Testing Would Be a Way for Spokane to Determine the Best Way to Maximize Revenue While Ensuring Public Safety. SPOKANE (AP) - The author of Washington's recreational pot law has suggested that Spokane test its sewage for traces of the cannabis chemical THC as a general measure of pot use by residents. American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Alison Holcomb proposed the idea at a Tuesday meeting of the Spokane City Council's marijuana policy subcommittee, The Spokesman Review reported. Testing sewage for the psychoactive element from marijuana provides a more accurate level of trends than self-reporting on surveys, Holcomb said, citing research at the University of Washington and the University of Puget Sound. [continues 138 words]
OLYMPIA - The financial stakes of the state's new marijuana industry are no longer theoretical. Washington's chief economist predicts the legal recreational market will generate $636 million for the state through the middle of 2019. Those millions are already trickling in, and next month the state will make the first payouts from a portion of excise taxes and fees collected from growers, processors and retailers. That portion - $4 million as of Monday and $450 million in the economist's forecast - are sequestered in a special account, not the general fund used to pay for the state's daily operations. [continues 432 words]
Laws for Recreational Marijuana Use, Legal in Washington Since July, Center on Public Safety Don't drive under the influence. Don't operate a boat. Don't give to minors. Don't overdo it. The ABCs of recreational cannabis use is, in many ways, like alcohol. And in many ways, it's not. Recreational marijuana use falls under the Washington State Liquor Control Board, which has no jurisdiction over medical marijuana. It started in 2012 when Initiative 502 was passed, allowing the recreational sale of marijuana to adults by licensed stores. [continues 935 words]
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - A television reporter quit her job on live TV with a big four-letter flourish after revealing she owns a medical marijuana business and intends to press for legalization of recreational pot in Alaska. After reporting on the Alaska Cannabis Club on Sunday night's broadcast, KTVA's Charlo Greene identified herself as the business' owner. "Everything you've heard is why I, the actual owner of the Alaska Cannabis Club, will be dedicating all my energy toward fighting for freedom and for fairness, which begins with legalizing marijuana here in Alaska," she said during the late Sunday evening newscast. "And as for this job, well not that I have a choice, but f-- it, I quit." [continues 192 words]
I have also sent this letter to Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell and Rep. Rick Larsen. My 91-year-old wife, Alice, has been diagnosed with fibromyalgia, Parkinson's, compressed and cracked vertebrae bones. She has been suffering with pain for years. She is in an Everett rehab facility having sleepless and pain-filled nights. Powerful medication has had little or no effect to relieve her pain. I discussed with the medical officials in this facility of trying to use medical marijuana ointment to see if that would help give Alice some temporary relief. Even our state has legitimized the use of medical marijuana. I was told that federal regulations prohibit the use of medical marijuana. The facility depends on federal funding for Medicare and other federal funding. That funding could be stopped and the doctor and nurses could lose their licenses. [continues 54 words]
SEATTLE (AP) - As more marijuana producers move their plants indoors over the next two decades, the grow operations in Washington state are expected to need as much electricity each year as what a small Northwest city consumes, according to an energy forecast by regional power planners. Demands on the Northwest electrical grid would grow further if Oregon voters pass a ballot initiative in November to legalize recreational pot use, the Northwest Power and Conservation Council said. The council, which develops a long-term power plan for Washington, Oregon, Idaho and parts of Montana, has been studying the impacts of electricity needs for operations that grow legal marijuana indoors in Washington state. [continues 245 words]
'It's A Gray Market Industry, That's Just How It Is,' Store Owner Says NEW YORK - Legal or not, the business of selling weed in the U.S. is as wacky as ever. The tangle of rules and regulations that govern whether and how it can be grown, bought and sold create complexity and ambiguity that cause major headaches for marijuana businesses - and enticing opportunities for those who want to exploit it. "It's a gray market industry, that's just how it is," says Kayvan Khalatbari, who owns a marijuana dispensary and a chain of pizza restaurants in Denver. [continues 1782 words]
During the first month of legal marijuana sales in Washington state, stores sold just under $3.8 million, which is expected to bring in more than $1 million in state taxes. A spokesman for the Washington Liquor Control Board said it appears the new industry is off to a healthy start, even though the system isn't fully up and running.Although licenses have been issued for about 40 stores, only 18 were selling pot in July and 16 of them have reported sales so far in August. During the first month of retail marijuana sales in Colorado, the state collected closer to $2 million in excise and sales taxes. [end]
The states of Colorado and Washington ushered in what is likely to be a continuing trend when in November 2012 voters approved ballot measures legalizing the recreational use of marijuana. Both states started implementing the laws this year. However, legalization advocates who crafted the measures are discovering that a number of governmental controls they included to maximize the likelihood of passage are coming back to bite them. In Colorado, marijuana stores opened Jan. 1. Stores in Washington opened in early July. But the rollout of the recreational marijuana market has been hampered by restrictive taxation, licensing and other regulations, such as zoning restrictions and strict inspections. [continues 388 words]
Prohibition didn't work, or so lawmakers learned more than 80 years ago. But the parallels between America's puritanical experiment with the Eighteenth Amendment and the legal sale of marijuana likely end there. Today, Washington gets into the weeds (pun intended). The serpentine bureaucracy, the reams of regulations. Cannabis has met the enemy, and he is us. For some in law enforcement, jaded by trivial marijuana busts, it's a longtime coming. Former Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper, an advisory board member of the organization "Law Enforcement Again 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." [continues 252 words]
Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Bruce Weiss isn't so worried about legal sales of recreational marijuana to adults. As presiding judge for the county's Juvenile Offender Drug Treatment Court, he is more concerned by what he sees as "normalization" of a drug he knows is ruining many kids' lives. Dr. Leslie Walker isn't worried that teens will now get marijuana from legal pot shops, where sales are only allowed to those 21 and older. As chief of the Division of Adolescent Medicine at Seattle Childrens Hospital and co-director of the hospital's Adolescent Substance Abuse Program, she is troubled by what she sees as a "decreased perception of risk." Walker knows weed is harming many kids' brains. [continues 603 words]
Opponents of pot are still trying to wage social, ethical and moral arguments against the majority of citizens who voted in favor of the legalization of marijuana (Initiative 502). Legitimate concerns are lost in the perpetuation of misinformation and emotional irrationality, but what everyone seems to agree on is that marijuana does indeed grow money. So why aren't we talking about this inevitable, legal, emerging economic impact to our region and how it may help us grow out of the looming fiscal calamities that our communities are facing? [continues 470 words]
Thanks for publishing Froma Harrop's thoughtful column: "Fight heroin with legal marijuana." Is there any legitimate reason that a natural herb that has never killed anybody should be classified the same as heroin? I think not. I know from personal experience that marijuana is a substitute for potentially deadly painkillers like Vicodin and is also a substitute for alcohol. The pharmaceutical industry knows this and so does the alcohol industry. And this is probably why marijuana remains a criminalized substance. Kirk Muse Mesa, Ariz. [end]
A plague of heroin addiction is upon us. Another plague. Heroin was the crisis that prompted Richard Nixon to launch the war on drugs in 1971. Time marched on. Cocaine and then crack cocaine and then methamphetamine overtook heroin as the drugs of the moment. Now heroin is back - and badder than ever. The war on drugs also grinds expensively on, an estimated $1 trillion down the hole so far. Amid the triumphant announcements of massive drug seizures and arrests of the kingpins, heroin has never been more abundant or so easy to find, in urban and rural America alike. [continues 515 words]
What is recreational marijuana? And where is it sold? Did you know, Washington voters approved Initiative 502, in November 2012, which removed state criminal and civil penalties for possession of small amounts of marijuana for personal use by persons over 21 years? It also legalized the business of marijuana production, processing, and sale, subject to state regulation and licensing. Many people seem to think only medicinal marijuana is legal, but recreational is now legal as well. I am concerned how this affects my community now that businesses can sell it in very visible locations. The city of Snohomish is considering approving sales within the city and within blocks of the high school, an elementary school, residences, and many small businesses that will negatively be affected. Cities statewide are already making a stand and putting into place a ban on the sale of it in their cities. This does not affect possession, which is legal. But I feel we need to stand together and make sure our local communities keep our areas safe and retain our local character by banning the sale of it in Snohomish. It should be remembered as the antique capital, not the marijuana capital of Washington. Do you know if there is a ban in your neighborhood? Rita Belvill Lake Stevens [end]
SPOKANE (AP) - Eastern Washington legal marijuana entrepreneurs said they hope Idaho residents cross the border to get the drug and that some border cities lift moratoriums on pot shops. Several of the licenses awarded for pot shops through a lottery this week are near the border with the Gem State, which has not legalized marijuana for recreational purposes, The Spokesman Review reported Saturday. Washington's Liquor Control Board on Friday released the results of its lotteries for retail marijuana licenses, setting out who gets first crack at securing one of the coveted documents and opening the state's first recreational pot shops this summer. [continues 411 words]
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Social media has been buzzing for weeks with jokes about how, this year, Easter Sunday shares the calendar with the pot-lover's highest holiday: April 20, or 420 in stoner lingo. Pot-smokers have long celebrated on the date by lighting up for reasons not quite clear. Yet amid the online cracks about worshipping a "higher" power, tutorials on how to make a joint shaped like a cross and photos of Easter baskets piled with pot-filled eggs, a handful of churches nationwide are using the unfortunate coincidence to make much bigger points. [continues 713 words]
Colorado is just starting its experiment with industrial hemp production, but interest in the new crop is so strong that the state is moving to expand the number and size of farms growing marijuana's non-intoxicating cousin. A bill that won unanimous approval in a Senate committee this week would allow year-round hemp cultivation in greenhouses and strike a 10-acre limit on hemp for research and development. "Hemp, I believe, is going to be the most valuable crop for Colorado farmers in the future," said Michael Bowman, a farmer from Wray who plans to grow hemp on his eastern Colorado farm this spring. [end]
DENVER (AP) - Workers for one of Colorado's biggest marijuana businesses learned Wednesday they can be fired for smoking pot on the job or using cocaine any time. The policy, the first of its kind for O.penVAPE, includes random testing for drugs like cocaine and methamphetamines, but not for marijuana, company spokesman Todd Mitchem said. The two-year-old company employs more than 125 people in Colorado and sells its products in Colorado, Washington and California. The products include cartridges filled with cannabis oil and a battery-powered vaporizer that resembles a pen designed for cannabis-oil use. [continues 122 words]
Now that the federal government has finally, belatedly given the OK to a long-delayed study looking at marijuana as a treatment for veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder, the same government needs to take another step and remove the legal hypocrisy that prevents such research in the first place. The problem hindering medical cannabis is the fact that since the passage of the 1970 Controlled Substances Act, marijuana has been classified as a Schedule 1 drug, the statute's most restrictive category, along with LSD, peyote and ecstasy, meaning that it is highly addictive, and has no medical value. Both statements are false. But the classification remains, thanks to the DEA, despite petitions from governors, state attorneys general, members of Congress, researchers and others over the decades requesting the change. [continues 300 words]
207 Applications Have Been Filed for the 35 Stores That Are Allowed in Snohomish County. OLYMPIA - A lottery to dole out dozens of licenses for marijuana retail outlets will be conducted later this month and owners of those stores could be opening their doors in July. The Washington State Liquor Control Board on Wednesday approved a plan for holding a separate lottery for each community where the number of applicants for licenses exceeds the number of stores the state will allow. [continues 432 words]
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - A regulatory system and enforcement involving legalized marijuana could cost Alaska $3.7 million to $7 million, according to a report by eight state agencies. Alaskans will consider a pot legalization measure on the Aug. 19 primary ballot then would have nine months to prepare for legalization if voters say yes. The report included information from the departments of Public Safety, Environmental Conservation and others, the Anchorage Daily News said Sunday. The cost analysis was presented last month to the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board. The report acknowledged that details about legalization remain to be worked out. [continues 269 words]
(AP) - Paul Stanford, one of the nation's leading marijuana legalization advocates, doesn't only want Oregonians to have the right to smoke pot. He wants it written into the state constitution. Stanford's proposed constitutional amendment is one of several pot questions that may go to Oregon voters in November. Others are offering competing measures for how the state would regulate and tax the drug. "We think our voters will just vote yes on all of them," Stanford said this week, adding that if the competing measures both pass, the one with the most votes would trump the other in areas where they may conflict. [continues 580 words]
The Bill, Which Will Now Be Negotiated With the House, Would Cut the Number of Plants Patients Are Allowed and Establish a Registry to Exempt Patients From Sales Taxes. OLYMPIA (AP) - A measure to overhaul the state's medical marijuana system cleared the Senate on Saturday as the state moves to merge that largely unregulated market with the still-developing legal recreational market. Senate Bill 5887 passed on a 34-15 vote and now heads to the House, which passed a similar measure last month. Both chambers will now negotiate a final bill to reconcile the medical market with the recreational market approved by voters in the fall of 2012. [continues 646 words]
Now that you are going to buy your pot legally, you get to tell your old dope dealer he's out of business. Remember, this is a person who has been selling weed illegally for years. They know how to hide from the law. Where will the pot boil over? Maybe that dealer at work who always shows up on payday to get his cut of your earnings. The stash trader at the next beer party. You know how there is always a good beating at those beer bashes. How about that pusher you do a little work for who pays you in bud? [continues 128 words]
Here's another reason you cannot keep your doctor, even you if really, really like him or her: He or she was dealing drugs. In December, Dr. Hieu Tu Le, 40, pleaded guilty to running a prescription mill out of his Everett Mall Way clinic, Northwest Green Medical, Levi Pulkkinen of SeattlePI.com reported. In his plea, Le admitted he simply sold pain pills directly to patients, ditching the charade of prescriptions. (During the lengthy DEA investigation, it was noted patients leaving the clinic never availed themselves of the pharmacy next door.) [continues 366 words]
OLYMPIA (AP) - A measure to overhaul the state's medical marijuana system cleared the House late Monday night, a move supporters say is necessary to bring it into line with the still-developing legal recreational market. House Bill 2149 passed just before midnight on a 67-29 vote. It now heads to the Senate, which is considering similar measures addressing how to reconcile the two marijuana systems. Changes under the bill sponsored by Democratic Rep. Eileen Cody include reducing the amount of marijuana and number of plants patients can possess, doing away with collective gardens and establishing a patient registry. [continues 151 words]
Unbelievably, heroin use is on the rise and Snohomish County is one of the areas that have shown a sharp increase in usage. Not as bad as some cities, where the drug use has reached epidemic proportions, but any increase is tragic. It's hard to imagine how, in this day and age, considering all of the money spent on trying to educate us, how anyone could become addicted. To heroin especially, but to meth, prescription pain killers, etc. etc. These drugs are killers. Presently, 100 folks a day die from overdosing and in some cities the number doubles annually. There is no cure, except death, from heroin addiction. It's either addiction or continual rehab. Marijuana use is nothing compared to this stuff and heroin, in some parts of the country, is as cheap as a 6 pack of beer and cheaper than prescription drugs. [continues 311 words]
Congress and President Obama took a too-small step toward common sense with an amendment tucked inside the mammoth farm bill the president signed on Feb 7. But a step nonetheless. A provision legalizes the cultivation of industrial hemp for research purposes in states where industrial hemp is already legal under state law. Washington is among 10 states whose colleges and universities that can now grow hemp for research purposes. The law supersedes our Legislature's attempts to achieve the same results, according the Hemp Industries Association and the Washington Farm Bureau. The law defines and distinguishes industrial hemp from marijuana. It's about time, if not decades overdue. The Drug Enforcement Agency, however, trying to confuse the issue to the end, opposed the amendment. [continues 320 words]
OLYMPIA - Attorney General Eric Holder's willingness to allow banks to deal with marijuana businesses is welcome news for state leaders, entrepreneurs and bankers worried by the prospect of conducting all transactions in cash. And they want the Obama Administration's top law enforcement official to roll out his promised rules before the legal growing and selling of pot begins across Washington. "It's a positive sign," Denny Eliason, lobbyist for the Washington Bankers Association, said Friday. "We are very hopeful that the guidance from the Justice and the Treasury departments and other regulators will be substantive. What we understand is it should come sooner than later." [continues 473 words]
For A Fledgling Industry Facing Legal Ambiguities And Reluctant Banks, Uncertainty Is The Rule EVERETT - Shawn Scoleri has some complaints about chafing government regulations. Scoleri is in the marijuana business, however, and the regulations are a lot tighter than for other businesses. They've also raised a different set of concerns for those seeking to break in to a new industry. Scoleri, of Everett, runs a medical marijuana dispensary in Seattle. He has applied to operate marijuana production and processing businesses in Snohomish County and elsewhere under Initiative 502. [continues 1431 words]
YAKIMA (AP) - The Yakama Nation is moving to ban marijuana in all 10 counties of its ancestral lands, covering one-fifth of the state's land mass. In the wake of the state's legalization on recreational pot use, the tribe has already banned marijuana on its 1.2 million acre reservation near Yakima. The Yakima Herald-Republic reported that under the Yakama Treaty of 1855 with the federal government, the tribe was allowed to maintain fishing, hunting and food-gathering rights on more than 12 million acres of its historic lands that were ceded to the United States. Now they want to use those rights to include a ban on marijuana on all ceded lands. [continues 416 words]
Mom and pop pot dealers should prepare for the bright light of public scrutiny as they enter the marijuana mainstream. There will be no hiding as the state lets cities and counties know who wants to grow, process and open a cannabis corner market in their communities and where exactly they want to do it. Soon these wannabe legal dope dealers will be the talk of many a town and maybe the target of a few not-so-mellow neighbors, who don't want the businesses near their homes. [continues 503 words]
SEATTLE (AP) - Figuring out how much marijuana people use has been one of the trickiest, and most important, questions facing the bureaucrats who are setting up Washington state's new legal pot system. Underestimate demand, and marijuana fans might stick with their black market dealers. Overestimate it, and the surplus legal production could wind up being diverted out of state, or to kids. Now, researchers working with the state's official pot consultant think they have their best look yet at cannabis consumption in Washington - aided by a novel survey aimed at figuring out how much the heaviest users of marijuana burn on a typical day. In a study released Wednesday, a RAND Corp. team figured that Washington's roughly 750,000 marijuana users will have consumed between 135 and 225 metric tons of the drug in 2013. [continues 633 words]
OLYMPIA (AP) - Marijuana business license applications keep rolling in in Washington. The state Liquor Control Board says it has received 1,696 applications from people seeking permission to grow, process or sell cannabis under the new recreational marijuana law. The application window opened Nov. 18, with a deadline of 5 p.m. Dec. 20. Of the applications received so far, 794 are for growing licenses, 579 are for processing licenses and 323 are for retailing licenses. The state isn't capping the number of growers or processors, but says it will only allow 334 pot shops statewide. [continues 78 words]
SALEM, Ore. (AP) - Oregon lawmakers are beginning to debate whether they should ask voters to weigh in next year on legalizing marijuana for recreational use. State Sen. Floyd Prozanski, a Eugene Democrat who leads the Senate Judiciary Committee, unveiled a draft of a bill on Friday that would ask voters in the 2014 election whether marijuana should be legal. If it passes, the 2015 Legislature would be charged with writing laws to regulate the manufacture, sale and use of the drug. [continues 82 words]
SEATTLE (AP) - More drivers have been testing positive for marijuana since Washington legalized the drug last year, according to new figures from the State Patrol. In the first six months of 2013, the patrol's crime lab says, 745 people tested positive for marijuana. Typically, there are about 1,000 positive pot tests on drivers in a full year. It doesn't necessarily mean there has been a rash of people driving high, said patrol spokesman Bob Calkins. Troopers are looking harder for drivers operating under the influence of pot, and they might be ordering more marijuana blood tests - "We're testing blood we didn't test before," he said. [continues 357 words]
OLYMPIA - Washington state attorneys are exploring whether local governments are allowed to ban businesses who will participate in a legal marijuana market. The office of Attorney General Bob Ferguson issued a noticed Tuesday seeking input on the question raised by the agency tasked with establishing the system. The Liquor Control Board is asking whether state law prevents local governments from banning a marijuana producer, processor or retailer from locating in the area. Some local governments such as Pierce County have been exploring whether to ban recreational marijuana businesses. Voters approved an initiative last year to legalize marijuana. The Liquor Control Board has been developing regulations for a system for businesses to grow, process and sell the product. [end]
SEATTLE (AP) - Seattle attorney Kurt Boehl is happy to think he's contributing to the success of Washington's grand experiment in regulating marijuana by advising his clients on how to navigate the industry's legal complexities. But there's a slight worry his efforts could earn him an ethics complaint. After all, marijuana is illegal under federal law, and lawyers aren't supposed to help their clients break the law. Washington's Supreme Court could put his mind at ease. The justices today are taking up an emergency proposal to change the state's ethics rules for lawyers to make clear that attorneys complying with state law won't get in trouble for giving pot-related legal advice - or for smoking themselves, as long as they're not high at work. [continues 571 words]
But Banks and Credit Unions Are Leery About Money From Marijuana Because Pot's Still Illegal Under Federal Law. OLYMPIA - Community banks and credit unions are ready and willing to provide financial services to entrepreneurs in the state's new legal pot industry. But they aren't able to, at least not yet. Marijuana businesses, even ones that will soon be legally licensed in this state, are considered criminal enterprises under federal law, which makes handling their money a crime in the eyes of the Department of Justice. [continues 749 words]
Snohomish County and Cities Are Working to Adopt Ordinances by Nov. 18, the First Day the State Will Begin Accepting Applications. It's not clear yet where in Snohomish County you will be able to open a business to grow, process or sell marijuana. But it will be soon. Leaders of Snohomish County and many of its cities are drawing maps and drafting ordinances to spell out where the legal pot industry can set root in their communities. Most are aiming to adopt rules by Nov. 18. That's when the Washington State Liquor Control Board will begin accepting applications for licenses to own a retail store, conduct an indoor or outdoor growing operation or bake marijuana into brownies and other goods for sale. [continues 760 words]
A Mukilteo Man Died After an Allergic Reaction, and a Suit Says the County Is to Blame for Ignoring His Pleas for Medical Help. EVERETT - A $10 million claim for damages was filed this week by the mother of a Mukilteo man who died in the Snohomish County Jail last year after an allergic reaction to the breakfast he was served. This is the second multimillion-dollar claim filed this year related to a death at the jail. In addition, a third family has hired an attorney to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death of a mentally ill man inside the county lock-up. [continues 793 words]
I read the article in Thursday's paper about the State Supreme Court ruling that "People busted for marijuana can argue they needed it for medical reasons, even if they failed to follow the requirements of the state's medical marijuana law." Amazing, now people can ignore all requirements and, after they get caught, have a defense that they are innocent because they were eligible had they gone through the requirements! I thought about this and wonder if I park in a handicap only parking space without a permit and when caught, am I able to defend the ticket by saying I had a disability that would have qualified me a permit had I gone through the procedures to get one? What about other crimes? Seems to me that this is just another example of the irresponsible being rewarded. Why does anyone bother to do what should be done? Gerry Gibson Sultan [end]
WASHINGTON - In a ruling that gives new momentum to the national push to legalize marijuana, the U.S. Justice Department said Thursday that it would not interfere with plans by the states of Washington and Colorado to sell and tax pot for recreational use beginning next year. The department made its long-awaited announcement in a memo released to federal prosecutors. Attorney General Eric Holder had been under growing pressure to respond to the new state laws, since marijuana still is classified as an illegal drug under federal law. [continues 711 words]
OLYMPIA (AP) - A professor who serves as a lead consultant on implementing Washington state's marijuana law has suggested that the U.S. Department of Justice enter into contracts with both Washington and Colorado to avoid a federal crackdown on state licensed businesses that will sell marijuana. The independently released paper written by Mark Kleiman advises a partnership between the federal government and the states, both of which legalized the recreational use of marijuana last fall. The paper said that partnership could entail the Justice Department promising not to bust state licensed businesses in return for a state pledge to crack down on illegal growing, The News Tribune of Tacoma reported Thursday. [continues 147 words]
Regarding your Friday editorial, "Important wins for justice": The drug war is part of the problem. Illegal drug users are reluctant to seek medical attention in the event of an overdose for fear of being charged with a crime. Attempting to save the life of a friend could result in a murder charge. Overzealous drug war enforcement results in preventable deaths. Rehabilitation also is confounded. I think it's safe to say that turnout at Alcoholics Anonymous meetings would be rather low if alcoholism were a crime pursued with zero tolerance zeal. Eliminating the penalties associated with illicit drug use would encourage the type of honest discussion necessary to facilitate rehabilitation and save lives. Robert Sharpe, MPA Policy Analyst Common Sense for Drug Policy Washington, D.C. [end]
Once again the state liquor control board is unable to get out of its own way over the pot issue. ( Tuesday, "State postpones setting rules for marijuana industry.") I listened to an interview with the chief consultant for the board, and was appalled by the total loss of vision concerning the legalization of pot. It has little to do with people wanting to smoke pot. People smoked tons of pot before legalization. It was easy to get, and if the police observed you smoking it, they did nothing anyway, they are too over-tasked with real crime. [continues 181 words]
Two major wins for our crim-inal justice system this week, and they are not unrelated: First, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced that low-level, nonviolent drug offenders with no ties to gangs or large-scale drug organizations will no longer be charged with offenses that impose severe mandatory sentences. Secondly, a federal judge ruled that the New York Police Department violated the Constitution with its practice of stopping and searching people suspected of criminal activity. U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin found that New York City's so-called stop-andfrisk program amounted to "indirect racial profiling" by targeting blacks and Hispanics disproportionate to their populations. Testimony reflected data that the New York Civil Liberties Union has been compiling for decades: A NYCLU analysis revealed that innocent New Yorkers have been subjected to police stops and street interrogations more than 4 million times since 2002, and that black and Latino communities continue to be the overwhelming target of these tactics. Nearly nine out of 10 stopped-and-frisked New Yorkers have been completely innocent, according to the NYPD's own reports. [continues 303 words]
The Thursday letter, "Marijuana: State wrong to flout federal law," was right on. However, the person responsible for enforcement of federal laws is Eric H. Holder, Jr., United States Attorney General. What has he been doing? Certainly not reminding our state marijuana cult, an exclusive group of persons sharing an esoteric interest, that he will prosecute those who break federal law. Perhaps United States Attorney General Holder is waiting until federal law is broken, then prosecute the culprits, thereby making money for the United States government. And, they need the money. William Pepperell Snohomish [end]
This letter is in response to Bruce King's comments in the Monday Herald about pot farming. ("Hearings to help set marijuana policies.") Mr. King's quotes in the article the Herald ran about him on Jan. 2, show he has no business opining on this subject: "I've never smoked pot..." and "If I choose to grow it, I will screw up my first crop, maybe my first 10 crops." Now this complete novice is concerned about the effects of medical marijuana on "his" potential profits. How in the world does it make sense for a man with admittedly no experience in this industry to be worried about losing money to people who actually know what they are doing? Mr. King's participation in this debate is absurd, and it sheds light on the ridiculous approach that our state is taking with the implementation of initiative 502. [continues 323 words]
