Pubdate: Wed, 05 Jun 2013 Source: Seattle Weekly (WA) Copyright: 2013 Village Voice Media Contact: http://www.seattleweekly.com/feedback/EmailAnEmployee?department=letters Website: http://www.seattleweekly.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/410 Author: Matt Driscoll THE SUMMER OF LOVE AND DRUGS Six months ago, same-sex marriages and pot became legal. May this be the summer of fabulous weddings and potheads learning to love. Part I: Love In 1967, San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury neighborhood was the epicenter of the Summer of Love. As the Scott McKenzie song implored, thousands of hippies - with flowers in their hair - converged on the city, looking for a stake in the counterculture phenomenon that helped define a generation. In 2013, Washington, and more specifically Seattle and King County, are in the midst of a Summer of Love of a different kind. Six months after Washington passed Referendum 74 - making same-sex marriage legal in our state - the wedding bells just keep ringing: In King County, roughly 52 percent more marriage licenses were issued between December 2012 and March 2013 compared to the same period the previous year, according to the county. For Seattle's Shotgun Ceremonies - a Pioneer Square chapel that specializes in fast and unique hitches - that increase has come almost exclusively in the form of gay marriages. "It's been fabulous. We've probably over doubled our business," says Shotgun Ceremonies co-owner Browen Stevenson, who opened the 800 square-foot chapel three years ago along with business partner Sara Qureshi. "It's been extremely helpful." Other counties haven't seen the same spike. In Pierce County, for instance - which rejected R-74 by a slim margin of just under 3,000 votes -- 2,292 marriage licenses were issued between Dec. 6 and May 9. Of those, according to the Pierce County Auditor's Office, only 275 were same-sex couples. In Thurston County, where R-74 was approved by 15,000 votes, the results have been similar: 717 marriage licenses were issued between Dec. 2012 and April 2013, as compared to 559 over the same period the previous year. (The Thurston County Auditor's Office could not provide information on how many of the marriage licenses went to same-sex couples.) In Snohomish County, where R-74 was approved by almost 20,000 votes, there were 1,468 marriage licenses issued between Dec. 2012 and April 2013, as compared to 1,192 over the same period the previous year. (Again, numbers for how many were issued to same-sex couples could not be provided.) Meanwhile, east of the mountains in Adams County - which by percentage rejected R-74 by the largest margin - according to the Adams County Auditor's Office there has been exactly one same-sex marriage. Back in Seattle, Stevenson says Shotgun Ceremonies performs 20 to 40 marriages a month, and since R-74 became law at least half have been of the same-sex variety. Prior to same-sex marriage becoming legal in Washington Shotgun Ceremonies presided over plenty of civil unions, according to Stevenson, but since December 2012 the same-sex marriage business has been booming. In part, the brisk business at Shotgun Ceremonies has been aided by some shrewd marketing. To celebrate the historic change in Washington's marriage laws, last December Stevenson and Quereshi offered a week of free same-sex marriages. But according to the entrepreneurs, that decision had far less to do with boosting business as it did with simply doing the right thing for people who had long deserved the right to get hitched. "We wanted this so badly for everyone. [A week of free same-sex marriages] was the only way we could think of. We wanted to reverse all the negativity in the wedding industry," says Stevenson of the decision. "It's hard for me to hear people ask if we do gay weddings. .. There are a lot of officiants that still wont do same-sex marriages. It's sad. It's like, 'Of course we do that!' While Washington is one of 12 states that have legalized same-sex marriage (a hopefully growing list), Stevenson says many Shotgun Ceremonies customers venture to Seattle to tie the knot from somewhere else in the country. She estimates that about one-third of the Shotgun Ceremonies clientele is made up of "out of towners." "Hopefully, America will evolve a little bit and move on and see how wonderful [same-sex marriages] are," says Stevenson. Truer words have never been spoken. Until then, however, we can celebrate the Summer of Love in Seattle. Part II: Drugs Last year Seattle Hempfest lacked the friendly vibe it has become known for. Instead of pot-based camaraderie and good, high times, a fierce and contentious debate raged. Initiative 502, which would legalize the possession of up to an ounce of pot in our state for adults, was on the ballot but not yet law. Though legalizing marijuana had long been a goal of the Hempfest crowd, many in the marijuana community were fearful of I-502, leery of the DUI provision it contained and the power it gave the state in creating Washington's pot marketplace. This year, according to Hempfest Executive Director Vivian McPeak, things will be different at the festival. Though there are still plenty of people skeptical of I-502 and the legalized pot landscape it has created in Washington, McPeak says one of the goals of Hempfest 2013 is to "let some healing happen." "I think the community is going to come together. ... In general, I think the community has more in common than in disagreement," says McPeak of what he expects from this year's Seattle Hempfest, which is scheduled for Aug. 16 - 18 at Myrtle Edwards and Centennial Parks (and still awaiting its permit from the city). "This is the Petri dish we're living in. I think the smart people look for a way to move forward." Based on the contentious nature of the I-502 debate, that might not be easy. But with six months of legalized marijuana under Washington's belt - if not clarification from the feds, or finalized rules from the state agency tasked with overseeing the production and sale of pot - some things are becoming clear. In the lead-up to November's passage of I-502 one of the greatest fears surrounding the initiative was the DUI provision it contained, allowing for DUI charges for anyone found driving with over five nanograms of active THC per liter of blood in their body. Many medical marijuana advocates argued that such a provision would essentially bar medical marijuana patients from ever getting behind the wheel. "As a medical marijuana patient, I will never be under five nanograms," medical marijuana activist Steve Sarich declared during an I-502 debate on the University of Washington campus last October. Sarich led the "No On I-502" campaign. "I've had my blood tested and I'm probably four to five times the legal impairment limit right now. That will be every medical marijuana patient," Sarich said, proclaiming that this unrealistic measure of impairment would wrongfully put thousands in jail and launch a new age of prohibition. "I am for legalization. ... Unfortunately this is not legalization. Don't be fooled," he warned of the initiative. However, six months into our legal weed experiment in Washington those fears have yet to materialize. The King County Prosecutor's Office says only 14 DUI cases have been filed under the five nanograms provision, while the Seattle City Attorney's Office says it has filed exactly one case (though spokesperson Kimberly Mills says there are "several under review for possible filing"). The Pierce County Prosecutor's Office, meanwhile, reports a total of 19 marijuana-related DUI charges so far in 2013. Stats aside, McPeak says it would be premature for either side of the I-502 debate to declare victory. "It's too early for either camp to start waiving a banner of 'we were right,'" says McPeak of the debate surrounding I-502's DUI provision and the expected tenor of this year's Hempfest. "I think it would be very helpful if people would just chill. ... We disagree, but we're all in the same camp." "No one has ever legalized marijuana before," he says. "There's no right way to do it." - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom