Pubdate: Sun, 13 Jul 2014 Source: Daily Courier, The (CN BC) Copyright: 2014 The Okanagan Valley Group of Newspapers Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/5NyOACet Website: http://www.kelownadailycourier.ca Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/531 Author: Pat Bulmer WEED MADE RESPECTABLE? Washington state's legal marijuana rollout is showing the world how pot legalization can be done. If and when legal marijuana comes to this side of the border, B.C. can learn from Washington's experience. Not that the first week of legal weed has gone entirely smoothly in the Evergreen State. After one day, shortages have already been reported. The Washington system takes almost all the back-alley and criminal nature out of the marijuana growing and selling business. It was striking watching how above-board and respectable the business became overnight. Marijuana is now a fully regulated industry from grower to seller to user. Growers who supply the retail stores must be licensed by the state - somewhat like Ottawa is demanding for the medicinal marijuana industry. Marijuana stores are also heavily regulated. You have to be drinking age to buy. Pot buyers are showing preference for buying their product legally and from reputable sources. Illegal growers and sellers could be put out of business in short order. One older woman at a Seattle pot store told the local newspaper her old dealer called her after seeing her on a local TV newscast. He now knew why she wasn't calling anymore. Like the medicinal industry in Canada, small-time and illegal growers will soon be overrun by large companies, whose reputations and practices are clean enough to earn a government licence. As the end of alcohol prohibition put Al Capone and his type out of business, so legalized marijuana will likely clean up that industry. And the farmers, sellers and users in Washington are all paying taxes. - - City Editor Pat Bulmer - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom