washington had the highest liquor taxes in the country,” Rorabaugh said. “It was brilliant bureaucracy at its best.”
MODERN BOOTLEGGER

Ben Schroeter is a modern-day bootlegger. Now 59, Schroeter — or “Ben Jammin,” as he sometimes calls himself — said he’s been selling marijuana illegally in the Seattle area for 38 years.
His past troubles with the law make it unlikely that he’ll have a role in the new system, he said.
Whether he’ll keep on dealing illegally after the new state system is in place is an open question, Schroeter said.
“By the time it (marijuana) gets to the stores, it’s likely to be more expensive than what I sell my pot for,” he said.
I-502 calls for heavy taxes — 25 percent as it moves from grower to processor to retailer and another 25 percent at the counter — plus 10 percent or more sales tax.
“The market will dictate whether I’m still in business or not,” Schroeter said.
Schroeter, a big fan of I-502, said that if the market does put him out of business, he’s fine with that.
“I’ve always done it as a service more than anything else,” he said. “If the state can put me out of business by legalizing pot, then my business plan was successful.”

Read more here: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2012/...-ponder-life-in-legitimate.html#storylink=cpy

 

[LeeROI]

[SeattleTimes.com:]

Originally published Friday, November 30, 2012 at 9:46 PM
Liquor Control Board to invent a pot market, from seed to store

The state Liquor Control Board has an interesting job in the year ahead: to get into the weeds of how marijuana is grown, sold and used.

By Jonathan Martin

Seattle Times staff reporter

Washington voters' decision to legalize marijuana means the state Liquor Control Board (LCB) now has a year to set regulations for the first-of-its-kind marijuana market.

But first, the small state agency must go on an even stranger mission — to get into the, well, weeds of how marijuana is grown, sold and used.

At a hearing on Friday before a state Senate committee, Pat Kohler, the LCB director, said the agency would need to hire a consultant — a pot expert — to gather input from key groups of police, farmers, users and others to help her staff better "understand the product and the industry itself."

The agency has been getting a lot of advice, said Rick Garza, Kohler's deputy. "There's a lot of people who think they have a lot of experience in this area," Garza said, prompting laughs from lawmakers.

The voter-approved Initiative 502 requires the LCB to license and regulate a seed-to-store closed marijuana market, with the first licenses to be issued in late 2013. Based on a state fiscal analysis, it will be a big market: 363,000 users consuming 187,000 pounds of marijuana each year, with steep sin taxes generating more than $560 million a year.

Those taxes may eventually pay for regulation, but in the startup phase, Kohler said, Gov. Chris Gregoire would ask the Legislature to let the LCB tap existing funds to hire 40 new staffers, most of them enforcement officers.

Kohler said she'd like more information on how much pot Washingtonians use now, because, "Consumption will drive the number of stores, and the production."

At the hearing, Sen. Curtis King, R-Yakima, asked about the law's conflict with federal prohibition of marijuana. Kohler said Gregoire planned to talk with federal authorities a second time, but her agency was proceeding regardless.

"We're not sure we'll get any direction from the federal government," she said.

 

[LeeROI]

Originally published Wednesday, December 5, 2012 at 8:59 PM

Now that pot's legal in state, will D.C. delegation defend law?

Washington's new marijuana law takes effect Thursday, amid a muted reaction from the state's congressional delegation and questions about whether the federal government will seek to block it.

By Kyung M. Song

Seattle Times Washington bureau

WASHINGTON — Washington state's new marijuana-legalization law, which takes effect Thursday, is a direct affront to federal drug policy. So does Dave Reichert — the King County sheriff-turned-congressman — think users still should be subject to arrest by federal agents?

He isn't saying. Neither is Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Spokane, the highest-ranking Republican woman in Congress.

And Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, both of whom personally opposed making recreational pot legal, haven't exactly been at the forefront of trying to resolve the legal limbo.

The Washington congressional delegation's muted reaction likely will do little to help clarify the state's unprecedented conflict with the federal ban on marijuana. It also leaves unclear whether voters — who approved legalization 56 to 44 percent — can expect their elected representatives to vigorously stand up for the state law.

On Wednesday, the U.S. attorney for Seattle, Jenny Durkan, said in a statement that the Department of Justice (DOJ) still was reviewing legalization measures approved last month by voters in Washington and Colorado: "The Department's responsibility to enforce the Controlled Substances Act remains unchanged. Neither States nor the Executive branch can nullify a statute passed by Congress."

But, as some legal experts expected, the DOJ has not acted.

Other legal experts, as well as marijuana advocates, expect the federal government will quietly let the state laws go forward. As Richard Epstein, a professor at New York University School of Law, put it, the Drug Enforcement Agency is "going to play its version of 'don't ask, don't tell.' "

Colorado's law, which mirrors Washington's new tolerance for personal possession of marijuana, is expected to take effect within 30 days.

Unlike Washington's delegation, Colorado lawmakers have taken more decisive action to defend their state's law. Three House members from Colorado have backed a bill to prevent the federal Controlled Substances Act from pre-empting state laws. Of the 10 co-sponsors of the bill, which was introduced by Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., none is from Washington.

U.S. Rep. Adam Smith, D-Bellevue, has been the delegation's most prominent voice on the right of the state to implement the law. He was one of 18 House Democrats, and the only member from Washington, to sign a post-election letter to Attorney General Eric Holder asking the DOJ to refrain from making arrests.

"I don't want to leave my constituents in a limbo not knowing whether a given activity is legal or not," said Smith, a former prosecutor for the city of Seattle, who said he voted for the law.

Smith has not signed onto DeGette's bill but said he supports it in principle.

Smith noted the DOJ has taken a largely hands-off attitude toward medical marijuana, paving the way for its legalization in 18 states and the District of Columbia. But federal authorities still sporadically assert their power, Smith said.

Since January 2010, federal agents have raided more than 200 medical-marijuana dispensaries, labs and cultivation sites in eight states, including Washington, according to Kris Hermes, spokesman for Americans for Safe Access, an advocacy group for medical marijuana.

Washington's new law has left Democrats and Republicans in the state delegation personally at odds with voters' will.

McMorris Rodgers opposes legalizing marijuana. Reichert's office has repeatedly refused to say whether he thinks the new state law should trump the federal ban. Reichert, whose mother took cannabis in a pill form before she died of cancer in 2011, softened his stance on medical marijuana but not to the point of supporting legalization.

Meanwhile, activists in Seattle plan a public celebration at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Seattle Center fountain, despite the new law's ban on public consumption of marijuana. Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes said he hoped there would not be "unfortunate flaunting" of public marijuana use, which is subject to a fine of about $50.

"I think (Seattle police) will see how well people comply," said Holmes. If they issue tickets, "we will enforce the law."

 

[CANNABEST]

Schroeter, a big fan of I-502, said that if the market does put him out of business, he’s fine with that.
“I’ve always done it as a service more than anything else,” he said. “If the state can put me out of business by legalizing pot, then my business plan was successful.”

this idiot should be the first to get a DUI from this new I-502

 

[SCF]

Here is puffing one for you Washington. Its legal today, Smile

 

[hempluvr]

Home invasion and double murder in Puyallup this morning. Some fucks raided a grow house and killed the owners...What a way to start off the legal side of things...FUCKED UP!!!

 

[accessndx]

This might be the coolest quote I've ever seen in human history:

Seattle police spokesman Jonah Spangenthal-Lee wrote on the department's blog, "The police department believes that, under state law, you may responsibly get baked, order some pizzas and enjoy a Lord of the Rings marathon in the privacy of your own home, if you want to."

http://abcnews.go.com/US/washington-pot-smokers-celebrate-legal-status-fed-agents/story?id=17893882

K F.U.C.K.I.N.G. + TO ALL OF WASHINGTON! I'm smoking one right now to celebrate with y'all!!!!

 

[mugenbao]

That is a pretty cool quote, thanks for posting it

 

[huligun]

Home invasion and double murder in Puyallup this morning. Some fucks raided a grow house and killed the owners...What a way to start off the legal side of things...FUCKED UP!!!

Here is your story

http://www.komonews.com/news/local/...illed-at-marijuana-grow-house--182391481.html

PUYALLUP, Wash. - Two heavily armed intruders who forced their way into a home with an illegal marijuana grow operation were shot and killed by the homeowner Thursday morning near Puyallup, officials said.

Law enforcement personnel responded to the scene, a luxury home in the 5900 block of 132nd Street, just after 8 a.m. when the homeowner called to report a break-in, said Ed Troyer of the Pierce County Sheriff's Office. The homeowner then called back a few minutes later to say shots were fired.

The arriving deputy found two armed people with masks on their faces on the floor of the home's six-car garage. Medics were unable to revive them.

The homeowner told detectives that he opened fire at the intruders when they forced their way into the home, which houses an illegal marijuana grow operation in the attic, Troyer said.

He said it appears the intruders were after the marijuana and possibly cash.

The 35-year-old homeowner and the homeowner's 9-year-old son were not hurt in the incident.

"In this particular case we have two people dead, multiple shots fired. The homeowner is OK; unfortunately it could have gone the other way. We could have had a dead 9-year-old and a dead homeowner," Troyer said.

Ironically, the deadly shootings came on the first day of marijuana legalization in Washington state.

While it is now legal for adults 21 or over to possess up to an ounce of marijuana in Washington state, it is still illegal to grow or sell the drug. The state has until late next year to come up with a system of state-licensed growers, processors and retail stores, with the marijuana taxed 25 percent at each stage.

Marijuana also remains illegal under federal law. That means federal agents can still arrest people for it, and it's banned from federal properties, including military bases and national parks.