Blacks were disproportionately cited by Seattle police for consuming pot in public in the first six months of 2014. In a report delivered to the City Council Wednesday, the police department said officers wrote 82 tickets for public pot consumption in the first half of the year, with 37 percent of those going to blacks. Blacks account for 8 percent of the Seattle population, according to 2010 census figures; 50 percent of the tickets went to whites, who represent 70 percent of the city's residents. [continues 556 words]
Stores Open With Celebrations, Plans for Bigger Supply Deb Greene was looking forward to some blissful shut-eye after buying the first pot Tuesday from Cannabis City in Sodo. She hadn't slept Monday night as she waited in line outside. Greene, 65, a retiree, said she doesn't smoke pot often. But now she could enjoy it legally at her Ballard home, maybe with "Game of Thrones" on TV. "It's incredibly liberating," she said. "It's the dream of every retiree, sleep in and smoke a bowl." [continues 1137 words]
Red Tape, Pot Shortage, High Cost Keep Most From Launching Today The first 25 legal pot stores have received state licenses to start selling their historic wares, but just one store will open Tuesday in the state's largest city and county to serve a long line that started forming the day before. How did that happen since at least four others are opening statewide? State regulators point to store owners and say most weren't prepared to open just yet. "Some were still trying to work out financing, some were waiting for permitting," said Mikhail Carpenter, spokesman for the state Liquor Control Board. [continues 916 words]
You're curious, concerned or psyched. It's been 20 months, or some 600 days, since Washington voters legalized weed, and the first wave of retail pot stores is finally poised to open Tuesday. In the meantime, Seattle elected a legally married gay mayor, the Seahawks won the Super Bowl and the Interstate 5 Skagit River Bridge collapsed. It's been so long since we voted for Initiative 502 that the details aren't easy to recall. And there were details. The initiative was 65 pages long. It specified where pot commerce couldn't occur and the precise amounts of bud and brownies adults could possess. It earmarked taxes and set license fees. [continues 1385 words]
Seattle Startup The Partners in Sodo's Auricag, Among the First 76 Licensed Growers in the State, Are Finding It's Not Easy Cultivating Marijuana on an Industrial Scale. Editor's note: This is the second story in a seed-to-sale series focusing on one pot-growing operation in Seattle as owners take their historic product from seedling to retail-store shelf. A marijuana grow room in Sodo blazes from a dozen 1,000-watt bulbs. The light is so intense that Mark Arnold, assistant grower for pioneering pot producer AuricAG, wears blue-tinted lenses to cut the glare. [continues 1660 words]
Californians will vote in November on a measure backed by San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon - and opposed by most of his fellow prosecutors - to make possession of drugs a misdemeanor rather than a felony. Secretary of State Debra Bowen's office said Thursday that the initiative, co-sponsored by Gascon and former San Diego Police Chief William Lansdowne, had more than the 504,760 valid signatures it needed to qualify for the ballot. Reducing penalties It would make possession of heroin, cocaine and several other drugs a misdemeanor, punishable by no more than a year in county jail, instead of a felony carrying up to three years in prison. It would also reduce small-time theft offenses such as shoplifting and check forgery to misdemeanors if the amount stolen was $950 or less, about twice the current limit. [continues 285 words]
Edible Products Have Safeguards Officials Stress Importance of Protecting Kids' Health With state pot retail stores poised to open July 8, Gov. Jay Inslee stressed that state officials will make protecting children's health paramount as the historic industry begins selling products. But Sharon Foster, chair of the state Liquor Control Board, said a local doctor told her he hadn't seen a spike in emergency-room visits by teens. Instead more baby boomers were coming to the ER, Foster said, probably after overdosing on pot-infused snacks, like New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, who wrote about her "panting and paranoid" experience after eating too much of a candy bar in Colorado. [continues 293 words]
Thank you for your editorial June 7 warning Arizonans of the dangers of marijuana by offering specific examples of three people in Colorado who suffered serious effects ("Legalize marijuana? First, watch Colo."). However, you failed to mention the thousands of cases of spousal and child abuse and criminal activity directly related to the consumption of alcohol, as well as the tens of thousands of deaths it causes yearly. - - Bob Baron, Phoenix [end]
Some Medical Marijuana Isn't What It's Supposed to Be SEATTLE - Jessica Tonani, a Seattle biotech executive, has what she calls a "broken stomach." Put politely, she doesn't digest food properly, which can cause vomiting, nausea and severe weight loss. She's had multiple surgeries, tried all the recommended treatments for her disorder and sits twice weekly for intravenous infusions. Ms. Tonani, 38, decided several years ago to try pot. And it has worked for her, she said, especially strains low in the psychedelic chemical THC and high in the nonpsychoactive ingredient cannabidiol, known as CBD. [continues 499 words]
The force of money in politics can be compared to the force of gravity ("Countermoves clouding medical marijuana push vote," Monday) - - a force very hard to stop. A PAC like "Vote No on Amendment 2" does not have to disclose its contributors. Where is the money coming from? Who has such a powerful need to contribute money to prevent suffering patients from receiving relief ? Without specific information, and by pure speculation, the possible groups that might suffer financially and might be contributors to this PAC could be private prison corporations, attorneys for defense, liquor industry (competition), pharmaceuticals (competition). There also would be fewer jobs for law enforcement, prosecution and judges. BOB ROTH, JUNO BEACH [end]
Regarding "Legalize marijuana? First, watch Colo." (Editorial, Viewpoints, Saturday)" I agree with The Republic's editorial board. Let's watch and see what happens in Colorado before making a decision regarding the legalization of marijuana. Arizona should not be in a rush to follow other states in full legalization. However, should we continue to put people in jail for pot? Don't legalize it, decriminalize it. As for medical marijuana, if a doctor prescribes it for a patient, the patient should be allowed to use it. But it should be sold only by a licensed pharmacist, like any other controlled substance. The federal government should let the states decide how they will regulate marijuana and limit itself to enforcement of the importation and interstate traffic of it. - - Bob Haran, Glendale [end]
While They're No Strangers to Business, the Hands-on Owners of One State-Licensed Grow Operation at First Thought, 'This Is Crazy.' but Soon All Their Work and Stress Will Pay Off - They Hope. Editor's note: This is the first story in a seed-to-sale series focusing on one pot-growing operation in Seattle as owners take their historic product from seedling to retail store shelf. Inside a windowless Sodo warehouse teeming with 1,143 pot plants, one of the state's pioneering marijuana producers waited anxiously to "snap the lights." [continues 1804 words]
House Votes to Rein in Feds Shows Times Are Changing Members of Congress whose states allow the medical use of marijuana have been trying since 2003 to stop federal prosecutors from going after state-approved pot suppliers. In one vote after another, they've been beaten back in the House - until now. Rep. Sam Farr, D-Carmel, a lead sponsor of the latest hands-off amendment, expected to fall a few votes short of the 218-vote majority needed for passage. But a 219-189 roll call last week approved the measure, which would cut off funding for Justice Department enforcement actions that interfere with medical marijuana laws in 22 states and with laws in another 10 states that allow medical use of hemp oils. [continues 761 words]
Spurned Retailer's Case Being Closely Watched Asks Whether Federal Law Can Trump State's I-502 A lawsuit against the city of Wenatchee could have sweeping implications for legal pot's future in Washington and other states. The lawsuit was filed Tuesday afternoon in Chelan County Superior Court by Shaun Preder, who is seeking a state license for a retail marijuana store in Wenatchee. But Preder's SMP Retail can't open a store, Wenatchee officials say, because city officials adopted a policy that says to get a city business license, entrepreneurs must comply with federal law. [continues 924 words]
Testing Shows That Some Marijuana Strains Aren't What They Purport to Be. That's Particularly Worrisome for Patients Who Don't Want to Be Stoned at Work or Behind the Wheel. Jessica Tonani, a Seattle biotech executive, has what she calls a "broken stomach." Put politely, she doesn't digest food properly, which can cause vomiting, nausea and severe weight loss. She's had multiple surgeries, tried all the recommended treatments for her disorder and sits twice weekly for intravenous infusions. [continues 1468 words]
Review of Industrial Land Polices Could Include Marijuana Operations It's not just smoke that medicinal marijuana operations are part of the discussion as Barrie reviews its industrial land policies. Steven Farquharson, the city's development planner, says pot operations are in the mix because the federal government allows these types of facilities to operate within municipalities, subject to local regulations such as zoning bylaws. "There has been an increase in inquires for this type of use to locate in Barrie," he said, "therefore staff have reviewed this use and have determined it to be an industrial use, which is why it is being considered as part of this process." [continues 98 words]
Jerusalem District Court Judge Nava Ben-Or last week rejected a challenge to aspects of the government's current policy permitting the use of cannabis for medical purposes. The decision, in favor of medical supplier Sarel Corporation as well as the Health Ministry, the Finance Ministry, and other related parties, was handed down Thursday, but was announced by the court on Sunday. Ben-Or sat as an administrative judge on a petition by the Barak Corporation seeking that aspects of the cannabis policy be declared invalid. One was that the government failed to advertise properly the tender for which corporations would have a right to distribute cannabis and receive exemption from certain regulations. [continues 260 words]
Once a logging and fishing town, this job-hungry community can't afford to sniff at the fledgling legal pot industry as affluent towns do. RAYMOND, Pacific County - fter voters legalized marijuana in Washington, Seattle nightlife entrepreneur Marcus Charles went hunting for a depressed timber town. Owner of the Crocodile Cafe and co-founder of the Capitol Hill Block Party, Charles wanted to jump into the emerging pot industry. His first impulse was to find a city with vacant industrial space and a hearty appetite for new jobs. That led him away from the booming communities around Puget Sound. [continues 1283 words]
New Zealand should not proceed down the path of decriminialisation when it comes to marijuana, writes Bob McCoskrie. IT IS ironic that at the same time as we ban synthetic cannabis and we try to price and label cigarettes out of existence, supporters of marijuana are peddling the same myths that we believed for far too long about tobacco - that marijuana is harmless, and it can even have health benefits. Supporters of decriminalisation would have us believe that cannabis is a gentle, harmless substance that gives users little more than a sense of mellow euphoria and hurts no one else, and that legal highs wouldn't be as attractive if we just decriminalised marijuana. [continues 632 words]
City Council Decides Against Ban 'We Should Respect the Will of Voters' The Bellevue City Council voted Monday night against banning legal pot businesses in the state's fifth-largest city. Led by Kevin Wallace, several council members said in March they wanted to consider a moratorium or ban on legal pot merchants in light of state Attorney General Bob Ferguson's advisory opinion that cities could block the new legal industry. But in a vote Wallace called for Monday on a six-month moratorium, only Conrad Lee sided with him. The five other council members voted for allowing legal pot businesses, with varying degrees of enthusiasm. [continues 425 words]
Green Rush Expected As Losers Seek Partners Seattle Company Buys Bremerton's Better Buds The wheeling and dealing has started for lottery-winning pot store locations. Seattle-based C & C Shop, which struck out in the recent lottery, announced it bought Bremerton's Better Buds, a lottery winner. "We placed another bet on this new industry's future," said Pete O'Neil, spokesman for C & C, which applied for stores in Bremerton, Lynnwood and Seattle. O'Neil's team bought the assets of Better Buds from owner Dave Comeau for $150,000. Comeau also gets $10,000 per month, or 10 percent of the Bremerton store's net revenue, in perpetuity, Comeau said. [continues 408 words]
Some Lose Costly Bets in Renting Store Sites Bartering, Legal Action Begin Among Applicants Some wannabe pot merchants were crestfallen and fewer jubilant Thursday as state officials notified applicants for retail pot stores about where they stood in the lottery for retail pot-store licenses. Applicants like Anne Martens and Pete O'Neil were disappointed because they've been paying rent for potential store locations only to learn they pulled lousy numbers in the lottery. "We lost a ton of money," said Martens, about the Northwest Seattle property she and her partners have rented for almost six months. Martens learned that the state's lottery ranked them 53rd for the 21 store licenses in Seattle. [continues 579 words]
She's well known for her own addiction battles with alcohol, drugs and prescription painkillers. On Thursday Melanie Griffith flew into Los Angeles after speaking at the National RX Drug Abuse Summit, a three-day event at the Atlanta Marriott Marquis in Atlanta, Georgia. The 56-year-old looked in the pink - literally - in an unusual blush-coloured leather jacket and matching bag, paired with ripped blue skinny jeans and black ankle booties. The Working Girl star pulled her blonde tresses back into a bun while her fringe framed her face. [continues 316 words]
A federal judge yesterday ruled that two Bay State men - previously convicted of marijuana possession in other states - could not be denied the right to have guns in their homes for self-defense purposes based on their prior drug crimes. U.S. District Court Judge Richard Stearns ruled that Michael Wesson of Salisbury and Thomas Woods of Natick have a Second Amendment right to own firearms despite being convicted of possessing weed in the past. Sterns said the portion of the Massachusetts Gun Control Act that disqualifies gun applicants who had previously been convicted of possessing a controlled substance was unconstitutional, as applied to the two men. [continues 107 words]
As a young Army officer in 1967, Roger Roffman was the first to conduct research on pot use by soldiers in Vietnam. For Roffman, a University of Washington professor emeritus, that began a career as a marijuana researcher and dependence counselor. Four decades later, he wanted to chronicle his experience with the cannabis plant. What emerged was not the scholarly analysis Roffman had anticipated, but a memoir of his life as a social worker, scholar, compulsive pot-smoker, activist and reluctant sponsor of Initiative 502, which legalized adult possession of pot in Washington state. [continues 545 words]
Some Want to Bring Drug-Sniffing Dogs into Schools Concerned the Law Sends Wrong Message Rob Levin was stunned to hear that his son, a ninth-grader at Seattle's Roosevelt High, was already smoking pot with his friends. Levin was even more disturbed to hear his son say kids were dazed and confused at school, taking hits from smokeless vaporizer pens in classes and hallways. "I was politely in the school's face about this," said Levin, a lawyer. He wrote Roosevelt's principal, "roundtabled" with other parents and has been pushing school officials to bring drug-sniffing dogs into Roosevelt. [continues 1588 words]
About 500 of the 2,180 Who Applied Have Failed to Respond to Requests for Basic Information and Others Have Asked for More Time - Both of Which Have Led to a Delay in the Opening of Stores. Retail pot stores are now expected to open in early July, state officials said Wednesday, blaming delays in the licensing process on unprepared and unresponsive applicants. In unveiling a lottery plan to determine retail-license winners, the state's marijuana project director said about 500 of the 2,180 retail applicants have not responded to requests for basic information, despite repeated outreach by the state Liquor Control Board (LCB). Those applications are now considered null by the state. [continues 734 words]
RIO GRANDE CITY, Texas - The load wasn't hard to spot. Officers could see the marijuana bundles peeking out from the back of the SUV. But, as they pulled behind it, the driver turned to follow a school bus dropping off children. "They take advantage of the school traffic. ... They know we won't initiate a stop when there are students around," said Nat Gonzalez, an investigator for a multiagency drug task force in Starr County, Texas. Stop by stop, on that Monday earlier this month, the officers followed, watching the driver make calls on his cellphone, until he swerved south toward the Rio Grande. [continues 2769 words]
An undercover FBI agent posing as a medical marijuana supplier met with state Sen. Leland Yee in Sacramento in June and, according to the FBI's transcript of a secret tape recording, said he was willing to make campaign contributions in exchange for support of legislation. Yee's reply, the FBI reported, was, "You can't do that, man. You go to jail for that." Yee was right. His problem, if the government's account of his actions is accurate, is that he didn't listen to his own advice. [continues 797 words]
Decision to Move Ahead Was Made Last Year Some on Council Now Seek Debate After AG Weighed In Bellevue, where 59 percent of the electorate voted for Initiative 502, is considering banning recreational-pot businesses in light of state Attorney General Bob Ferguson's advisory opinion that cities and counties can block the new legal industry. Bellevue's City Council had already debated legal pot businesses last year and decided to move ahead with "emergency interim" regulations that would allow state-licensed growers, processors and retailers, but restrict where in the city they could locate. [continues 397 words]
21,000-Square-Foot Spokane Facility State Board to Issue Dozen More Licenses Soon Washington's first legal pot grower was introduced by state officials Wednesday as an entrepreneur who followed the rules and out-hustled other applicants to the finish line. Sean Green, 32, now runs medical-marijuana dispensaries in Spokane and Shoreline. He plans to open a 21,000-square-foot growing and processing facility in Spokane. Officials at the state Liquor Control Board (LCB) said Green was one of the first to apply, and hurdled each step of the vetting process without hang-ups. [continues 814 words]
LEGISLATIVE EFFORTS - Proposed measures are aimed at meeting the needs of patients while tightening the medical system, but patients and advocates fear the bills would make their access to adequate, affordable medical marijuana much more difficult. State lawmakers are poised to make significant changes to Washington's medical-marijuana system. And the changes likely will come from two bills that have emerged as the vehicles for reconciling the largely unregulated medical system with the state's new, stiffly taxed and regulated recreational system. [continues 1375 words]
In my opinion there are very few more respected in the community than Jonathan Rice. It is very likely I have never before disagreed with him, at least very rarely do I. I have to give a lot of credit to the pro-marijuana group for taking up a cause and getting it to a point of legalization within a state. For those of us who believe the federal government is far too expansive, invasive and wrong much of the time, it is good to see this group did something about it. Not to mention the war on drugs and the lessons not learned by prohibition ... overpopulation of prisons ... and on and on. [continues 397 words]
There is a magic pill that cures addiction. It is used in other countries and used to be legal here. You take one pill, one time, and without going through the painful detox symptoms one normally experiences you emerge a clean, non-addict. The success rate in the few studies that have been done show more than 85 percent of patients still clean after five years. It works for all types of addiction because the addiction is almost never to the drug itself but to the escape it offers from other problems. However, much like MDMA and PTSD, simply because others use a drug for fun means genuine patients in need must be denied. [continues 166 words]
Boost for New Industry Some Skeptical, but State's Smaller Banks Might Be First to Provide Credit, Accounts In what some hailed as a historic step for legal marijuana, the federal government announced Friday new rules aimed at encouraging banking services for pot businesses in Washington and Colorado. But because marijuana remains a dangerous illegal drug under federal law, some banks - particularly large ones - may still opt not to provide checking accounts, credit cards and other services to legal pot merchants. [continues 1044 words]
Eighteen members of Congress, including six from Northern California, urged President Obama on Wednesday to remove marijuana from the government's list of the most dangerous drugs and allow doctors to prescribe it. "Lives and resources are wasted on enforcing harsh, unrealistic and unfair marijuana laws," the House members said in a letter to Obama. They cited Obama's recent comment that marijuana, which he smoked as a youth, was no more dangerous than alcohol. In a later interview, however, when asked if he would remove marijuana from Schedule One, the strictest prohibition for narcotics, he replied that was a "job for Congress." [continues 180 words]
Liquor Board Reverses Position, Delays Culling Applications State officials said last month they'd immediately disqualify any application for a marijuana business license tied to an improper address, such as a home or location within 1,000 feet of a venue frequented by minors. The culling had already started, according to the state Liquor Control Board (LCB). About 500 such businesses were quickly identified and would soon receive disqualification letters, said Brian Smith, a spokesman for the board. But no letters went out. Instead, the board has reversed what appeared to be its firm position last month. It is now allowing applicants 30 days from the time they receive notice from the board to secure a legal address. Notifications started going out about two weeks ago. [continues 680 words]
When it comes to the regulation of marijuana, President Obama has had a hard time squaring his words with his actions - most notably, his campaign promise to defer to state medical marijuana laws, followed by a flurry of federal raids on state-licensed dispensaries and the closures of hundreds in California. Now Obama has discussed the subject in a national television interview, and it's hard to reconcile his words with the law. It happened Jan. 31, when CNN's Jake Tapper brought up the president's headline-making observation during a recent New Yorker magazine interview that marijuana was no more dangerous than alcohol. Could that mean, Tapper asked Obama, that he would consider removing marijuana from Schedule One of the Controlled Substances Act, reserved for dangerous drugs that have no accepted medical use? [continues 850 words]
Supply and Demand - Legal Pot Stores Are Months From Opening, Leaving Consumers in Limbo. Delivery Services Are Trying to Meet the Need. Wombat sat in his car in a Wallingford parking lot, waiting to make a drug deal. Shannon, 33, hopped in, her first time buying pot from the delivery service that Wombat - not his real name - works for. It's called Winterlife and because of its questionable legality, its employees use animal pseudonyms, such as Otter, Owl and Fox. Shannon showed Wombat her ID. He showed her a couple different strains of pot in clear tidy packages and an array of pot-laced cookies, truffles and chocolate bars. She bought a quarter-ounce of Purple Wreck for $80 and several edibles for $25. This wasn't medical marijuana. This was the newly legal recreational variety. [continues 1339 words]
Potent Mix Is Popular Only Licensed Facilities Allowed to Sell Extract Under Recreational Law From Spokane to Seattle, Vancouver to Mount Vernon, amateur chemists have caused explosions in recent months, often in homes, while using flammable solvents to produce hash oil. The most recent blast occurred Monday in a Spokane Valley kitchen. Three weeks earlier, an explosion in a Vancouver home left a man hospitalized with burns to his face. Last month, hash-related explosions caused $100,000 in damage to a Kirkland apartment and lifted a South Seattle house off its foundation. [continues 1244 words]
Named After Running Back 'Bit Slow to Start, Then Kicks In' With bartenders naming cocktails after Seahawks players, it's no surprise a local pot grower has come up with a strain called "Beast Mode," in tribute to Marshawn Lynch. "It's extremely strong," said Nate "Diggity" Johnson, owner of the Queen Anne Cannabis Club, which carries the strain named after the burly Seahawks running back. Most of the weed sold in Seattle medical-marijuana dispensaries has a THC content between 12 and 20 percent. An indica-dominant strain of the OG Kush family, Beast Mode has a THC content of 17.6, according to testing by Analytical 360, Johnson said. [continues 313 words]
To the Editor: President Barack Obama must be ignorant of the facts, or just made a stupid statement when he said recently that marijuana is no more dangerous than alcohol. This is ludicrous. His own Office of National Drug Control Policy says that there are more carcinogens in marijuana smoke than tobacco smoke. Studies have shown that men in their 20s and 30s can have permanent brain damage, poor memory and reduced I.Q. after smoking marijuana. We've spent billions of taxpayer dollars warning our youth on the dangers of drugs, and these efforts have been undercut by the president's comments. [continues 63 words]
In the following book excerpt, a former undercover Ontario narcotics officer describes how his team got inside the head of South American drug smugglers. In the 1990s, the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) and the Toronto police had a long-standing relationship through the storied Amigo Squad. This was the big leagues of drug work, since the squad focused 100% on Colombian cartels. But what I hadn't anticipated when I became the OPP liaison officer for the Amigo Squad was that the Greater Toronto Area unit differed from the OPP in one key way: They didn't have a fraction of the money that we did. [continues 1582 words]
In a newly published tell-all, a former undercover Ontario narcotics officer describes the art of the kingpin 'takedown' In the 1980s, there were police drug units all around the province - Kingston, London, Toronto, Windsor, Thunder Bay and one stray dog all the way up in Kenora, on the border of Ontario and Manitoba, 600 km north of Thunder Bay. That one-man operation was Donny Birrell, a legendary lone wolf whom I had encountered when I was in the northern town of Geraldton. Or rather, who'd seen me as free entertainment when he passed through a speed trap I was operating up on the highway, and I had my first high-speed chase. [continues 1355 words]
Says Counties, Cities Could Keep Out Legal Pot Businesses Clouds Issuing of Licenses State Attorney General Bob Ferguson said Thursday that cities and counties are allowed to effectively ban recreational-marijuana businesses. In an advisory opinion sought by the state Liquor Control Board, Ferguson said Washington's law allowing legal pot under Initiative 502 did not preempt local governments from banning or effectively blocking marijuana retailers, producers or processors. The Liquor Control Board (LCB), in charge of implementing I-502, now faces difficult questions, as it is processing more than 7,000 applications for pot-business licenses. [continues 729 words]
With 2,035 Applications for Just 334 Retail Pot Stores, the Culling Includes Vetting and Then a Lottery to Pick the Winners. With business booming in Colorado's new legal pot shops, a license for a retail pot store in Washington state is a coveted prize, a "golden ticket," said pot entrepreneur John Davis. Look no further than the 2,035 applications, and counting, heaped upon state officials for just 334 proposed shops. For qualified applicants who make it through the state's vetting process, a lottery awaits to pick winners. [continues 1090 words]
What would happen if a similar program was in effect in Florida ("Colorado stores begin nonmedical pot sales," Thursday)? First, it could be taxed. Second, the illegal sales would greatly diminish. Those pushing the pot would have to find another way to make a living, possibly their sales experience might help them in a legitimate job. Those in the business of supplying the pushers could use their business experience in an honest manner. Some ex-bootleggers shifted into legitimate businesses after Prohibition; one even had a son who became president. [continues 106 words]
The year began shortly after Colorado and Washington altered the drug-policy landscape by legalizing weed the previous November. At the start of 2013, both states got down to writing rules to implement the will of the voters. By year's end, both states had created a framework for regulating the commercial production, processing and selling of recreational marijuana. Along the way, milestones occurred here in Washington and as far away as Uruguay. Jan. 24 The state Liquor Control Board, charged with implementing Washington's legal pot law, begins holding public hearings. Seattle City Hall is packed to capacity on Jan. 24. John Eskola, representing small medical-marijuana growers, seems to speak for many when he tells board members: "The war is over. We won. Don't punish us, take our money." [continues 547 words]
Bumpy Ride Forecast When Businesses Open Predictions Vary on Price Swings, Business Failures Washington state moves into uncharted territory in 2014 with the licensing and opening of legal recreational pot businesses. We asked experts in the state and elsewhere to predict the year ahead for pot, not just here, but also around the country and the world. Their overarching theme for 2014? Strap in for a bumpy ride. Business failures, inadequate supply at first, falling prices, and a few big unknowns loom in the year ahead, according to experts. [continues 897 words]
Growing Advise, Pound of Rare Strain Plant's Chemicals Help Lessen Boy's Seizures This is a holiday story you probably haven't seen before. After Ryan Day publicly told his story of struggling to get and grow legal marijuana to treat his son's severe epilepsy, some pot entrepreneurs responded with generosity. Two leaders in Seattle's medical-marijuana industry, Alex Cooley and Ryan Kunkel, reached out to the Day family - and are expanding their charity to others in need during the holiday season. [continues 480 words]
