420 Policies and Laws

[Crow]

This is just one man's opinion though, one who happens to partake quite often and who recently recovered from being hit by a jeep. Which is to say I'm no stranger to smoking buddha with a good deal of aches and pains.

Have you tried a cannabis topical? There's a lotion called "Buzz" that works wonders (it does for me, anyways).

[Crow]

Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson predicts pot will be legal by 2016

Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, the Libertarian Party candidate for president, predicted Thursday that pot legalization will be approved by voters in Washington and Colorado this fall, helping to spur other states to follow suit.

Gary Johnson, the Libertarian Party nominee for president, predicted Thursday that marijuana will be legal nationwide within the next four years.

Johnson, the former governor of New Mexico, said he thinks that pot legalization will be approved by voters in Washington and Colorado this fall, helping to spur other states to follow suit.

"We are a tipping point here on this issue," Johnson said in an interview during a visit to the Seattle area as part of his longshot campaign.

Johnson, who unsuccessfully pushed for marijuana legalization as governor of New Mexico a decade ago, has admitted to smoking pot as recently as 2008, when he was recovering from a paragliding crash.

He said, "The world will be a better place" when it is legal, because "police will go out and fight real crime, court dockets won't get as filled up, and maybe we can reduce the highest incarceration rate in the world."

Recent polling has offered varying pictures of the prospects of Initiative 502, which would legalize and tax the sale of marijuana in Washington.

An Elway Poll released last week found that 46 percent of registered voters supported the measure, while 44 percent opposed it. But a KING-TV/SurveyUSA poll released days earlier found the measure with 55 percent support versus 32 percent against.

One thing is clear: The initiative has a better chance of passing than Johnson has of becoming president. His campaign has only raised about $1 million — President Obama and his Republican rival Mitt Romney have each raised about $300 million — and he isn't being included in most polling.

Article continued at: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...ohnson03m.html

[Crow]

Marijuana initiative gets $1.25 million in new donations

By Jonathan Martin, Seattle Times

An initiative to legalize and tax marijuana was buoyed this weekend by $1.25 million in new donations, allowing the campaign to place a big TV ad buy for August.

Initiative 502, the first marijuana-legalization initiative to make the state ballot, raised the money from just four donors, including $450,000 donations from Progressive Insurance founder Peter Lewis and an arm of the New York-based Drug Policy Alliance.

The donations will pay for a $1 million TV-ad blitz in August, before other campaigns saturate the airwaves, said I-502 campaign manager Alison Holcomb.

I-502, on the November ballot, would legalize possession and sale of up to 1 ounce of marijuana. It would impose a steep excise tax on marijuana and cannabis-infused products at new state-licensed marijuana stores, and would allow state-regulated grow farms.

The tax-and-regulate approach to marijuana legalization has drawn strong support from such longtime drug-reform advocates as Lewis, of Ohio. Before the weekend's contributions, I-502 had raised $1.7 million.

A new statewide poll, paid for by KING 5, finds 55 percent support for I-502 versus 32 percent opposition.

Previous polls found firmer opposition, but Holcomb said attitudes change when voters understand I-502's safeguards, including a ban on marijuana sales to people under 21.

"People are getting more comfortable when they take a closer look," she said.

Holcomb said the new contributions, which will be officially reported by the campaign early next week, included $250,000 from Edmonds travel guru Rick Steves, who previously donated $100,000; and $100,000 from the ACLU of Washington.

The campaign has racked up blue-chip endorsers, including former federal prosecutors, judges and drug-abuse experts, as well as the state labor council."

Article continued at: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/text/2018749612.html

[truthwolf1]

Jumpstart the economy. You have the medical aspect, taxation of another product and also re-creating the industrial zone with a very adaptable and multi-use crop.

[Mrobin52]

This is an exciting time for Washington for sure! I'm hoping it will gain much more ground here than it did in California, a few years ago. You have a really good point too truthwolf. If Cannabis is legalized that opens up a lot more potential market saturation for the myriad industrial uses for hemp. The Cannabis plant really is the missing link in terms of industrial sustainability in many ways.

[Crow]

The state estimates that it could make $500,000,000 per year (that's $2,500,000,000 in 5 years).

[Joe234]

Paul Ryan Flip-Flops Like Mitt on Marijuana Views

Running for vice president is turning into the most cowardly thing Paul Ryan has ever done:


As the Republican vice-presidential nominee Rep. Paul Ryan gets ready to begin debate preparation on Sunday in Oregon, the Wisconsin lawmaker raised a few eyebrows when he told KRDO-TV in Colorado Springs that states should have the right to choose whether to legalize the drug for medical purposes. Ryan emphasized that while he doesn’t personally approve of laws that make medicinal marijuana legal, “it’s up to Coloradans to decide.” Colorado is one of 17 states, plus Washington, D.C., that allow medicinal marijuana, notes the Associated Press.


Ryan noted that the issue “is something that is not a high priority of ours.” A Ryan spokesman later emphasized that he agrees with Mitt Romney that marijuana should never be legalized.

http://www.opposingviews.com/i/polit...elf-match-mitt

[voodooman]

let me say; i've been both sides for this. in prison... yeah, I've been. ...but ryan is an asshole. we need to come to terms with this on a national level. these people are not your enemy. peace is in natural chaos with capitalistic economy, we really do need to put in some work if we will fix this.

[Crow]

Washington Initiative 502 (Cannabis)

The clock is ticking...

Ballots must be postmarked by Election Day (6. November)

[Crow]

Editorial: Tackling the issue of driving while stoned

The question marijuana users have about Initiative 502 is its threshold standard of intoxication for driving on public roads. It’s an issue, but it should not be the deciding one.

Seattle Times Editorial

For marijuana users — and there are tens of thousands in Washington, lawful and otherwise — the question about Initiative 502 is its threshold standard of intoxication for driving on public roads. This is an issue, but it should not be the deciding one.

Under I-502, a driver who has 5 nanograms of active THC per milliliter of blood is legally under the influence of drugs. That’s like the standard for alcohol. A driver whose blood is at least 0.08 percent alcohol is legally drunk. A driver can be arrested and convicted of driving under the influence with less than 0.08 percent if his driving is bad enough, but with 0.08 percent, there is no argument about it.

Patrol officers do not have a blood test for marijuana. If a driver’s alcohol test exonerates drink, the officer can call in a drug-recognition expert who can decide to do a blood draw. If the draw picks up an intoxicant, that’s evidence against the driver, but Robert Calkins, spokesman for the Washington State Patrol, says convictions are based mostly on testimony about the driving. Under Initiative 502 a blood level of 5 nanograms of THC would mean guilty. Clearly such guilty. Clearly, such a standard would make the work of the police and courts much easier. If the standard is scientifically valid, it should be in the law. About that, the pro- and anti-502 sides offer studies, none conclusive.

Most states have no standard or a zero standard, because most states consider THC illegal and make no effort to accommodate it. In Colorado, which may legalize marijuana in a public vote this November, the state Legislature came within one vote earlier this year of setting a standard of 5 nanograms.

That standard was put into I-502 so Washington voters, who are rightly concerned with road safety, would approve the rest of the bill. The rest of the bill makes a lot of sense, and voters should be willing to try the 5-nanogram standard and see how it works.

It still requires a traffic stop, probable cause for impaired driving, the calling of a separate drug officer to examine the driver and the drug officer’s decision to administer a blood test. Those things are time-consuming and expensive, and are not likely to be done indiscriminately.

And recall that the blood-alcohol standard was 0.15 percent for many years before it was eventually lowered to .08. If the 5-nanogram standard turns out to be wrong, it can also be changed.

[Crow]

Editorial: I-502 pits the people of Washington against the federal government

Even if Initiative 502 passes, marijuana use would still be prohibited by federal law. Passage would thrust the issue of legalization into the national spotlight.

Seattle Times Editorial

In the 1990s the people of Washington wanted marijuana for use as medicine. Federal law forbade it, and politicians in Olympia would not push back. The people turned to the initiative power.

In 1998 they passed Initiative 692, making Washington one of the early medical-marijuana states along with Alaska, Oregon and California.

Now 18 states and the District of Columbia allow cannabis for medicinal use, and a push begins in the early states to allow it for general use.

Again, federal law says no. Again, state politicians are unwilling to push back, and again, the people turn to the initiative power.

California, the first medical-marijuana state, voted on a legalization measure, Proposition 19, two years ago. It fell three and a half points short, thanks partly to the illicit marijuana growers, who opposed it.

Now come legalization initiatives in Washington, Colorado and Oregon. This state’s I-502 is backed by the American Civil Liberties Union, Seattle City Attorney Peter Holmes and former U.S. Attorneys John McKay and Kate Pflaumer.

Washington’s existing marijuana law, which now makes possession of up to 40 grams — the equivalent weight of the tobacco in two-and-a-half packs of cigarettes — a misdemeanor. Amounts of marijuana greater than that are a felony, as is growing it or selling it.

To be convicted of a felony is to have a serious criminal record, and even a misdemeanor conviction can deprive a university student of federal aid.

Drug convictions have hit particularly hard on African-American and Latino youth, who are equally likely to use marijuana as white youth, but much more likely to be arrested and convicted.

Washington’s medical-marijuana law does not repeal the underlying drug law. It offers an escape from penalties for medical patients with the right sort of permission.

I-502 would authorize marijuana as a commercial product. The state’s Office of Financial Management describes it as a measure to create “a closed, highly regulated industry” of licensed growers, processors and shopkeepers selling a product processed, packaged and branded under state rules.

Of course, marijuana would still be prohibited under the federal Controlled Substances Act — and federal law trumps state law. Because of this, Gov. Chris Gregoire and the men who hope to succeed her, Attorney General Rob McKenna and former U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee — attorneys all — decline to support I-502.

But federal law bans medical marijuana as well. Washington has had medical marijuana because people here voted for it, their local politicians supported them and because federal officials chose to allow it.

I-502 is a way for voters of Washington to push for the next step: legalization.

It is possible that a few weeks from now, Washington, Oregon and Colorado will say to federal authority:

“We intend to decriminalize marijuana for general adult use. We’ll do it a responsible way. We’ll regulate it. We’ll tax it. We’ll keep organized crime out of it. And we intend to do this unless you stop us.”

President Obama — or President Romney — would be under no obligation to agree to this. He might. If he did not, his rejection would make marijuana legalization a live national issue.

Right now it is not. In two months, it could be.

[Crow]

Editorial: Legalizing marijuana adds revenue, reduces law-enforcement costs

The case for Initiative 502 is about public money — the money wasted by trying to stamp out marijuana and the money given up by failing to legalize it and tax it.

Seattle Times Editorial

PART of the case for Initiative 502 is about public money — the money wasted by trying to stamp out marijuana and the money given up by failing to legalize it and tax it.

Under Initiative 502 the state would impose a 25 percent marijuana tax at wholesale and another 25 percent at retail. Add in the other taxes on business, and the state would attempt to capture more than half the final value.

How much would that be? In its fiscal note on I-502, the state Office of Financial Management estimated possible marijuana-tax revenue in the year ending June 30, 2015, at $434 million. That’s comparable with the state’s take from the cigarette tax ($425 million in fiscal 2012) and the state and local take from liquor ($426 million in 2011).

There are also sales and business taxes. OFM estimated the total state and local government revenue from marijuana at $566 million. That’s roughly what the state budgets in taxpayer money for its six universities. Most of the marijuana money, however, would be earmarked for health-related spending (see chart).

All these estimates rest on some big assumptions. OFM estimates the number of marijuana smokers from a federal survey. Its revenue estimate assumes medical dispensaries are serving none of the demand, that the illicit market will go away, and that there will be no marijuana tourists. It assumes smokers will pay $12 a gram. Above all, it assumes the federal government will not intervene.

Any of these assumptions may be wrong. No one really knows what state marijuana revenues would be. But it could be a lot.

Putting I-502 into effect would also save the money now spent on law enforcement. A study by Mark Cooke of the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington (one of 502’s sponsors), estimates that the extra cost of a simple marijuana arrest for police, courts, prosecutors, defense, jail and supervision at $2,881.

Statewide there were about 9,308 marijuana misdemeanor cases filed in 2010 and about 670 marijuana felony cases. ACLU estimates that from 2000 to 2010, the statewide marijuana enforcement costs totaled $211 million. That estimate does not include the costs in lost income and opportunities borne by those who were arrested or their families.

The bottom line: Legalizing marijuana offers government a pot of money, both in revenue and in savings.

[Crow]

Editorial: Approve Initiative 502 — It’s time to legalize, regulate and tax marijuana

Marijuana prohibition does not work. The better policy is to legalize it, license it, regulate it and tax it.

Seattle Times Editorial

The question for voters is not whether marijuana is good. It is whether prohibition is good. It is whether the people who use marijuana shall be subject to arrest, and whether the people who supply them shall be sent to prison. The question is whether the war on marijuana is worth what it costs.

Initiative 502 says no.

If marijuana killed people, or if smoking it made people commit violence and mayhem, prohibition might be worth all its bad effects. But marijuana does not kill people; there is no lethal dose. Marijuana befuddles the mind and stimulates the appetite, but it does not make people commit arson and brigandage.

Some people abuse it, just as with alcohol, but cannabis is less of a social problem than liquor, wine and beer. And society manages those as legal, commercial products.

What would legal marijuana be like? Consider what has happened in Seattle. The city has become a sanctuary for medical marijuana, with aboveboard dispensaries. Recreational marijuana is readily available in Seattle on the illicit market, and users of small amounts are no longer prosecuted. For several years, recreational marijuana has effectively been decriminalized in Seattle, and there has been no upsurge in crime or road deaths from it.

But even in Seattle, recreational marijuana is still supplied by criminals — by definition. Prohibition creates criminals. In the 1920s, when alcohol was banned nationwide, alcohol money fed Chicago gangster Al Capone just as marijuana money feeds the Mexican gangs now.

Says former U.S. Attorney John McKay, who battled the gangs while in office and supports 502 now, “The enormous demand for marijuana in the face of criminal penalties, which has been in existence for 70 years, is spinning off enormous profits for drug cartels, for gangs, for drug dealers.”

Initiative 502 aims to take the marijuana business out of the hands of gangs. That is what legalizing alcohol did in the 1930s. Alcohol was still an intoxicant, and still dangerous. But at least spirits, wine and beer were produced in businesses that were open for inspection and had to follow the law.

The producer bought insurance and could be sued. Its product was uniform and had the company’s name on it. The executives were members of the community, and they did not shoot each other. Alcohol was sold in establishments that carded buyers who looked to be under 21, on pain of losing a valuable state license.

Parents may ask whether I-502 will make marijuana more available to their teenage children. The answer is to compare marijuana with beer. For teenagers, both are illegal — and available. But which is more easily available, the one that is banned or the one that is regulated? For more than 40 years, the one more easily available to teenagers has been the one that is banned.

Marijuana prohibition does not work. The better policy is to legalize it, license it, regulate it and tax it.

The Times editorial board supports Initiative 502 as a big step in that direction. We present some of our other reasons on this page.

[eyephantom]

Since marijuana would still remain illegal under federal law, if passed, I can only assume companies would still maintain pre-employment and random drug tests except at the very lowest levels of employment. This in my opinion is the most dangerous aspect of marijuana use.

[Crow]

Since marijuana would still remain illegal under federal law, if passed, I can only assume companies would still maintain pre-employment and random drug tests except at the very lowest levels of employment. This in my opinion is the most dangerous aspect of marijuana use.

Federal employment, certainly. Private sector would be at the employer's discretion (they can use a saliva test if they suspect an employee is under the influence on the job).