Pubdate: Thu, 21 Mar 2013
Source: News Tribune, The (Tacoma, WA)
Copyright: 2013 Tacoma News, Inc.
Contact: http://blog.thenewstribune.com/letters/submit/
Website: http://www.thenewstribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/442

SAVE MARIJUANA LICENSES FOR THOSE WHO PLAY BY THE RULES

The Legislature Doesn't Normally Amend an Initiative Within Two Years 
of Its Passage. but the State Doesn't Have That Kind of Time As It 
Makes the Rules for the Soon-To-Arrive Legal Marijuana Industry.

The Legislature doesn't normally amend an initiative within two years 
of its passage. But the state doesn't have that kind of time as it 
makes the rules for the soon-to-arrive legal marijuana industry.

The Liquor Control Board  which will regulate legal pot  has to get 
it right the first time. That's why lawmakers should deliver the 
required two-thirds majority to make necessary tweaks to Initiative 502.

State Rep. Christopher Hurst, D-Enumclaw, has proposed an important 
amendment to the initiative. It would allow the board to charge 
fair-market rates for the growing, wholesaling and retailing licenses 
it will distribute.

As written, the initiative virtually gives those permits away. The 
application fee is a minuscule $250, plus a $1,000 annual renewal 
cost. Hurst figures, plausibly, that the market could bear up to 
$25,000 in, say, downtown Bellevue. The state could conceivably 
collect as much as $50 million the first year.

It would be plain dumb to pass up that kind of money when the 
Legislature is under court order to fully fund basic education and 
doesn't have the revenues to do it.

Just as important, a higher cover charge would increase the odds that 
legitimate businesses  not underground growers and traffickers 
accustomed to operating outside the law  would wind up with those licenses.

Some argue that smaller is better, that substantial businesses would 
be more likely to market marijuana to youth. The opposite is the 
case. Legitimate businesses have reputations and assets to protect, 
so they have more incentive not to break the law  including 
regulations on advertising to minors.

A small-time grower or dealer knows he can slip right back into the 
underground trade if legality doesn't work out. If it does work out, 
he can become a big player himself  with a fat marketing budget  with 
one of these lucrative permits. They will be licenses to print money.

The black market is not renowned for respecting the law, and it 
hasn't been scrupulous about avoiding sales to minors. As Hurst has 
said, "Why reward bad behavior with a gold mine?"

The same logic applies to "medical" marijuana dealers who've 
partnered with quacks to sell pot to just about anyone who complains 
about a sore back or knee. Hundreds of them routinely defied the 
state's old, absolute ban on selling marijuana  and are now defying 
the new law ban on selling marijuana without a license. I-502 should 
be the means of replacing them, not enriching them.

Not all operators of marijuana collective gardens are bad actors. 
Some of them have made good-faith efforts to play by the rules as 
they understand them. They've honored so-called green cards only from 
reputable physicians who have not run authorization mills for 
recreational drug-seekers.

They shouldn't be categorically excluded from the new industry  but 
the state should rigorously weed out anyone who has been cavalier 
about the law. If lawmakers are cavalier themselves about the new 
industry, I-502's ostensibly tight regulations will deliver nothing 
better than the scofflaw status quo.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom