Pubdate: Fri, 27 Apr 2012
Source: Seattle Times (WA)
Copyright: 2012 The Seattle Times Company
Contact:  http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/409
Author: Jonathan Martin

INITIATIVE TO REGULATE, TAX MARIJUANA STIRS LIVELY DISCUSSION AT FORUM

Meeting in Mukilteo

Ex U.S. Attorney Mckay, Commander of Drug Task Force Debate Issue

If there's one thing that brings people together, it's this: 
Marijuana regulation is a mess.

But the granular details about how to fix it divided a panel of 
law-enforcement and public-health experts convened Thursday night to 
debate Initiative 502, a landmark proposal to regulate and tax 
marijuana like liquor that is on the November ballot.

John McKay, who filed the initiative after witnessing the "complete 
failure" of marijuana prohibition as the U.S. Attorney in Seattle for 
six years, said legalization was a "simple solution."

"If it's a failure, does that mean we need to try something new?" 
asked McKay. "There's millions of dollars in marijuana produced out 
there, but it's all going to cartels, it's going to gangs. The change 
should be to bring legal business in, and grow it legally."

The state estimates that I-502, the first marijuana initiative on the 
ballot since voters authorized medical cannabis in 1998, would raise 
$560 million a year via state-licensed marijuana grow farms and 
retail stores. If passed, it would be the nation's most radical 
change in marijuana law in generations.

But Pat Slack, commander of the Snohomish County Regional Drug Task 
Force, scoffed at McKay's core argument, that heavily taxed marijuana 
would end the black market.

"You will open a black market where you can sell this product for 
cheaper than what the government is selling," he said.

The debate, at Mukilteo City Hall, is part of a series of forums 
kicking off the nationally watched campaign. I-502 would 
decriminalize possession of 1 ounce of marijuana, and legalize and 
heavily tax sales from newly created, state-licensed marijuana 
stores, with the state Liquor Control Board setting regulations by 
December, 2013.

Colorado is the only other state with marijuana legalization on its 
November ballot.

I-502's supporters include another former U.S. Attorney, a retired 
FBI supervisor, several judges, public-health officials, a drug 
researcher, the King County Labor Council, the state Democratic 
Party, as well as Seattle's mayor, city attorney and entire City Council.

"We've been at this 42 years. We have never seen an amalgam of 
prominent local politicians still in good standing come out in favor 
of a reform measure as bold as this," Allen St. Pierre, executive 
director of NORML, a leading marijuana-legalization group, said in an 
interview.

But law-enforcement groups and medical-marijuana patients have lined 
up against I-502, for very different reasons. Police, including 
Slack, say it is a gateway to greater marijuana acceptance, 
especially among youth.

Patients fear a new driving-while-stoned threshold in I-502 would 
effectively prevent them from legally driving. A strong contingent of 
them watched the debate, peppering McKay and another supporter, 
University of Washington marijuana researcher Roger Roffman, with questions.

Roffman defended those provisions as a political necessity.

"The public would not consider a sea change of this nature were it 
not to take into account public safety," he said.

A Gallup Poll in October found nationwide support for legalizing 
marijuana was above 50 percent for the first time in the 42 years 
since Gallup started asking the question. In Washington, a poll in 
November on I-502's specific approach found 57 percent support.

I-502 doesn't amend the state medical-marijuana law, and Slack said 
adding a new set of laws would complicate police officers' already 
difficulty task of sifting legal from illegal cannabis. The 
driving-under-the-influence provisions, for example, could require 
time-consuming blood draws to detect active THC content in drivers.

"My goal is not to arrest everyone in this room," Slack said. "My 
goal is to help you stay within the lines of the law. But right now, 
the lines of the law are pretty damn confusing for us."

If passed, the state Office of Financial Management estimates that at 
least 363,000 customers would buy at least 93.5 tons of marijuana, 
each year. But the marijuana tax-revenue projections - at least $130 
million more than the state garnered under the old state liquor - are 
guesses, because no state has done what I-502 proposes.

About 10,000 people are arrested for marijuana possession each year, 
although not all are prosecuted. When the debate panel struggled, in 
response to a question from the audience, to explain why marijuana 
was classified along with PCP and methamphetamine, McKay paused.

"It's interesting that we can't articulate why," he said. "I think 
most people know in their experience that it is ludicrous."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom