[yortbogey]

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP)-- The secretary of state's office has certified an initiative to legalize marijuana, and unless the Legislature takes action, the measure will appear on the November ballot.

The office of Secretary of State Sam Reed announced Friday that sponsors of Initiative 502 submitted nearly 278,000 valid signatures, more than the 241,153 necessary to qualify.

I-502 would create a system of state-licensed growers, processors and stores, and impose a 25 percent excise tax at each stage. Those 21 and over could buy up to an ounce of dried marijuana; one pound of marijuana-infused product in solid form, such as brownies; or 72 ounces of marijuana-infused liquids.


what say U...........

[MIway]

bad ass yort!

finally... an adult approach to the weed... wishing mr reed all the best, with much respect.

Do they still have that asinine THC% per-se section (Part V)? That's really the only thing that held me back from supporting it. There are other flaws too, of course, but by and large I believe in supporting anything that would help progress.

[manpan]

WTG Washington! good luck!!

[yortbogey]

yes there is a DUI"C" clause in I-502

[yortbogey]

here is the wiki link....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washing...tive_502_(2011)

[catman]

All quiet on the pacific western front. People making any noise about this?

[1and1]

Yes, this bill is a wolf in sheep's clothing. It is not legalization. It would allow police to charge any user with dui. You can go for days without smoking and still come in at over 5 nanograms per milliliter. Those under 18 could be charged for dui with any measurable THC blood level.

[StinkyGreen]

Very interesting/scary ... "I-502 would also make it illegal to drive with blood THC levels equal to or greater than 5 nanograms per milliliter."

Can anyone translate that into an equivalent consumption metric? i.e. How many bong hits does it take to get to 5 ng/mL? How quickly does THC in your blood degrade/get removed?

I realize this may vary widely depending on body weight, lung capacity, metabolism, type of weed, etc. But we need some kind of reference point in order to understand how dangerous this bill could potentially be.

[StinkyGreen]

Did a bit of poking around trying to answer my own question here. Found some good info at https://www.canorml.org/healthfacts/d...detection.html I wish the graph were a little more detailed, and I want to know whether the 5ng/mL is for whole blood or plasma, but here's what I've found so far:

In the case of smoked marijuana, THC peaks rapidly in the first few minutes after inhaling, often to levels above 100 ng/ml in blood plasma. It then declines quickly to single-digit levels within an hour. High THC levels are therefore a good indication that the subject has smoked marijuana recently. THC can remain at low but detectable levels of 1- 2 ng/ml for 8 hours or more without any measurable signs of impairment. Chronic users have been found to show residual blood THC levels of 1.5 (+/- 0.5) ng/ml for a full week after ceasing use [Karschner].

Note: THC blood levels above are recorded in terms of concentration in serum or plasma. Most U.S. labs report levels based on whole blood instead. Concentrations in whole blood are about half as high. Therefore 1 - 2 ng/ml in plasma is equal to 0.5 - 1.0 ng/ml in whole blood.

Edit: Just found what looks like a good research paper on the whole topic. Will take me a while to read through it, but here's the link in case anyone else is interested:
https://www.canorml.org/healthfacts/DUICreport.2005.pdf