Pubdate: Fri, 10 Feb 2012
Source: Spokesman-Review (Spokane, WA)
Copyright: 2012 The Spokesman-Review
Contact:  http://www.spokesman.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/417
Author: Jim Camden

LAWMAKERS BALK ON MARIJUANA INITIATIVE

Legislative Action Unlikely, Putting It into Voters' Hands

OLYMPIA  Voters will have to decide this fall whether to legalize 
marijuana for personal use. The Legislature appears unlikely to vote 
on, or even debate, the marijuana initiative sent to them.

The House and Senate government committees held a session Thursday to 
listen to supporters and opponents of Initiative 502, which would 
make personal use and possession of small amounts of marijuana legal 
for people over 21.

Two panels  one supporting the initiative and one opposing 
it  offered arguments that have become familiar in Olympia in recent 
years as the Legislature has debated ways to allow the medical use of 
the plant or decriminalize it.

Supporters said the initiative would help end a failed drug policy 
that benefits organized crime and imprisons too many people.

Opponents say it would lead to more drug abuse and that estimates of 
the amount of tax revenue the state would collect are way overblown.

But the committee members took no vote in what was officially a work 
session, not a hearing, and I-502 supporters said later the measure 
is unlikely to come to a vote in the short session that is already half over.

Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, agreed later in the day.

"It doesn't look to me like we're going to get a bill through the 
process," she said during a press conference.

The Senate might vote on a resolution asking the federal government 
to reschedule marijuana so it could be used for medicinal purposes, 
she said. But a vote on the initiative isn't likely.

Under state law, that means the initiative goes to voters in the 
November election and becomes law if it wins majority approval.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom