Recent Stories with tag pot

...robberies have become more common in Washington over the years. Marijuana advocates complain that robberies are underreported because law enforcement officials focus more on confiscating marijuana from the growers than on arresting the thieves. The authorities, in turn, have noted that some growers are exceeding limits on how much of the drug they can possess...

So reads the New York Times story, "Violence Prompts Debate Over Medical Marijuana." The story is based on all of two violent incidents involving medical marijuana growers, so it may be a little early to call this a trend.

Steve Sarich's case may also be an outlier, since King County Sheriff's Department investigators claimed they found 385 "plants." That size of an operation may be more tempting to thieves than the typical 15-plant allotment provided for by state law. At least one of the robbery suspects, anyway, is a authorized medical marijuana user. (The comprehensive Seattle Times story is "Medical-pot grower plans to sue over shootout fallout.")

Sarich argues that many of his plants were just rootless cuttings stuck in pots, but Washington's medical marijuana law was not, it appears, drafted by a horticulturalist. It just says "plants," without a definition of what exactly that is.

This vagueness--combined with a letter-of-the-law spirit on the part of law enforcement--is part of what drove the I-1068 initiative filers to move beyond medical marijuana to legalization. Their Facebook status says, "KCSO narcotics detectives took 17 hours before executing a search warrant on his house, which contains only starter plants. Why are legal medical marijuana providers being harassed? Why is KCSO spending taxpayer dollars this way?"

Sheriff's detectives arrested Olympia mayor pro tem Joe Hyer yesterday, alleging he engaged in "unlawful possession of a controlled substance, unlawful distribution of a controlled substance and unlawful use of a residence for drug purposes," reports Seattlepi.com. Hyer has previously been a city council member, and was president of the Olympia Downtown Association.

Norm Stamper, author of "Breaking Rank"

The Northwest is home to plenty of upstanding citizens who prefer marijuana be legalized. Fresh-scrubbed travel guy Rick Steves argues that it's not Christian to put pot smokers in jail. And former Seattle "top cop" Norm Stamper wrote in to Sensible Washington, the people behind the I-1068 marijuana legalization initiative, to let them know of his support:

I thought I would reach out to you, let you know of my strong support for I-1068, and authorize use of my name (and, no doubt, that of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition) if you think it would be helpful to the campaign.

Currently Sensible Washington (2,300+ Facebook fans and counting) is looking for volunteer signature gatherers and donations to the cause. In a masterstroke of strategical positioning, they'll be outside the Bon Jovi concert at Seattle Center tonight, gathering signatures. People who want to help are invited to meet at the Space Needle at 6 p.m.