Spokane7
61°Quick links: 2012 graduating seniors • Summer camp guide • Jobs: The Road Ahead • Prep sports • News quiz
OLYMPIA – While the Legislature wrestles with a huge budget shortfall that generates hearings on everything from closing state institutions to raising college tuition, the most heavily attended hearing Wednesday involved a non-budget item.
Marijuana. Should the state legalize it, or turn it into a civil infraction? Or just wait a few months to see if voters pass an initiative to legalize it?
Technically, it’s not quite true this has NOTHING to do with the budget because HB 2401 would both legalize marijuana, regulate its growth and sale and generate as much as $300 million a biennium in revenue in taxes and fees, Rep. Mary Lou Dickerson, the bill’s sponsor said.
Dickerson, D-Seattle, is a co-sponsor of HB 1177, which would turn possession of small amounts of marijuana into an infraction similar to a speeding ticket. That bill’s prime sponsor, Rep. Dave Upthegrove, D-Des Moines, is a co-sponsor of the legalization proposal. The decriminalization bill has two Spokane Democrats as sponsors, Timm cq Ormsby and Alex Wood, while the legalization bill has none at this point.
To read the rest of the story, Click here and go inside the blog
Both got support from the Washington State Bar Association as well as the King County bar and medical associations. Both got thumbs down from the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs and other law enforcement officials.
The hearing by the House Public Safety
and Preparedness Committee was the most packed of the afternoon, and
people with pink hair or head-to-foot tatoos sat next to the more
ypical coat-and-tie lobbyists.
Both proposals got support from
the Washington State Bar Association as well as the King County bar and
medical associations. Both got thumbs down from the Washington
Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs and some drug treatment and
some drug abuse treatment and prevention professionals.
The hearing by the House Public Safety and Preparedness Committee was
the most packed of the afternoon, and people with pink hair or
head-to-foot tattoos sat next to the more typical coat-and-tie
lobbyists.
The most impassioned pleas came from people who regard marijuana as a
cure or treatment for diseases, or a civil right. They suggested the
state legalize marijuana despite federal laws against it, and assert a
state’s rights defense based on the 10th Amendment.
Others said cities, counties and the state could save money on
arresting, prosecuting and incarcerating people for small amounts of
marijuana, all the figures for how many people are arrested and jailed
solely for an ounce or two of pot were debated.
Some objected to Dickerson’s proposal to sell marijuana at state liquor stores. Pot and booze are a bad combination, they said.
Several legislators wondered about the proposals effect on the youth,
and they actually heard from one. Riley Harrison, a ninth grader from
Ridgeview Middle School in nearby Yelm, said 10 of his classmates were
recently caught selling marijuana; legalizing pot would send the wrong
signal to him and other students.
“What message does the Legislature want to send to the youth of Washington? That you’re willing to give up?” Harrison asked.
Rick Smith of the group that filed the initiative earlier this week
also suggested the Legislature do nothing on the issue: “We’re going to
take it out of your hands, and we’re sorry about that. Just wait for
our initiative; it’ll take care of everything.”
The committee scheduled a vote on the two bills next week.
Jim Camden is a veteran political reporter for The Spokesman-Review.
Jonathan Brunt covers Spokane City Hall for The Spokesman-Review.
999 W. Riverside, Spokane, WA 99201
P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210
Main switchboard: (509) 459-5000 • (800) 338-8801
Newsroom: (509) 459-5400 • (800) 789-0029
Customer service: (800) 338-8801
© Copyright 2012, The Spokesman-Review
Terms of use • Privacy policy • Copyright policy
empyrius on January 13 at 4:47 p.m.
Under the commerce clause the Supreme Court in Gonzales v. Raich, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gonzales_v._Raich, http://straylight.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/03-1454.ZO.html, ruled that because marijuana is in fact such a massive industry in America the feds have a right to arrest and prosecute even people using medical marijuana b/c ultimately it would still have an effect upon the greater marijuana industry (the afore and following are short answers for brevity’s sake by the way). And of course legal exceptions to the usage of illegal drugs, such as peyote for Native Americans, or psychedelic tea for churches, explicitly Gonzales v. UDV concerning the latter, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gonzales_v._O_Centro_Espirita_Beneficente_Uniao_do_Vegetal, http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/05pdf/04-1084.pdf, are accepted because there is not a significant potential for “diversion”, i.e., drug trafficking.
Basically, invoking my 1st Amendment, freedom of religion, right to use marijuana does not outweigh the greater harm that marijuana in itself can potentially cause society, so the government argues. Yet lesser well known, and far more potent drugs, can legally be used for religious purposes because they do not possess a great danger to society, so the Supreme Court argues . . .
Then we have the very outlandish concept that the government can pass the laugh test by contending that marijuana is a “schedule I” drug. I am cracking up here!
The 10th Amendment sets up a grand battle between the feds and states . . .
We have legal concepts such as “strict scrutiny”, “compelling government interests”, “least restrictive means”, and other such really fun stuff to wrap one’s mind around.
Getting my juices going and I am going to have to re-dedicate myself to my crusade to completely refute all government argumentation that keeps the Lord’s good green herb illegal!!! And I have, I believe, some pretty good reasoning that will not easily be overcome, and I have read all of the legal decisions that thus far concern marijuana . . .
Lastly, I wonder if ninth grader Riley Harrison feels the government betrayed him by passing the 21st Amendment? Tis a shame the government would use this kid like this!!! Has “our” government no shame???
Peace
orbi on January 14 at 12:13 a.m.
Ode to Mary Jane
Mother Nature’s daughter,
With you I feel high…
When others act all crazy,
I just eat some pie!
…
People that abuse alcohol are unpredictable and may be verbally and/or physically abusive. Their inhibitions are lessened; they are more likely to do something stupid. Being around this type of person requires walking on eggshells. Someone behind the wheel that’s drunk will have less regard for other drivers, speeding is probable.
People that abuse marijuana get that glossy-eyed look and might doze off on you. This type of person is harmless (unless otherwise psychotic). They are more inhibited, possibly due to paranoia, which means they are less likely to go out and do something dumb. Stoned drivers drive slower and more carefully than they normally would. However, their reaction times aren’t as good. Unless really ripped, they should be able to walk a straight line and recite the alphabet—something an inebriated person can’t do.
I don’t know about you, but when it comes to people, I’m sick of walking on eggshells. Let’s get it legalized already.
mrbigstuff on January 14 at 8:33 a.m.
I think regulating it is the right choice! Allthough it isn’t good for children or teens, I think it being categorized as something similar to alcohol or tobacco and puting an age requirement on use can be benneficial to our state. The revenue increase and money saved from decriminalization would do wonders for our struggling state economy and allow us to put more money into schools instead of criminals. I hope this passes I believe it will not change who uses it, but will just allow another source of income for our troubled state economy.
exA on January 14 at 11:00 a.m.
Is dope a luxury for the government to quell its citizens or is it a necessity for those that need to escape what our government has wrought?
One cant fix that which is broken looking through dope goggles.
exA on January 14 at 11:01 a.m.
If they pass this.. I want to start a new magazine called Pot Spectator that will rate the various pots.
brentandrews on January 14 at 11:30 a.m.
Empyrius, orbi, mrbigstuff, all of liberal Washington, I love you guys. Love you. I truly believe God and an applied marijuana plan saved my life. Medical marijuana helped me kick a bad drinking problem that might have led to my death or someone else’s death as I hurtled down the highway drunk. In 2000, in Idaho, it suddenly occurred to me: I can’t drink when I’m stoned. Can’t. It puts me out, makes me sick. When I’m high, I don’t want to drink! And I’m happy as a clam! When I’m high, I don’t drive drunk, get arrested, alienate friends, urinate in public! I found a better life. My wife called my solution my “pot plan.” And it worked like a charm! We couldn’t believe it! After years and years of struggle, something worked! It worked for a year and then it worked for another year and it has worked for 10 years! I’ve been a criminal ever since.
I tied my journalism career to medical marijuana, writing the first self-help book by an alcoholic who kicked alcohol by purposefully using marijuana, instead. The Pot Plan tells how I did it, and how the alcoholic in your life can do it, too. Read it free here:
http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&vid=ISBN0976705605&id=o9T5SwXNFE0C&dq=The+Pot+Plan+Thomas+Brent+Andrews&pg=PP6&printsec=3&lpg=PP6&sig=q-cx9em4OQgCzJTu29lAlaXbUxM#v=onepage&q=&f=false
Since I self-published The Pot Plan under my own Chronic Discontent label (who else would touch it?) I’ve sold it coast-to-coast personally meeting many “ordinary” Americans who had run out of hope in their battles with alcohol and even heroin, only to discover the same surprising solution to the vicious cycle that I did. We all had to find the pot plan on our own; some thanked me for taking the chance of telling other alcoholics about this discovery. The tendency for pot-planners is to go into the closet - there’s been enough trouble in our lives, already. Any of us could fall victim any time to the war on (some!) drugs. The risks are great - of losing our freedom and our jobs and perhaps our families. We weigh the risks, and still fear them far less than we fear returning to the alcoholic or addict we have been … No prison sentence is scarier than our lowest times when we prostituted ourselves to feed our addictions, when we humiliated ourselves before friends and strangers; we will get our medicine if we have to get it from the Mexican Mafia or al Quaida. A drowning man does not question the politics of the fellow throwing the life-preserver. Nobody can stop us. They can fight us - they might kill some of us - but they’ll never stop us. And the war between us will go on and on, thundering across the land and disrupting American life in ways large and small.
But enlightened societies, including Washington state’s, are leading the way to a new reality where the pot plan might become legal. When it does, thousands of people who are criminals for no other reason than their mostly-benign use of an ancient medicinal plant will cease to be criminals, and can start sharing their stories without fear of repercussions from a legal system that just doesn’t get it. The Mexican drug cartels will find little use for the seedy skank they’re presently growing illegally in our national forests; al Quaida’s deadly heroin will be no match for the best bud American ingenuity and Canadian experience can provide, and Taliban economics will suffer. At home you’re going to find clinics applying the marijuana program and getting homeless alcoholics and addicts off the streets - turning them into productive members of society. That’s already happened, and is happening, and it should be legal everywhere - subject to the decent laws of commerce and zoning that already exist. You don’t put your pot clinic next to an elementary school, in other words.
This can be done. It will benefit society. Lead the way, friends, lead the way, and thank you.
-Thomas Brent Andrews (writing from Franklin, TN, but with plenty of my heart left in the beautiful INW)
brentandrews on January 14 at 12:02 p.m.
Where is the poll? Don’t see it.