Comments

1
Excuse me please for not following the progress that closely, but when do we make that legal? What's the time frame estimate for when a non-med person can walk into a WA store and legally purchase marijuana should he or she so choose to?
2
The MMJ industry is already making plenty of money selling pot to the healthy. The bar one has to clear to get an authorization is not high. So it's baffling that dispensary owners are selling to people without 'em.
3
Ditto Dominic.
4
@2 They're presumably not selling small amounts for use by patients in this State.
5
@4 says it. If this state, no jury would convict here. But Oregon or Idaho - jail em!
6
What Dominic said. Well written and balanced.
7
The Feds are going to happen. Be professional, minimize the impact and reopen. Next year the retail will be open for everyone. Eventually, they will tire. It is why I have policies with State and Legal defense funds built in.
8
As a medical marijuana patient, you can legally possess a "60 Day Supply" of up to 15 plants and 24 ounces of dried weed.

I don't believe that there is any (smaller) limit on how much you can buy at a time; if you want to purchase a pound and a half in one transaction, only the Feds are going to have a hissy fit and assume you must be buying with intent to distribute.
9
@2: "it's baffling that dispensary owners are selling to people without 'em."

Greed, yo.
10
@9: and I'd love to know where they stood on 502. I'm betting a list of 502 opponents and dodgy purveyors would sync up nicely.
11
@1 the time frame is one year since the initiative passed so, early November at the earliest.
12
There are plenty cases of people running "medical cannabis co-ops" who get busted because they are running for-profit operations that have nothing to do with medical pot.

Wow! For profit! As if the state won't be making a shitload of money selling something that costs 10 cents a gram to grow for $15. But that's okay, because the state will have more money to spend on bike lanes, or something.

The Stranger is as pathetic as pathetic ever gets.
13
@12) You're cute when you don't know what you're talking about. And by that I mean you're always cute.
14
Exactly what am I wrong about?
15
Fuuuuccckk you.

If this was Bush your hair would be on fire with rage.

But because it's Obama, suddenly you want people to be calm and to trust the DEA is doing the right thing.

For fuck's sake, we made it legal, and the feds need to butt out.
16
Sorry Dominic, but I find it appalling, that in the 13th year of the 21st century in America, we still have tens of thousands of bogus badged Barney Fife deputies making their livings solely on small-time pot busts. This madness must stop!

And yes, as a strong supporter of Barack Obama, I find it unconscionable that our President & his formerly-progressive Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske still condone these absurd raids on marijuana businesses. Let's be real here! Where is the harm to our society! I would argue that these Law Enforcement Industrial Complex phonies need to be out of a job ...pronto!

I suspect these blowhard jerks already see the writing on the wall, and they are ramping up their efforts in a final pathetic attempt to continue to justify their existence. Shame on them, and shame on Obama & Kerlikowske for allowing this idiocy to go on!
18
I'm not a lawyer, but if your argument is that these dispensaries might be in violation of *state* law, then why doesn't Washington State raid them? Anyone selling marijuana is in violation of the federal law, so the DEA is evidently within its rights to go after anyone doing that, regardless of whether it's medical or not.

In other words, it shouldn't matter whether they're breaking any state marijuana laws - the DEA shouldn't be raiding anyone in WA.
19
In addition to @18's excellent point, it's important to remember that just because someone "pleaded guilty to marijuana charges," it doesn't necessarily mean they're guilty of marijuana charges. People frequently plead guilty to avoid horrifically long prison sentences they're threatened with if they fight the charges.

The criminal justice system is specifically designed to get people to plead guilty.
20
I think 18 has the best point in this thread--why would the feds be here working our MMJ laws?

I see no reason to believe that this isn't the Obama Justice Department doing what they've done the last 5 years, and it's just as disappointing as ever.
21
@18 All dispensaries are in violation of Federal law.

Do not confuse the stated Federal policy of not raiding dispensaries that are not in violation of Washington state laws with a lack of jurisdiction.

@20 Sure, Obama is the titular head of Justice, but it's also still staffed with both careerists and Bush appointees, in addition to Obama people.
22
@18 & 20) The Feds have reiterated in the so-called Ogden and Cole memos that while marijuana is illegal federally, they will generally respect state medical marijuana laws, provided that operators follow the rules of their own state. If they don't follow those rules, enforcement is a matter for federal agents and prosecutors. In general, running a drug operation with hundreds—or thousand—of customers, huge sums of money, and pounds of drugs is a matter for federal agents, federal prosecutors, and federal courts, not for state law enforcement.
23
It's great fun to see Dominic Holden, the craven piece of shit, applaud the federal government for shutting down marijuana dealers that Dominic doesn't like, on the grounds that they (gasp!) make a profit. Just wait until the feds do the very same thing to Dominic's friends in state government, who are going to attempt to establish a state marijuana monopoly with a markup of more than 100-fold on something that anyone could grow for next to nothing if it was truly legalized.

The Stranger and its writers are such transparent, lying, shilling hypocrites, but hey, that's what works in liberal Seattle.
24
All Holden has said on the issue:

Don't freak out. Wait until you hear more facts before condemning the DEA.

I cannot tell you how much I despise defending the fucking idiot, but in this case, he's right.

If you are blanket against the DEA ever enforcing any laws ever, go ahead and freak out. Wait... you clearly don't need my permission to freak out. If you are blanket against the DEA ever enforcing any laws ever, you're probably pretty comfortable freaking out about freaking anything.
25
Dominic,

Just so I understand…before the “decriminalization” of medical and recreational marijuana (cultivation, possession, distribution, etc...) federal enforcement of the respective drug laws was considered immoral in the pages of this newspaper, or at least I believe that to be your former and current stance.

Now that the laws, at least at the state level, allow medical marijuana to those deemed “in need” and will eventually allow all-of-legal-age access to marijuana, the current federal enforcement is now acceptable?

The whole point to reforming our drug laws, most especially in regard to marijuana, was that the creation and enforcement of such laws was the greater threat to our collective well-being. For example, incarcerating non-whites disproportionately to whites for similar drug related offenses; something you have well-argued yourself.

With this in mind, I fail to see how this recent federal action is now acceptable in any context. Just because some of the medical marijuana dispensaries may not be playing by the rules does not mean the rules are now just.

Indeed, this line of argument seems eerily similar, at least as an enforcement tool, to the whole powder cocaine vs. crack cocaine argument.

There is no such thing as a half-morality; the current actions by the feds are selective at best and all too typical of the federal approach to drug law enforcement, i.e. arbitrary and punitive.
26
@25 - pq, can i give you a blow job for the sexiest comment ever?
27
It's the shot across Washington's bow...It's Eric Holder's belated response to 502..it's the precursor to the State Legislature nullifying 502. Sooo... I guess I'll continue to be a criminal when I enjoy this harmless herb. So effing what? I've been living that way for 40 years now...
28
@27, it'll be the ultimate irony if the Stranger's self-appointed dope writer winds up cheering on the feds as they shut down the medical marijuana system, only to then come along and shut down the edifice created by I-502. What can we say? How about: "There's a reason they call it dope."
29
Dispensaries are not actually legal under Washington law and therein lies the problem.
30
@29, the enforcement is federal, and the Stranger's dopey dope reporter is all for it.
31
America, and much of the world, is watching the events in CO and WA with baited breath...is this going to be the beginning of something truly beautiful and free? Or are the real "evil-doers" (various aspects of the American political/judicial establishments) just out for some good ol' fashioned hunting? Luring their targets/marks into a false sense of security only to swoop down and screw us all in the arse with a giant sandpaper condom if the greater of two evils is elected in 2016?

The only thing worse than a do-nothing Congress is a freedom quenching, law passing body hell bent on expanding our burgeoning gulag-state...today roughly a quarter of Americans have some criminal record beyond traffic tickets.

(Leaving soapbox now...thanks for playing!)


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