Pubdate: Tue, 19 Jan 2016
Source: Seattle Times (WA)
Copyright: 2016 The Seattle Times Company
Contact:  http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/409

TAKE THE WHEELS OFF MARIJUANA DELIVERY SERVICES

A thriving network of unlicensed marijuana-delivery services makes a 
mockery of Initiative 502's important goal of ending the black market.

WASHINGTON'S landmark effort to legalize and tax marijuana, now three 
years old, is finally gaining steady footing. Without federal 
interference, 197 retail marijuana stores are operating statewide, 
and state regulators are running checks for underage sales. Finally, 
the unregulated medical-marijuana market is being folded into the 
licensed, regulated system.

But the goal of crushing the illicit market - the one that readily 
sells to kids - is still a pipe dream. In fact, the black market is 
open and thriving in Seattle, in the form of marijuana-delivery services.

The City of Seattle estimates there are about 30 such businesses, 
with some delivery services keeping 20 drivers on the road. Dial up 
one of these delivery services and an untaxed ounce of pot can be at 
your door within an hour.

Delivery services are not legal under any reading of state law. 
Initiative 502, the 2012 voter-approved measure authorizing the 
legal-marijuana experiment, doesn't authorize them. Neither do 
Seattle's own regulations. They are drug dealers with cellphones.

That's not particularly new. Pot-dealing is one of Seattle's oldest 
professions. But the brazenness of the illegal trade is jarringly at 
odds with the huge effort to bring marijuana out of the black market.

The regulators - at the city and at the state Liquor and Cannabis 
Board - have mostly been laissez-faire about the illegal marijuana 
market. The state doesn't view policing delivery services as its 
role. Seattle police feel whipsawed by changing societal norms and backed off.

The city might finally have taken the problem seriously. David 
Mendoza, head of Seattle's department of administrative services, 
said the city is planning to crack down on delivery services soon, 
following an enforcement model that closed at least 60 unlicensed 
medical-marijuana dispensaries last year.

But Mendoza said the enforcement task is made more difficult by 
ubiquitous advertising for illegal delivery services in print and 
online publications. "No matter how much we do enforcement against a 
single business, it's easy for another one to pop up. Unless these 
websites stop listing them, it'll be a never-ending battle."

Seattle City Councilmember Tim Burgess recently took a public jab at 
a Seattle weekly newspaper, The Stranger, for accepting ads from the 
illegal delivery services. Tim Keck, the publisher of The Stranger, 
responded: "Tim, I will happily say 'no' to any advertiser as long as 
you're willing to pick up the slack."

Marijuana-focused websites, such as Leafly.com, list illegal delivery 
services side-by-side with legal, licensed retail shops. A spokesman 
for Leafly's parent company did not respond to an email.

The boom in open-delivery services puts the recreational market - 
which helps pay for health care and drug treatment with a 37 percent 
excise tax - at a huge disadvantage.

It also makes a mockery of the rational approach to marijuana 
regulation that voters said "yes" to with Initiative 502. But that 
experiment is eroded by apathetic enforcement of its rules. In the 
past six months, Washington marijuana retailers generated $83 million 
in taxes. But sales have dropped since October.

The proliferation of unlicensed delivery services in the state's 
biggest pot market is undoubtedly playing a role. Regulators need to 
get to work.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom