Pubdate: Tue, 08 Jul 2014
Source: Herald, The (Everett, WA)
Copyright: 2014 The Daily Herald Co.
Contact:  http://www.heraldnet.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/190
Page: A9

POT GENIE IS OUT OF THE BOTTLE

Prohibition didn't work, or so lawmakers learned more than 80 years
ago. But the parallels between America's puritanical experiment with
the Eighteenth Amendment and the legal sale of marijuana likely end
there.

Today, Washington gets into the weeds (pun intended). The serpentine
bureaucracy, the reams of regulations. Cannabis has met the enemy, and
he is us.

For some in law enforcement, jaded by trivial marijuana busts, it's a
longtime coming. Former Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper, an advisory
board member of the organization "Law Enforcement Again Prohibition,"
issued a sanguine prediction. "Washingtonians know that, as in
Colorado, governments both foreign and domestic will be watching to
see how legalization progresses in the state," he said. "And I imagine
that, as in Colorado, lower crime rates, increased tax revenue,
thousands of new jobs and continuing public support will indicate
legalizing and regulating marijuana is one of the simplest ways to
improve not just our criminal justice system, but our state
governments generally."

Thousands of jobs and improved government? Both "Reefer Madness"
alarmists and pot-Valhalla enthusiasts embrace hyperbole. Data will
give us the good, the bad and the predictable.

First, the bad: There are more people driving stoned, according to the
Washington State Patrol. In the first six months after Initiative 502
took effect, 745 drivers pulled over by cops tested positive for THC,
the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana. More than half of those
surpassed Washington's intoxication threshold of 5 nanograms per
milliliter of blood. In each of the last two years before
legalization, the number was around 1,000. Experts will quibble: Are
there more stoned drivers or more cops attentive to the signs?

There will be pot revenue and, much to the surprise of skeptics, the
feds will allow the state to collect it. According to the Economic and
Revenue Forecast Council, the figure is $51 million for the 2015-17
biennium and $138.5 million the following biennium. That's real money,
but it's just a blip in fully funding K-12.

Legal dope or no, human nature remains unchanged, which means
bird-dogging profit-oriented retailers is essential. Hefty costs may
fuel the existing black market. There will be bumps along the way.

Most Northwesterners don't smoke pot, but those who do are mostly
white. The disproportionate number of people of color prosecuted for
weed will now, we assume, plummet.

The data will tell us. The pot genie is out of the bottle.
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MAP posted-by: Matt