Pubdate: Tue, 11 Dec 2012
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Copyright: 2012 Hearst Communications Inc.
Contact: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/submissions/#1
Website: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/388
Author: Justin Berton
Page: A1

NEW FREEDOMS BUDDING

Laws Are a Hit With Tokers, Gay Activists - and Entrepreneurs

SEATTLE - Vivian McPeak was among the 100 pot enthusiasts who 
gathered beneath the city's Space Needle to toke up the minute a new 
state law legalizing the recreational use of marijuana took effect.

McPeak, the dreadlocked executive director of Hempfest - the 
nonprofit organizer of a huge annual pot festival that has grown into 
a source of civic pride - said the taste of victory early Thursday 
was even more sublime because Washington state voters had approved 
same-sex marriage along with pot possession.

As of Sunday, when the dreary skies parted and the first 150 gay 
nuptials were performed at City Hall, the Emerald City became a place 
where it was perfectly legal to spark a joint and marry one's same-sex partner.

That may lead some San Francisco residents to conclude that 
Washington residents are living the dream - the California dream.

"We're living in the freest place on Earth," McPeak said with cheer. 
"It's even freer than San Francisco. But don't worry - you guys will catch up."

Uncharted territory

For all of derision showered upon "San Francisco values," Seattle - 
the laid-back land of coffee, rain and grunge ethos - and the rest of 
Washington state have taken a step into uncharted liberal territory, 
one that California voters shied from when they approved Proposition 
8's ban on samesex marriage in 2008 and voted against legalizing pot 
two years later.

Passage of the new Washington laws was powered by the Seattle 
region's left-leaning population of 3.5 million, which has outpaced 
the rural counties east of the Cascade mountains, where voters 
overwhelmingly opposed the measures.

"I hate to see a society turn its back on God, and that's what's 
happening here," said Pastor Joe Fuiten of Cedar Park Assembly of God 
in Bothell, about 40 minutes northeast of Seattle. "Now we feel like 
how any minority population feels. There's a sense of alienation from 
the common culture."

Fuiten, who recently served as state chairman for Newt Gingrich's 
presidential campaign, said passage of the laws was "a double whammy" 
to Christian values. He predicted the election would be recalled as a 
gateway moment when Washington voters approved lawlessness.

"We used to joke that if you wanted to point to what was wrong with 
the country, you could point to San Francisco," Fuiten said. "And if 
God was going to send an earthquake, he'd probably send it there. Now 
maybe he has to send it to Seattle."

Pot infrastructure

Pot activists are eager to start designing an infrastructure that 
could see state-licensed marijuana retail stores open as early as 
next December.

At stake, advocates said, is nothing less than serving as the 
progressive standardbearers for a larger cultural shift they hope 
will sweep east across the country. If legalization succeeds, 
Washington state - and Seattle in particular - will provide a 
blueprint for other communities to follow suit. Mess it up and the 
city will serve as a national punch line for liberalism run amok and 
a target for conservative talking heads. Sound familiar? "We've been 
given a special charge," said John Davis, the owner of the Northwest 
Patient Resource Center, a popular medical marijuana dispensary in 
residential west Seattle. "And if we blow it, if it's a joke, if it's 
a sham, if it doesn't work - then we're going to set drug policy back 
40 years."

Up to an ounce

The new law, known as Initiative 502, won with 55 percent of the vote 
and allows anyone over age 21 to possess 1 ounce of marijuana. The 
state will grow and heavily tax the product, and sell it through 
state-licensed retail shops.

Residents can smoke in their homes, and police will cite public pot 
smokers, just as they would those who violate open-container laws. 
Drivers found with too much THC - marijuana's active ingredient - in 
their bloodstream will be arrested for impaired driving.

Seattle police will not cite anyone for smoking in public during a 
one-year grace period, said department spokesman Sgt. Sean Whitcomb.

Despite the conflict with federal law, which views marijuana as an 
illicit narcotic, Whitcomb said the local department has decided to 
side with voters.

"The people of Seattle want marijuana decriminalized, and they made 
their voice heard during the election," Whitcomb said.

Eye on feds

Yet as San Francisco marijuana dispensary owners know, the discretion 
to exert a federal crackdown begins with the regional U.S. attorney.

Melinda Haag, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of California 
that oversees San Francisco and Oakland, has been targeted by 
protests at Bay Area pro-pot rallies for her enforcement orders, 
which have resulted in raids and letters pressuring building owners 
to evict tenants who sell medical marijuana.

By contrast, the top federal prosecutor for western Washington, Jenny 
Durkan - who is openly lesbian and lives in Seattle with her partner 
and two sons - is viewed by local pot advocates as simpatico to the cause.

As activists such as Davis attempt to maneuver under the new law and 
stay off the radar of federal authorities, there's some concern that 
legalization could result in a new green rush and open the door to 
black-market sellers. And it's unknown what effect legalization will 
have on medicinal dispensaries, which plan to stay open when 
recreational shops start selling.

Future unknown

Davis predicted that the extensive state taxes and bureaucratic 
overhead would turn a $10 joint into a $17 commodity, a price point 
vulnerable to undercutting by street sellers. Others expect steep 
price drops as a glut of supply floods the market, and yet others 
fret over the quality of the weed.

Mike Keysor, who owns the Northwest Cannabis Market, a sort of 
warehouse bazaar where sellers and customers are encouraged to haggle 
over prices, said the government's dope would pale in comparison.

"When was the last time the government could make anything better?" he asked

The sight of Keysor's market, where more than 500 youthful 
card-carrying patients moved through the doors Saturday beneath the 
cranking sounds of Van Halen, would likely give anti-pot crusaders 
heart palpitations. Growers made quarter-pound sales, and smokers 
exhaled skyward with enthusiasm to contribute to what the market's 
critics have dubbed a massive bake house.

In the wake of legalization, Keysor has developed plans to open a 
16,000-square-foot market in downtown Seattle next year, which he 
said would be the largest facility of its kind, one "that is unique 
(on) this planet."

"The people will still need their medicine," Keysor said. "And this 
is the best way to bring it to them."

Cashing in

There's also no shortage of Seattle businesspeople ready to invest in 
the pot market and hoping to attract fence-sitters likely to buy a 
joint only if it comes from a state-approved shop.

Brendan Kennedy, CEO of Privateer Holdings and a San Francisco native 
who graduated from St. Ignatius, said his group of investors wants to 
buy companies that will make the pot industry more chic and open 
Starbucks-like outlets.

An often-quoted analysis from Sea Change Strategy, a research and 
strategy firm, estimated that the national medical marijuana industry 
pulled in $1.7 billion in 2011 and could grow to $8.9 billion by 
2016. Those numbers did not account for legalization in Washington 
and Colorado, whose voters also approved marijuana possession on Nov. 6.

An analysis from the Washington state Office of Financial Management 
estimated revenue in first year of $560 million from pot sales. Some 
Washington academics predict that in a few years the local marijuana 
industry could rival apples as the state's top revenue producer.

California epiphany

Kennedy says he was struck two years ago - while listening to a radio 
debate over Proposition 19, the failed measure to legalize marijuana 
in California - with the realization that pot entrepreneurship was 
"was going to be the biggest opportunity of our lifetime."

Kennedy, who has an MBA from Yale, envisions marijuana retail stores 
in Seattle without a Grateful Dead banner or Bob Marley poster in 
sight. Instead, he says, the stores would be as well-branded and 
- -managed as Nordstrom, Amazon, Boeing and Microsoft - "all pioneering 
brands that were built in Seattle and built in Washington."

"It's a city of pioneers," Kennedy said. "It's a state of pioneers. 
We're extremely rational. We know what we're doing. We're just 
pioneering a new industry."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom