Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes, left, at the Seattle ACLU offices earlier today.
  • E.S.
  • Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes, left, at the Seattle ACLU offices earlier today.

At a press conference earlier today, leaders of the effort to legalize marijuana in Washington State said pretty much what Cienna already said: Don't be dumb about the new law.

If you have questions about how much you can legally possess after tonight, whether an employer can still test you for pot use, whether you can legally smoke pot in public, or where the new government-run pot store is, the ACLU has answers. Also, Initiative 502 architect Alison Holcomb reminds: "Initiative 502 was not drafted as a celebration of marijuana use, but rather as a recognition of the failure of marijuana policy."

That policy of prohibition, Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes said, "has made us the number one jailer nation on the planet, and it has made drug dealers very rich." The change in policy in Washington State, he continued, "is good government, and it is good government by the people."

Former University of Washington Professor Roger Roffman added that "marijuana use is not harmless," and cheered the fact that Initiative 502 will "finally adequately fund science-based education about what marijuana does." (And what it does not do.)

Holmes knows some smoke-ins and other celebrations have been planned for when the law goes into effect tomorrow, but said he's just happy to have a new law on the books. "I have better things to do with my time than test the limits of the law," Holmes said.