Pubdate: Sat, 03 Jan 2015
Source: Republican-American (Waterbury, CT)
Copyright: 2015 American-Republican Inc.
Contact: http://www.rep-am.com/about_us/how_to_reach_us/
Website: http://www.rep-am.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/571
Note: from the Associated Press
Note: Associated Press writer Kristen Wyatt in Denver contributed to
this report.

MEDICAL MARIJUANA A KEY ISSUE FOR LEGAL POT STATES

SEATTLE - A year into the nation's experiment with legal, taxed
marijuana sales, Washington and Colorado find themselves wrestling not
with the federal interference many feared, but with competition from
medical marijuana or even outright black market sales.

In Washington, the black market has exploded since voters legalized
marijuana in 2012, with scores of legally dubious medical dispensaries
opening and some pot delivery services brazenly advertising that they
sell outside the legal system.

Licensed shops say taxes are so onerous that they can't
compete.

Colorado, which launched legal pot sales last year, is facing a
lawsuit from Nebraska and Oklahoma alleging that they're being overrun
with pot from the state.

And the number of patients on Colorado's medical marijuana registry
went up, not down, since 2012, meaning more marijuana users there can
avoid paying the higher taxes that recreational pot carries.

Officials in both states say they must do more to drive customers into
the recreational stores. They're looking at reining in their medical
systems and fixing the big tax differential between medical and
recreational weed without harming patients.

And in some cases, they are considering cracking down on the
proliferating black market.

"How can you have two parallel systems, one that's regulated, paying
taxes, playing by the rules, and the other that's not doing any of
those things?" said Rick Garza of the Washington Liquor Control Board,
which oversees recreational pot.

The difficulty of reconciling medical marijuana with taxed
recreational pot offers a cautionary tale for states that might join
Washington and Colorado in regulating the adult use of the drug.

While legalization campaigns have focused on the myriad ills of
prohibition, including racial discrepancies in who gets busted for
weed, the promise of additional tax revenues in tight budget times was
in no small part of the appeal.

Weed sales have so far brought in some revenue, though less than
officials might have hoped.

The latest states to legalize marijuana - Oregon and Alaska - have
different concerns, but officials there are nevertheless paying
attention to Colorado and Washington as they work on rules for their
own industry.

The question, lawmakers say, is how to direct people into the
regulated system - maximizing state revenues - without hurting
legitimately sick people who use marijuana.

Ideas under discussion include reducing pot taxes to make recreational
stores more competitive and eliminating medical dispensaries, which
have been largely tolerated by law enforcement even though they aren't
allowed under state law.

The state could lift its cap on the number of recreational stores and
license dispensaries to sell pot for any purpose.

Seattle officials have signaled that they intend to start busting
delivery services that flout the law and recently sent letters to 330
marijuana businesses warning them that they'll eventually need to
obtain state licenses or be shut down.

Tacoma has also announced plans to close dozens of unregulated pot
shops.

Officials have less leeway to alter the medical marijuana system in
Colorado, where it was enshrined in the state constitution in 2000.
But lawmakers are nevertheless set to review how it is regulated next
year because the state's 2010 scheme is expiring.

Taxes will be a large part of the discussion. Medical pot is now
subject only to the statewide 2.9 percent sales tax, one-tenth of the
taxes levied on recreational pot.

Colorado's medical marijuana registry has grown from 107,000 people in
late 2012 to about 116,000 this year, though marijuana patient
advocates dispute that the growth is tax-driven.

State health officials, who oversee the registry, are planning to
better scrutinize doctors who recommend large numbers of medical pot
patients or who recommend more than the baseline of six plants for a
patient.

The challenge for lawmakers will be countering perceptions that
they're trying to squeeze sick people for cash.

"I don't want to wind up cracking down on people abusing the system in
a way that negatively impacts the patients and the people who help
them," said Teri Robnett, founder of the Cannabis Patients Alliance.

Associated Press writer Kristen Wyatt in Denver contributed to this
report.  
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D