Pubdate: Sat, 16 Jan 2010
Source: Wall Street Journal (US)
Copyright: 2010 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.wsj.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/487
Authors: Nick Wingfield and Justin Scheck
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?420 (Cannabis - Popular)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?253 (Cannabis - Medicinal - U.S.)

PUSH FOR LOOSER POT LAWS GAINS MOMENTUM

SEATTLE--A push to legalize marijuana on the West Coast is picking up 
steam as Washington lawmakers and pot proponents in California and 
Oregon propose separate measures.

The Washington state legislature will hold a preliminary vote 
Wednesday on whether to sell pot in state liquor stores, though even 
its authors say the bill is unlikely to pass. The same day in 
California, backers of a well-funded ballot measure to legalize 
marijuana are expected to file more than enough signatures to put the 
initiative before state voters in November.

Activists have also been busy in Washington state, with one group 
filing a marijuana-legalization initiative last Monday to put the 
issue on the November ballot. Activists in Oregon, meanwhile, say 
they have collected more than half of the signatures they need by 
July to allow a vote on whether the state should set up a system of 
medical-marijuana dispensaries.

The efforts are part of a national marijuana-legalization movement 
that has lately been emboldened by several factors, including laws 
allowing marijuana for medical purposes. The recession may be another 
reason. With many states suffering big budget deficits, for instance, 
legalization advocates say the states could benefit from new taxes on 
the sale of marijuana. In addition, the Obama administration appears 
to have taken a more-mellow attitude on medical marijuana as societal 
views about the drug evolve. In a poll last week of 500 adults in 
Washington state by SurveyUSA, 56% of respondents said legalizing 
marijuana is a good idea.

"We're beyond a tipping point culturally," said Roger Goodman, a 
Democrat representing Kirkland, Wash., and other Seattle suburbs in 
the Washington legislature who co-authored the legalization bill, 
known as HB 2401. "Now we're at a point where we're figuring out the 
safest way to end prohibition."

West Coast states--especially California--are particularly in the 
vanguard of the marijuana-legalization push given the region's 
more-liberal attitudes toward a variety of issues. Legalization 
measures in other states, such as Massachusetts and New Hampshire, 
haven't gotten as far, said Allen St. Pierre, executive director of 
the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

Washington lawmakers will vote on a second bill next week that seeks 
to reduce the penalties for possessing small amounts of marijuana to 
a $100 fine from a crime with jail time.

Still, there is deep opposition to legalizing marijuana in Washington 
state from law-enforcement groups and chemical-dependency 
organizations, many of which argue it would make the drug even more 
accessible to teenagers than it is currently. Also many argue that 
marijuana is a "gateway drug," meaning it will lead those using it to 
moveon to other drugs.

"What message does legalizing marijuana send to the youth of 
Washington?" asked Riley Harrison, a ninth-grade student, before a 
packed committee hearing this week in Olympia. "That you're willing 
to gamble our future for a little tax revenue?"

Washington, California and Oregon are three of 13 states that have 
medical-marijuana laws, which permit patients with doctors' notes to 
use the drug. The New Jersey legislature last Monday approved a 
medical-marijuana bill that will make it the 14th state and outgoing 
Gov. Jon Corzine is expected to sign it before leaving office next week.

The legality of selling medical marijuana remains tenuous. Federal 
law considers pot illegal, and enforcement of state laws varies 
widely among California cities and counties. Last October, though, 
the Obama administration said it wouldn't aggressively pursue users 
of medical marijuana where it is legal.

The legalization ballot measure in California was organized by a pot 
seller in Oakland, Calif., Richard Lee, whose group says the petition 
now has more than 700,000 signatures, far more than the 434,000 or so 
it needs to qualify for the November ballot. The measure would let 
local governments determine how to regulate and tax pot sales.

So far, Mr. Lee says that his business--which includes a medical-pot 
club and marijuana-business school dubbed Oaksterdam University, 
named after the city of Amsterdam where marijuana is 
decriminalized--has spent "a little more than $1 million" supporting 
the pot-legalization initiative. Mr. Lee says he is optimistic the 
measure will pass.

An April survey by the Field Poll found that 56% of California voters 
support legalizing pot and taxing its proceeds as a way of mitigating 
the state's financial crisis.

The California measure's opponents include various law-enforcement 
groups represented by lobbyist John Lovell. He says the California 
Peace Officers' Association, California Narcotic Officers Association 
and California Police Chiefs' Association are concerned that 
legalizing pot will lead more impaired drivers and embolden 
illegal-drug cartels to gain control over a legal industry. "The 
bottom line for all three groups...is we already have significant 
criminal and societal problems with alcohol abuse," said Mr. Lovell.
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