Pubdate: Thu, 04 Oct 2012
Source: Tucson Weekly (AZ)
Copyright: 2012 Tucson Weekly
Contact:  http://www.tucsonweekly.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/462
Author: J. M. Smith

POT AT THE POLLS

In November, Voters in Three States Will Decide on the Legalization 
of Marijuana for Everyone

In a perfect world, you would be able to walk into a store and openly 
buy your medical cannabis at will, slapping down cash in exchange for 
goods and services the way God, our Founding Fathers and the voters intended.

But we live in Arizona, which by and large is pretty awesome, but 
sometimes sucks a little compared to other states, especially when 
our governor and attorney general get in the way of those voters I 
mentioned earlier. Well, it seems like we might soon have a perfect 
medical-marijuana world just a few states away, maybe even just a few 
hundred miles away.

Voters in Washington, Oregon and Colorado will decide on Nov. 6 
whether to make pot legal under their respective state laws-and not 
just for medical use, but for everyone.

Washington's Initiative Measure No. 502 
(sos.wa.gov/_assets/elections/initiatives/i502.pdf) would allow 
people to buy up to an ounce of buds, a pound of "marijuana infused 
product in solid form" (butter?) or 72 ounces in liquid. You would 
also be allowed to grow your own. Licenses to produce or sell 
cannabis in retail stores would cost $1,250, and the grow operations 
and retail outlets would have to be 1,000 feet from schools, 
playgrounds, recreation centers, child-care centers, public parks, 
transit centers and libraries. (Good luck finding that piece of 
property.) The law also would include a 25 percent tax on wholesale 
and retail transactions. Yikes.

The measure is not a done deal, however. As an initiative to the 
Legislature, the bill will go to state lawmakers if it passes in 
November. If lawmakers reject or refuse to act on it, the question 
then goes back to voters for a final vote. In any event, the state 
liquor board would have to make rules, which could get pretty 
cumbersome and restrictive, as rules tend to be. But all in all, this 
bill is a step in the right direction. Go, Washington.

In Oregon, they're calling legalization the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act 
(oregonvotes.org/irr/2012/009text.pdf), which has nice financial 
undertones. The act would allow people to grow their own or buy it 
from state-owned stores that buy from approved growers. The bill 
would create the Oregon Cannabis Commission, which would approve 
growers and set prices. WTF? The government owning stores and setting 
prices? I am all for regulation, but I say "no thanks" to the 
government owning the store. It seems to me the government is the 
last owner we would want. The commission would also determine 
possession limits, so the devil in the details remains unseen. Mr. 
Smith offers a half-baked approval to Oregon's initiative.

Colorado's Amendment 64 to the state Constitution (Google it; the 
link is too long to put here) would allow possession of up to an 
ounce, which people could share with but not sell to friends. People 
could also have up to six plants, three of them mature, but would 
have to keep the marijuana harvested from plants on the premises 
where it is grown-seemingly making it illegal to take meds out of the 
house. It would also allow an excise tax, which would be set by the 
Legislature. The Colorado law seems somewhere between Oregon and 
Washington-some details are there (possession limits), but some aren't (taxes).

Ultimately, these proposed laws represent the future. Americans are 
tired of wasteful spending to enforce archaic laws that even a lot of 
law-enforcement officers think are ridiculous. We're slipping down 
the legalization slope now, and eventually, similar initiatives will 
pass. When they do, there will be even more pressure on the federal 
government to abandon cannabis prohibition.

That wouldn't necessarily give us a perfect world, but wouldn't it be nice?
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom