Pubdate: Sun, 19 Aug 2012
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2012 Los Angeles Times
Contact:  http://www.latimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/248
Author: Kim Murphy

SEATTLE'S HEMPFEST SPLIT ON LEGALIZATION

Some Pot Fans Are Surprised to Find Themselves Opposing a State Ballot Measure.

SEATTLE - Washington's annual Hempfest - a three-day celebration of 
pot, bongs and hemp bead necklaces that is typically one of Seattle's 
largest festivals - was uncharacteristically worked up Saturday over 
what should have been cause for laid-back cheering: a fast-gaining 
ballot initiative to legalize possession of small quantities of marijuana.

Ballot measures to legalize marijuana are sprinting toward the polls 
in three Western states in November. Marijuana supporters say 
Washington's vote on Initiative 502 is important to maintain national 
momentum on an issue that is beginning to see steady gains in popular support.

But the pro-marijuana community here is deeply divided over the 
measure. Beneficiaries of the state's medical marijuana law fear that 
legalizing and regulating pot use would subject pot patients to 
potential arrest under the measure's strict impaired-driving provisions.

The result has been an undercurrent of discord amid the celebratory 
haze on the scenic Seattle waterfront. Dedicated pot proponents find 
themselves amazed to be in opposition.

"I never in a million years imagined myself to be on a stage 
advocating against the passage of a marijuana legalization law," 
Steve Elliott, who writes the "Toke Signals" column for the Seattle 
Weekly, said at a civilized but highly divided debate on I-502 on the 
"Hemposium" stage.

Legalization measures also are on the ballot in Oregon and Colorado. 
Washington's I-502 would eliminate civil and criminal penalties for 
possession of up to an ounce of marijuana for people 21years and 
older and set up regulations for the substance to be taxed and sold 
at state-licensed stores.

Its most controversial feature - at least among marijuana proponents 
- - is that it would set up a new driving standard based on a definable 
blood limit for marijuana. This is a stricter regulation than the 
current impaired-driving laws and one that many medical marijuana 
patients believe they would be unable to meet after regular medicinal doses.

They fear they might be subject to arrest for driving even days after 
their last marijuana dose.

I-502 has gained substantial mainstream support in liberal western 
Washington, where Seattle's mayor, its city attorney, several members 
of the City Council, two former U.S. attorneys and the former special 
agent in charge of the local office of the FBI have all come out in 
favor of it, along with a number of state legislators.

"Here's what we know: Prohibition has not worked," Mayor Mike McGinn 
told supporters who lazed in the grass in a cloud of cannabis haze. 
"It's fueled criminal violence. Right now in this city, people are 
murdering each other over pot.... It's time to stop. It's time to tax 
it, regulate it, legalize it."

Steve Sarich, a longtime activist in the medical marijuana community 
who heads the official campaign to defeat I-502, was not even invited 
to attend Saturday's debate at Hempfest.

The opposition was instead left to Elliott and legislative analyst 
Kari Boiter to argue.

"They've locked us out of the debate," Sarich said. "But quite 
frankly, Hempfest is 250,000 people and 60 voters, so we don't 
necessarily expect to make a whole lot of converts, because most of 
the people here don't even vote."

"Never has an issue divided our community like 502," said debate 
moderator Don Wirtshafter. "Hopefully, here we can use the Hempfest 
festival to work toward more energy, and what we can agree on."

The head of the campaign to pass I-502, Alison Holcolmb, urged the 
crowd to remember that it's already a crime to drive while under the 
influence of marijuana.

But opponents say it is wrong to force a vote on an initiative about 
which so many are so deeply divided when a less controversial ballot 
measure might be taken up later.

"I don't want to see another law on the books that police can use to 
harass us with," Boiter said of the controversial driving provisions.

Keith Stroup, a co-founder of the National Organization for the 
Reform of Marijuana Laws, told the crowd that while the initiative is 
"not perfect," it is important to capitalize on the momentum of three 
recent national polls that have shown 50% popular support or more 
across the nation for marijuana law reform.

"For the first time in the 41 years that NORML has been involved in 
legalization of marijuana, we actually have won the hearts and minds 
of the majority of the American public, and that is terribly 
important," Stroup said.

He said wins in Washington, Colorado and Oregon could begin to 
provide the basis for pushing Congress, until now steadfastly opposed 
to ending marijuana criminalization, to start reconsidering.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom