Attached to this post are the two proposed citizen intiatives filed recently with the city of Spokane clerk's office. The supporters of each initiative still need to gather signatures in order to force the issues onto the city ballot.

Here is the story about the proposals.

Finally, I apologize to anyone who tried to find them on Spin Control earlier today, as the print version of the story directs interested readers to do.

Documents:

OLYMPIA — Two more initiatives to legalize private use of marijuana hit the streets this week, as proponents of what's being dubbed the Cannabis Child Protection Act employ a two-pronged strategy.

They've drafted identical bills, one as an initiative to the voters for this fall's ballot and another as an initiative to next year's Legislature. If they collect signatures on both for the next three months, but if they don't have enough signatures on the first by early July, they'll scrap it and keep collecting signatures on the legislative initiative, which has a January deadline.

The proposal allows people 21 and older to grow, possess and use marijuana, and buy it from any other adult of their choosing. But it has penalties for minors who buy, sell or possess the drug, and felony charges for adults who sell to minors. There are exceptions for parents, giving them “the ability to guide their children's exposure for spiritual and social use”, and for medical marijuana patients.

Text of I-1223, the version that's trying to get on the November ballot, can be found here.

Voters already will face one marijuana initiative in the general election. I-502, which is a different approach to legalizing marijuana for personal use, was an initiative to the Legislature which goes to the voters because legislators failed to act on it.

OLYMPIA – Voters will have to decide this fall whether to legalize marijuana for personal use. The Legislature appears unlikely to vote on, or even debate, the marijuana initiative sent to them.
The House and Senate government committees held a joint work session (that's not a pun, that's what they call it ) Thursday to listen to supporters and opponents of Initiative 502, which would make personal use and possession of small amounts of marijuana legal for people over 21. . .

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The Spokane City Council unanimously agreed Monday that marijuana should be able to be possessed legally by people who have a legitimate medical need for the drug.

The council approved a nonbinding resolution endorsing a letter that Gov. Chris Gregoire and Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee sent to the federal Drug Enforcement Administration in November requesting that marijuana be reclassified from being a “Schedule 1” drug to become a “Schedule 2” drug.

Schedule 1 drugs, such as heroin, are illegal. Schedule 2 drugs can be legal with a prescription.

Last year, dozens of medical marijuana dispensaries shut down, voluntarily or by force, in Spokane County after federal authorities warned that they were violating federal law.

OLYMPIA — A measure that would decriminalize use and possession of small amounts of marijuana for adults was sent to the Legislature today after the Secretary of State's office certified it has more than enough signatures.

Initiative 502 had a slightly higher than normal error rate on the signatures checked, but has more than the required 241,153 signatures need, the elections office concluded.

That means the Legislature has three options on decriminalizing marijuana:

Pass the initiative as written, and let it become law.

Reject the initiative, which would put it on the November ballot.

Pass an alternative bill decriminalizing marijuana, which would put the initiative and the alternative on the November ballot.

Initiatives to the Legislature are somewhat rarer than initiatives to the people. The last successful initiative to the Legislature, the Secretary of State's office reported, was in 2004, and dealt with nuclear waste.

The following was asked on The S-R's candidate questionnaire. Candidate Chris Bowen declined to submit a questionnaire. Here are the answers, which were allowed to be up to 150 words, from the five other people hoping to replace Bob Apple and represent Northeast Spokane on the council.

Would you support a law, modeled after a law in Seattle, to make misdemeanor possession of marijuana by an adult the city’s lowest enforcement priority?

Continue reading the post to find out their answers.

OLYMPIA – Legislators are spending some of their time on pot this week. Not smoking it, of course, but discussing it as both a potential revenue source, through outright legalization, and an administrative problem for the medical marijuana voters approved in 1998.
A day before the state's revenue forecast, supporters of a bill to legalize cannabis, a term they prefer over marijuana, made a push to revive a bill that they claim would be worth $440 million to the state budget in a two-year cycle.
HB 1550 already had one hearing last month in the House Public Safety Committee, where it attracted the usual list of supporters who noted some of the Founding Fathers grew hemp, and detractors who warned of growing usage by teens and drivers should marijuana become legal. That committee has yet to vote the bill up or down, but it was granted a special “work session” Wednesday in House Ways and Means, the budget-writing committee, to discuss the money the state might make from legalizing, taxing and selling marijuana in state liquor stores.
“We’re trying to help the Legislature understand the revenue prospects for the bill,” said Rep. Mary Lou Dickerson, D-Seattle, the bill’s sponsor. . .

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OLYMPIA — Hearings today include several bills on community colleges, another on cigar lounges and a “work session” on marijuana.

And no, the last one doesn't involve learning how to roll.

Senate Higher Education has an afternoon session that features a bill on need grants for college students, another on salaries for community college instructors, another on innovation at community college and another on student loans for the aerospace training program. Then there's a proposal to allow universities out of state laws requiring them to buy at least 2 percent of their supplies and equipment from Department of Corrections operations.

Senate Ways and Means will hear a proposal to set up special licenses for “cigar lounges” and tobacco shops that would let them get around state laws against smoking in public buildings.

House Ways and Means has a session on regulating the production, distribution and sale of cannabis, which will follow closely on the heels of a press conference of legislators and others who support legalizing marijuana. It's designed to support HB 1550, which got a hearing early last month in the House Public Safety Committee, which has shown no sign of voting it out. That's slightly better than the Senate companion bill, however, which didn't even get a hearing.

OLYMPIA – Washington state could collect about $200 million a year by legalizing marijuana, then regulating, taxing and selling it in state liquor stores, a legislative panel was told Tuesday.

But  the state could also wind up with no money and any liquor store employee who rang up a marijuana sale facing five years in federal prison, the chairman of the House Public Safety Committee warned.

The committee spent about two hours Tuesday morning considering House Bill 1550, a version of the perennial push for the state to legalize marijuana, or cannabis as the sponsors prefer to call the plant. Under the plan, any adult could smoke marijuana, grow their own in a plot no bigger than 50 square feet, and the state would regulate and sell the drug at liquor stores. Farmers could also grow hemp, which comes from the plant.



If passed, this would put the state in the forefront efforts to legalize marijuana, which remains an illegal and controlled substance under federal law. That would be a good thing as other states follow suit, said Rep. Mary Lou Dickerson, D-Seattle, the prime sponsor.

“Why shouldn’t Washington reap the benefits of legalization,” asked Dickerson, who estimated the state could collect $400 million per biennium from taxes and sales. She likened home-grown marijuana to home-brewing of beer and wine making.
  

OLYMPIA—A bill that would turn possession of small amounts of marijuana into a civil infraction failed in a state House committee this afternoon.

HB 1177, which would decriminalize the possession of about two ounces or less of marijuana, failed on a vote of 3 yeas and 5 nays.

Along with a bill to legalize marijuana and have it taxed and controlled by the state, the decriminalization bill drew support from some doctors and lawyers last week, but opposition from some law enforcement officials.

The House Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Committee rejected both bills in an executive session.

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.

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