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News >  WA Government

WALeg Day 9: Bill would blend state’s 2 pot systems

OLYMPIA – Medical marijuana would come under some of the same licensing requirements as the recreational form of the drug but its buyers would pay fewer taxes under a plan to harmonize the state’s two pot systems. Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Wells, D-Seattle, announced Tuesday the Comprehensive Marijuana Reform Act.
News >  Marijuana

Smell of pot can be basis for police search

Though marijuana is now legal in Washington for recreational and medical use, courts continue to grant law enforcement wide leeway in using the presence of pot to search property. A series of recent court rulings keeps the bar low for officers to search a location where they suspect marijuana is being smoked or grown. Washington judges have repeatedly said investigators don’t need to provide evidence a suspect is violating state marijuana laws when asking for a search warrant – only that the drug is present.
News >  Marijuana

Club offers social pot spot

Eric Buchanan envisions a day when marijuana will be as common as vodka tonics or microbrews at lounges and nightclubs across Washington. Until then, he and his business partners are weaving their way through largely untested and often ambiguous state laws in an effort to hurry things along. Their new Spokane Valley nightclub, The Lounge, is part medical marijuana dispensary and part members-only social club where patrons can smoke pot and mingle.
Betsy Z. Russell
Opinion >  Column

Eye on Boise: Rally decries veterans cemetery’s same-sex ban

“Add the Words” protesters returned to the Idaho state Capitol last week where roughly 180 were arrested during this year’s legislative session while pressing unsuccessfully for a hearing on legislation to add the words “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” to the Idaho Human Rights Act and to ban discrimination on those grounds. This time, the peaceful protesters carried a personal message: That of Madelynn Lee Taylor, a 74-year-old U.S. Navy veteran who’s been denied her request to be buried with her same-sex spouse at the Idaho State Veterans Cemetery.
News >  Marijuana

Washington state pursuing medical pot dispensaries’ taxes

OLYMPIA – The state Revenue Department is stepping up efforts to make medical marijuana dispensaries pay their taxes. After more than two years of “educational outreach” designed to teach medical marijuana businesses that they must register with the state and pay taxes, the department says in a memo this week it will go after dispensaries that continue to ignore the law.
News >  Marijuana

Hemp could be noxious weed, some farmers worry

OLYMPIA – “Weed” is not an official weed, at least not in Washington. So says the state Noxious Weed Control Board, which recently discussed whether various forms of cannabis, from recreational marijuana to industrial hemp, should be considered for its list of plants that need to be controlled.
News >  Spokane

Washington legislators leave plenty to next year’s session

OLYMPIA – The Legislature closed up shop with seven minutes before its constitutionally mandated midnight stopping time Thursday, ending a short session that was short on expectations and, many would argue, short on accomplishments. After passing an updated operating budget that even supporters said contained plenty of things to dislike, a couple of bills on many legislators’ priority lists were saved from oblivion late Thursday and moved back and forth between chambers with admirable speed.
News >  Marijuana

Washington lawmakers fail to agree on merging medical, recreational pot systems

OLYMPIA – Washington’s two legal marijuana systems – an older one for medical patients and a new one for “recreational use” by adults – may remain separate at least for another year. Eleventh-hour negotiations on proposals to merge the two broke down Thursday, and legislators said it was unlikely they could be revived in the waning hours of the session.
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