Pubdate: Sun, 26 Aug 2012
Source: News Tribune, The (Tacoma, WA)
Copyright: 2012 Tacoma News, Inc.
Contact: http://blog.thenewstribune.com/letters/submit/
Website: http://www.thenewstribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/442

FROM OUR U.S. ATTORNEY, MORE FLABBINESS ON POT SHOPS

Jenny Durkan, U.S. Attorney for Western Washington, Says Marijuana 
Shops Shouldn't Operate Within 1,000 Feet of Schools or Playgrounds. 
Naughty, Naughty.

One question: What about marijuana shops more than 1,000 feet away 
from schools and playgrounds? In Western Washington, hundreds of them 
continue to flip off every law in sight  and their neighbors to boot 
while Durkan's office shows little apparent interest beyond a few token busts.

On paper, Durkan  at the recent behest of Attorney General Eric 
Holder and President Barack Obama  says she won't tolerate the 
trafficking of marijuana under the guise of "medicine." Other U.S. 
attorneys are walking this talk seriously; they've been moving 
against hundreds of dispensaries in Eastern Washington, California 
and other states.

How is it possible to shut down commercial dispensaries in 
California, of all places, but so monumentally difficult in Western 
Washington? California's medical marijuana law is far looser than 
Washington's. Here, all sales of marijuana for any reason are 
explicitly outlawed. Even if voters approve a legalization measure on 
the November ballot, its tight terms  including FBI 
fingerprinting  would leave little room for stoner-to-stoner sales in 
pseudo-pharmacies.

Durkan's counterpart in Eastern Washington, Michael Ormsby, has 
figured this out: He's been methodically shutting down "medical" 
marijuana stores on the east side of the Cascade Mountains. Nothing 
comparable has been happening on this side of the state.

Durkan's half-hearted approach continues to send the mixed signals 
the Obama administration telegraphed early in the president's term.

In 2009, Holder said the Justice Department wouldn't enforce federal 
drug laws against marijuana if individuals were in "clear and 
unambiguous compliance" with state medical marijuana laws. At the 
same time, he dropped hints that he might look the other way as long 
as sellers didn't brandish AK-47s, sell to 8-year-olds on the 
sidewalk, or keep bales of dope and $20 bills in the back room.

Pot entrepreneurs seized on the hints and ignored the "unambiguous 
compliance" part.

The result: a green rush. In a matter of months, dispensaries 
metastasized across Washington, abetted by quacks who churned out 
medical authorization papers like human printing presses. Abetted, 
too, by the Tacoma City Council and other local officials who told 
their police to look the other way.

The green rush is receding elsewhere, thanks to federal prosecutors, 
tax collectors and wised-up city councils. In Western Washington, 
though, the long arm of the U.S. attorney seems to stretch only 1,000 
feet from schools. How about parks, rehab clinics, video arcades, 
libraries, churches and child-care centers? Make that 1,000 miles 
from all of the above, and Durkan's office would be getting the law right.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom