Pubdate: Sun, 09 Dec 2012
Source: Herald, The (Everett, WA)
Copyright: 2012 The Daily Herald Co.
Contact:  http://www.heraldnet.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/190
Author: Sharon Salyer
Page: A1

WHY YOU CAN HAVE POT, BUT NOT BUY IT

Initiative Backers Say Their Priority Was to End Arrests for 
Possession, and Leave the Details of Regulation to Officials.

It sounds so contradictory. It's now legal for adults 21 and older in 
Washington to possess up to an ounce of pot. They just can't legally 
buy it, at least not for another year.

This seeming Catch-22 of allowing adults to have marijuana, but 
giving them no legal way to purchase it, has caused some to publicly 
criticize the way the initiative was drawn up, in essence asking: 
"What were they thinking?"

Initiative backers made the legalization of small amounts of pot for 
adults its first priority by design, said Alison Holcomb, an attorney 
and spokeswoman for the pro-legalization initiative.

"What we wanted to do is bring an end to the arrests of adults for 
marijuana use as quickly as possible," she said.

In Washington, there are about 9,000 cases each year involving 
marijuana possession by people 18 and older; only about 700 involve 
the manufacture and delivery of marijuana, she said.

Holcomb said she understands that for anyone not familiar with 
marijuana laws, the ability to possess, but inability to buy it for 
at least the next year, may seem confusing.

Although 14 other states have decriminalized use of medical 
marijuana, none have attempted to set up a system to tax and regulate 
its sale for adults for recreational purposes, until now, she said.

The initiative hands responsibility for drawing up the blueprint for 
licensing and taxing growers, distributors and retailers to the 
state's Liquor Control Board, giving it a Dec. 1, 2013, deadline.

"We did not want to try to address all the details of how the 
regulatory system should work in the initiative," Holcomb said. 
Instead, it leaves it in the hands of a state agency that until June 
of this year was regulating liquor sales in Washington.

Officials with the state Liquor Control Board have said that the 
public shouldn't expect to see a state licensed store open until 2014.

The initiative specifies that marijuana will be taxed at 25 percent 
at each step: when it is grown, when it is sold to wholesalers and 
when it is sold to a customer in a licensed store. The price, with 
taxes, including additional state and local sales taxes, is estimated 
at about $336 an ounce. At a Mukilteo medical marijuana shop, an 
ounce today sells for about $240.

Although such a system would be historic, ending an era of 
prohibition, whether it is anything more than a voter pipe dream is 
yet to be seen.

That's because marijuana remains illegal under federal law. On 
Wednesday, the day before the law allowing adults to possess limited 
amounts of marijuana went into effect, U.S. Attorney Jenny Durkan in 
Seattle gave the public a pointed reminder.

"Regardless of any changes in state law, including the change that 
will go into effect on Dec. 6 in Washington state, growing, selling 
or possessing any amount of marijuana remains illegal under federal 
law," her statement said.

The Department of Justice continues to review the legalization 
efforts in Washington and Colorado, which passed a similar 
legalization law last month.

Durkan advised people to remember that it remains against federal law 
to bring any amount of marijuana onto federal property, including all 
federal buildings, national parks and forests, military installations 
and courthouses.

Although it is against the new law to smoke pot in public, some 
supporters gathered in Seattle late Wednesday night to celebrate as 
the change in the law went into effect at midnight - by publicly lighting up.

"Obviously it made a lot of us a little nervous," Holcomb said. If 
things were to get out of hand with ongoing public use of marijuana, 
it might cause other states looking at decriminalization to have 
reservations, she said.

"I think the celebration was well deserved by those activists and 
consistent with the generally good manners of our marijuana-smoking 
population in the city," Holcomb said.

"It was a unique moment in time and history," she added. "I don't 
think Seattle residents need to worry that it will become a regular experience."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom