Recent Stories with tag medical marijuana

Sensible Washington, the people behind the I-1068 marijuana legalization initiative, are dealing with some collateral damage to the democratic process. After last week's raid on a medical marijuana dispensary, Tacoma's North End Club 420, drug enforcement officers walked off with about a dozen signature-laden copies of the initiative as evidence.

Sensible Washington would like the petitions back:

We have made repeated calls to WestNet’s office, but have yet to receive any assurance that the task force’s personnel have secured the signed petitions and that they plan to promptly return them to Sensible Washington.

Subsequent to the raid, Seattle Weekly reports, detectives visited the home of the patient coordinator of North End Club 420, Christine Casey, who alleges they "handcuffed her 14-year-old son for two hours and put a gun to his head."

This puts a new spin on the debate over whether petition signatures should be public or not. In this case, it's a multi-jurisdictional federally funded narcotics task force that is in possession of about 200 names and addresses from people willing to support marijuana legalization. I think the words "chilling effect" were coined for precisely this kind of situation.... (more)

Initiatives are not just for Tim Eyman any more. A group called Sensible Washington has filed a ballot initiative that would "legalize all adult marijuana possession, manufacturing and sales under Washington state law," reports the AP.

Why the initiative, you might ask? Down in Olympia, there is already legislative talk of decriminalizing marijuana, and one state representative, Mary Lou Dickerson, is willing to bring up legalization. Here in Seattle, you can read pro-pot columns in the Seattle Times: "So why not let people have what they want, but then regulate it--heavily, if need be--and tax it to boot?"

For Sensible Washington ("hey we're on Facebook"), taking legalization of marijuana to the people of Washington is a question of timing and priorities. The committee includes two Seattle attorneys, Douglas Hiatt and Jeffrey Steinborn; Vivian McPeak, a co-founder of Seattle Hempfest and peace activist; Ric Smith, a longtime medical marijuana patient; and Philip Dawdy, initiative co-author and an influential independent reporter on mental health issues.

I spoke to Dawdy about the strategy. While he was happy to see the Legislature having the discussion, he said, the reality is "the legalization bill isn't going to get out of committee. It's dead. The decriminalization bill might get out of committee in the House, but it won't get a floor vote. This is a short session, and their attention will be focused on the budget."

For Dawdy, the initiative represents a chance for the people of the state to give the Legislature permission to do the right thing. Broad legalization for adult possession and use is inspired in part by his sense that "the medical marijuana law is clearly not working," and again and again people are ending up in court to justify possession.

The AP story quotes Mason County prosecutor Gary Burleson, who says, "I don't have a problem with marijuana being legal, and I don't have a problem with it being illegal. But right now, I have a big problem understanding what's legal and what's not."... (more)