Pubdate: Sun, 30 Sep 2012 Source: Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN) Copyright: 2012 Mcclatchy Newspapers Contact: http://web.commercialappeal.com/newgo/forms/letters.htm Website: http://www.commercialappeal.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/95 Author: Jonathan Martin WASHINGTON STATE COULD BE TEST CASE IN POT LEGALIZATION SEATTLE - In the waning days of a campaign to legalize marijuana in California two years ago, all nine ex-directors of the Drug Enforcement Administration simultaneously urged Obama officials to come out in strong opposition. The pressure worked: Attorney General Eric Holder declared his office would "vigorously enforce" the federal ban on marijuana "even if such activities are permitted under state law." Whether that was a real threat or just posturing is unclear: California voters rejected Proposition 19. The test case instead could be Washington, where voters on Nov. 6 will decide whether to directly confront the federal ban on marijuana and embrace a sprawling plan to legalize, regulate and tax sales at state-licensed pot stores. Speculation on the potential federal blowback is rife. Would the Obama administration pick a legal fight over states' rights to try to block Initiative 502? Would federal prosecutors charge marijuana growers and retailers, even if they are authorized by state law? Or would - as some opponents and supporters predict - federal authorities denounce the law but largely leave Washington alone? The Justice Department won't say. But legal and drug policy experts, asked recently to speculate, say any federal response is likely to be dictated as much by politics as by law. Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes, an I-502 supporter who talks frequently with federal authorities, thinks the Justice Department would back off after "a long, intense, fairly high-level conversation" with campaign and state officials. Since the legalization movement took hold in the 1970s, at least 11 states - most recently, Rhode Island in 2012 - and several large cities have stripped criminal penalties for possession of small amounts of marijuana, usually making it an infraction akin to a ticket. Full legalization has been proposed and rejected by voters in Alaska, California and Nevada, and is on the ballot this November in Colorado and Oregon. I-502 is the most comprehensive proposal yet. It legalizes 1 ounce of marijuana for people 21 and older, and creates a seed-to-store, closed, state-regulated monopoly estimated to raise more than $560 million in new taxes. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom