WENATCHEE - The City Council on Thursday repealed Wenatchee laws making small amounts of marijuana and drug paraphernalia a crime in keeping with a new state law legalizing pot possession.

But the city does not plan to dismiss the half-dozen marijuana possessions that were pending when the law went into effect, as other cities in the state have done, said City Attorney Steve Smith.

That's because they were in violation of the law when they were arrested.

When the new state law went into effect on Dec. 6 after the passage of Initiative 502, it automatically negated all municipals laws in the state that criminalized the possession of small amounts of marijuana. Thursday's council action makes city law consistent with state law.

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VOTERS have declared that it is time to rethink our marijuana policies. It's also time to rethink the practice of drug testing for pot.

The enactment of Initiative 502, which legalized recreational marijuana use in Washington state, is an ideal opportunity for employers to reexamine their drug-testing policies regarding employees' off the job cannabis use. Those who consume alcohol legally and responsibly while off the job do not suffer sanctions from their employers unless their work performance is adversely affected. Employers should treat those Washingtonians who consume cannabis legally while away from the workplace similarly.

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No Quick Crackdown, but Federal Policy Still Unknown

For backers of legalized marijuana in Washington and Colorado, it isn't what President Obama said - it's what he didn't say.

In an interview with ABC News, Obama said that recreational pot smoking in the two states that have legalized it is not a major concern for his administration.

"We've got bigger fish to fry," Obama said. "It would not make sense for us to see a top priority as going after recreational users in states that have determined that it's legal."

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Ah, the great American West, where man can generally breathe free and also inhale - woman, too. Thank you, thank you, voters in Colorado and Washington state, for legalizing marijuana. But will Washington, D.C., leave you alone? Attorney General Eric Holder said this week that the Justice Department will weigh its response to the state referenda.

A new national poll finds 58 percent of Americans in favor of making marijuana legal and only 39 percent against. A raft of other state laws easing the prohibition on pot and growing public contempt for the existing law should be enough to change the policy. And so should a basic sense of decency.

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The drug-trafficking convictions of the man who operated Spokane's first medical marijuana dispensary were reversed Tuesday in a state Appeals Court ruling that also appears to clear the way for commercial dispensaries to operate legally in Eastern Washington.

While the case provides needed clarification in state law over how medical marijuana users can legally fill their prescriptions, U.S. Attorney Mike Ormsby said federal prosecutors will continue to target certain operations.

"They are not legal under federal law, regardless of what the state law says," Ormsby said. "If we found an operating dispensary in Spokane County or the Eastern District of Washington ... selling a large volume and located close to a school and meets a number of factors we have identified, we would not hesitate to take action to close it down."

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The Dec. 6 Columbian story "Get the straight dope on what's legal, not as law takes effect," about the legality of the use of marijuana contains misleading statements. Two of them are: "Initiative 502 makes the possession and use of one ounce of marijuana legal for those 21 and older" and "Initiative 502 makes it legal to use marijuana in private, not in a public place such as a park or on the street." The initiative changes the Washington law prohibiting marijuana. The state initiative has no affect on the federal law which classifies marijuana as a Schedule 1 controlled substance which prohibits its use, possession and sale.

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Dependence is not addiction. Slight irritability and minor insomnia are not withdrawal symptoms and even the 1 in 10 who seem unable to control their use can lay the blame on their addictive personalities rather than weed. In her Sunday column, Julie Muhlstein writes of "problems pot presents" yet doesn't cite even one. Her dependence on Catholicism is far more difficult to overcome than a weed habit. I say that because religion is a drug, it makes its users feel better, soon takes over their lives, results in delusional thinking, and once hooked, the recovery rate is very low.

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The legalization of same-sex marriage and Washington's okay to marijuana throws light on a permeable wall. There are human rights, and there are civil liberties.

Because a human being is not inherently entitled to ganja (cannabis use isn't the same as freedom from slavery or cruel or unusual punishment) smoking dope is a question of civil liberties and where, how and if we impose restrictions. Marriage equality transcends the boundary, a human right - all people are born free and equal in dignity and rights - and a civil liberty.

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Initiative Backers Say Their Priority Was to End Arrests for Possession, and Leave the Details of Regulation to Officials.

It sounds so contradictory. It's now legal for adults 21 and older in Washington to possess up to an ounce of pot. They just can't legally buy it, at least not for another year.

This seeming Catch-22 of allowing adults to have marijuana, but giving them no legal way to purchase it, has caused some to publicly criticize the way the initiative was drawn up, in essence asking: "What were they thinking?"

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Laws Are a Hit With Tokers, Gay Activists - and Entrepreneurs

SEATTLE - Vivian McPeak was among the 100 pot enthusiasts who gathered beneath the city's Space Needle to toke up the minute a new state law legalizing the recreational use of marijuana took effect.

McPeak, the dreadlocked executive director of Hempfest - the nonprofit organizer of a huge annual pot festival that has grown into a source of civic pride - said the taste of victory early Thursday was even more sublime because Washington state voters had approved same-sex marriage along with pot possession.

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Marriage equality and legal pot use took effect the same day. Yes, Washington made history last week with two new laws.

Both validate libertarian get-out-of-my-private-life views. Yet I see them as very different, despite the link of timing.

Seeing happy, committed couples at long last able to marry, I am proud of Washington voters for taking a great step forward in support of equal rights.

To me, though - even if it makes sense for law enforcement not to focus on marijuana - legalizing pot is nothing to celebrate. I'm troubled by the message the new marijuana law sends, and not just to kids. Weed is obviously not as harmful as heroin, opioid painkillers and other drugs. But let's not pretend there's no problem here.

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An Official at an Everett Drug Treatment Center and Former Pot User Believes We're Setting Ourselves Up for Big Problems.

EVERETT - When he was 15, Robert McCullough knew he was addicted to marijuana.

As a high school student in the 1970s, he skipped class to smoke, stole money from his parents to support his habit, and scraped his pipe for resin when he didn't have pot to get high.

Today, McCullough, 43, still considers himself an addict. He attends weekly meetings and recognizes if it weren't for treatment, he would have never gotten clean.

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As of Tuesday, December 11, 2012 As a former Vancouver resident, I read with interest the Dec. 9 Columbian story "Crime increases as drug use does." 100 years ago, people could legally purchase all the heroin, cocaine or morphine they wanted for pennies per dose; 100 years ago the term drug-related crime didn't exist.

For the most part, drug consumption does not cause crime. Drug prohibition policies cause most of our violent and property crime.

People are substantially less safe today because of our so-called war on drugs.

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Police Say Change in Oxy-Contin Lead to Rise in Heroin Addiction

Vancouver police say a greater percentage of drug-addicted young adults are responsible for the area's property crimes, including burglaries, commercial robberies, vehicle prowls and mail and auto thefts. Drug addicts looking to get a hit will do whatever they must to afford their habits.

"I'm very often surprised at how naive people are about this connection between drug addiction and theft," said Cmdr. Mike Cooke, with the Clark-Vancouver Regional Drug Task Force.

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SEATTLE - Customers have been drifting into Jay Fratt's alternative pipe and tobacco shop, Smokin J's, in the days since Washington state's marijuana law took effect, wondering when cannabis would take its place on the shelves next to the handblown glass pipes.

Hold on, he told them. Fratt is, before anything else, a businessman, and he quickly realized there was a lot of smoke in the details.

First of all, the law setting up the nation's first legal regulatory system for retail pot won't allow sales until next year. And the federal government still considers marijuana illegal.

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In response to "Feds still reviewing new marijuana law, plan no action on eve of legalization" [seattletimes.com, Nov. 5], my main reaction is: Didn't we all see this coming?

No matter how many states vote to loosen the restrictions on marijuana, it really means nothing without the approval of the federal government. And since we also know Congress moves slower than glaciers (which we won't be able to say for much longer, as the glaciers are all melting), it's safe to say that we won't be hearing about any decision made anytime soon.

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The Seattle Police Department has been trumpeting its respect for and cooperation with the new marijuana law ["State's pot era lights up to smoke, dreams, angst," page one, Dec. 7]. However, it has also announced that it will not be writing citations for smoking pot in public, something the new law clearly prohibits.

At times, it seems the SPD is very selective in the enforcement of our laws.

- -Bob Knudson, Seattle

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VANCOUVER, Wash.-Pot smokers lit up in Washington state Thursday, when it became the first U.S. state to legalize possession of marijuana without a doctor's prescription, following the approval of a ballot measure in November.

Washingtonians, gathering in public places like Seattle's Space Needle, counted down to midnight, after which they began to fire up joints, pipes and bongs. Under the new law, people 21 and older legally can hold up to an ounce of marijuana.

But the state must still fashion rules for how pot is sold and regulated. Washington's Liquor Control Board now has 365 days to define standards for growing marijuana plants, processing the crop and selling the harvest in its smokeable form.

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People openly lit joints under the Space Needle and on Seattle's sidewalks - then blew the smoke at TV news cameras. To those looking to "get baked," the city's Police Department suggested pizza and a "Lord of the Rings" movie marathon. Cliff Despeaux, Reuters People light up near the Space Needle in Seattle after Washington's law legalizing marijuana went into effect Thursday.

Marijuana possession became legal under state law Thursday, the day a measure approved by voters to regulate marijuana like alcohol took effect. It prompted midnight celebrations from pot activists who say the war on drugs has failed.

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SEATTLE - More than 100 hard-core tokers gathered under the Space Needle at the stroke of midnight to light one up in celebration of Washington state's new marijuana law, which made it legal on Thursday for those 21 and older to possess an ounce or less of pot.

Voters in Washington and Colorado approved the nation's first recreational marijuana laws in November. The Colorado law doesn't take effect until January.

The Washington initiative allows for pot possession, but it's still illegal to buy, sell or grow marijuana.

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