Pubdate: Sun, 20 Feb 2011
Source: Stranger, The (Seattle, WA)
Copyright: 2011 The Stranger
Contact:  http://www.thestranger.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2241
Author: Dominic Holden

IF IT AIN'T BROKE

Olympia Considers Fixes to Legalization Rules

Overriding an initiative within months of voters passing it may seem 
drastic, but that's what state lawmakers are considering right now. 
Four ranking members of the Washington State Legislature have been 
scrutinizing Initiative 502, which legalized marijuana last fall. 
Among their potential revisions, they say the state could raise 
license fees by thousands of dollars for growers, cities could use 
more authority to ban pot stores, authorities could postpone the 
measure to stave off a potential federal intervention, and users 
could carry a tax stamp to prove their pot was purchased legally.

Olympia has shown little compunction in dismissing the will of voters 
in the past-in 2009, the legislature swiftly suspended an entire 
initiative dealing with home health-care workers. But tweaking 
voter-approved rules within two years of passage does require 
overcoming an obstacle: reaching a two-thirds majority vote of lawmakers.

Representative Christopher Hurst (D-Enumclaw), who chairs the state 
house Government Accountability & Oversight Committee, says amending 
I-502 would essentially require "unanimous agreement" from the 
legislature and governor. He was the chief signatory on a letter last 
month to the liquor control board, which is overseeing I-502's 
implementation, raising seven issues and asking questions about what 
lawmakers might change before the new pot rules take effect.

"People will say you are trying to slow this down, or stop it, but we 
are trying to fulfill the wishes of the initiative," says Hurst, who 
says he intends to create a well-regulated legal market that 
undercuts illegal sales and keeps the Feds out of Washington.

Not surprisingly, Alison Holcomb, who wrote the initiative, thinks 
changing it now is premature. She fired back her own letter to state 
officials this month, stripping down lawmakers point by point.

Among them: Cities will retain their zoning authority to site 
businesses, she points out, and the longer we delay the initiative, 
"the richer criminal enterprises get" without settling questions 
about federal intervention. Most pointedly, though, Holcomb 
criticizes increasing license fees. Higher costs could favor large 
producers, much like "Big Tobacco," and drive small pot producers out 
of the market. "We do not want to start our experiment with a legal 
marijuana market by funneling licenses to a new Big Marijuana with 
big upfront investment requirements," Holcomb writes.

Amending I-502 would also require backing from Governor Jay Inslee, 
Hurst says. "The governor has not ruled out some of these changes if 
they are deemed necessary," says Inslee spokeswoman Jaime Smith. "But 
he is very committed to implementing this as closely to what the 
voters approved as possible."

But, as Hurst himself points out, Holcomb "did a really great job" 
drafting the initiative. And if that's the case-that she understands 
the law so well-the legislature and Inslee should trust her call that 
if I-502 needs adjustments, those tweaks can come after it's been in 
effect for a full year.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom