Pubdate: Wed, 22 May 2013
Source: Stranger, The (Seattle, WA)
Copyright: 2013 The Stranger
Contact:  http://www.thestranger.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2241
Author: Ben Livingston

STATE CONSIDERS BANNING HASH

Draft Pot Rules Would Encourage Black Market for Cannabis Concentrates

Last week, the Washington State Liquor Control Board released draft 
regulations for the legal cannabis market enacted by voters. The 
46-page document specifies the qualification process for potential 
pot entrepreneurs-including fingerprints that will be sent to the 
FBI-requirements for growing and selling marijuana, and many rules 
about license objections, violations, and suspensions. Potential 
licensees will have a one-month window to apply, and if more 
retailers apply than the liquor board intends to license, they will 
conduct a pot-store lottery.

The good news for cannabis consumers is that your pot will be weighed 
on certified scales, tested by third-party laboratories, and not 
labeled organic unless certified so. The bad news for pot smokers-and 
the biggest shock in the draft rules-is that the liquor board 
proposes a ban on the retail sale of hash and hash oil.

This means the state could create a black market for popular cannabis 
products, which was the opposite of what voters intended when they 
passed Initiative 502. (Alternatively, tokers could obtain their hash 
on the gray market by obtaining a medical cannabis authorization, 
usually for $75 to $200.) Why propose these rules? In interpreting 
the law, the liquor board made a strange reading of the term 
marijuana-infused product, determining that marijuana concentrates 
don't actually "contain" marijuana, and therefore found that hash 
would be illegal while marijuana would be legal.

"My god, we have to fix this," says Brandon Hamilton from Washington 
Alternative Medicine, who operates one of the few supercritical CO2 
hash oil extraction machines in the state. He says concentrates are 
more popular than ever with medical cannabis users, and consumers 
will continue to want hash oil once legal pot shops open. "It will be 
a big problem, because people are going to make concentrates no 
matter what. This needs to be permissible and regulated."

A wordy and tireless hash lover, I have unending semantic arguments 
about the state's interpretation of the word "contain." But the 
simple fact is that the people of Washington voted to end pot 
prohibition-a monumental mandate-and in its place the liquor board 
proposes a lighter form of prohibition, one where we can't obtain 
cannabis-containing extracts.

Damn it, liquor board: Don't screw this one up. Final rules are 
expected this summer.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom