Pubdate: Fri, 11 Jul 2014
Source: North Kitsap Herald (WA)
Copyright: 2014 North Kitsap Herald
Contact:  http://www.northkitsapherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2609

THE PROS AND CONS OF RETAIL MARIJUANA

Prohibition didn't work, or so lawmakers learned more than 80 years 
ago. But the parallels between America's experiment with the 
Eighteenth Amendment and the legal sale of marijuana likely end there.

On July 8, Washington got into the weeds (pun intended). For some in 
law enforcement, jaded by trivial marijuana busts, it's a long-time 
coming. Former Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper, an advisory board 
member of the organization Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, 
issued a sanguine prediction: "Washingtonians know that, as in 
Colorado, governments both foreign and domestic will be watching to 
see how legalization progresses in the state," he said. "And I 
imagine that, as in Colorado, lower crime rates, increased tax 
revenue, thousands of new jobs and continuing public support will 
indicate legalizing and regulating marijuana is one of the simplest 
ways to improve not just our criminal justice system, but our state 
governments generally."

Thousands of jobs and improved government? Data will give us the 
good, the bad and the predictable.

First, the bad: There are more people driving stoned, according to 
the Washington State Patrol. In the first six months after Initiative 
502 took effect, 745 drivers pulled over by law enforcement officers 
tested positive for THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana. 
More than half of those surpassed Washington's intoxication threshold 
of 5 nanograms per milliliter of blood. In each of the last two years 
before legalization, the number was around 1,000. Experts will 
quibble: Are there more stoned drivers or more cops attentive to the signs?

The good: Under Initiative 502, which legalized recreational 
marijuana, the lion's share of tax revenue is earmarked for health 
care, youth drug prevention, public health and research. Much to the 
surprise of skeptics, the feds will allow the state to collect excise 
tax revenue. According to the Economic and Revenue Forecast Council, 
the figure is $51 million for the 2015-17 biennium and $138.5 million 
the following biennium. That's real money, but it's just a blip in 
fully funding K-12.

And unlike liquor, I-502 made no provision for the state to share 
marijuana-related excise taxes with local governments in which the 
sales are generated. It should do so - copy RCW 66.08.210 - to fund 
the overseeing of regulations such as permitting and code 
enforcement. (Poulsbo chose not to go that route and banned 
marijuana-related businesses from operating in the city limits.)

Washingtonians who have a doctor's prescription for medical cannabis 
are now less vulnerable to arrest for possession. The 
disproportionate number of people of color prosecuted for marijuana 
possession will now, we assume, plummet. And according to a 2012 
study by the Marijuana Arrest Research Project (www.marijuana 
arrests.com), there were 6,088 marijuana-possession arrests in Kitsap 
County between 1986 and 2010; the costs of making and processing 
those arrests, and of prosecution and incarceration, cost at least 
$7.9 million.

Washington's grand experiment with the legalization of recreational 
marijuana has begun. Time, and data, will tell whether the experiment 
is working or is going up in smoke.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom