For the past 3 months I've been ripping off every store in the neighborhood by using credit instead of debit all to gain "Rewards" with my Chase Freedom Card.

What was my reward...besides irate cashiers seeing their cut get drawn down to NYC...$2.52! Yes, all that signing of receipts just to make two bucks!

I'm going back to debit where I don't have worry about missing the payment deadline and getting charged with hundreds in fees!

(Oh, did I say "Receipts" ?? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCwFg-F7S… )

Chase sucks.

We should remove their banks.

That said, phoning Frank is a good idea, cause they're cutting bike cops as a result of their refusal to tax MJ and waste scarce dollars on arrests, prosecution, courts, and prisons for something that is far less of an impact than drinking.

It would still be illegal to drive stoned, by the way. And I hope you reeferheads who drive stoned get locked up in the same cells as the drunks who drive DUI.

The fuck is wrong with you two?

@3, best guess is that Will suffers from Wernicke's aphasia. One of the symptoms is "word salad", which is a mixture of random words that, while arranged in phrases that appear to give them meaning, actually carry no significance. In the case of SROTU, I would guess the issue is a couple of surplus chromosomes.

@4 lol, I have a far better DNA repair mechanism than you do.

By the way, the editorial you forgot to link (today) is here if you want to read it.

I disagree. Too many of my friends would be out of a job. Hindsight being 20/20, I've decided against calling his office stoned. "Support the...support the.....candy bar!"

What the... sorry, is this where we're we meeting to talk about HB 1550?

ALSO... ok, tax weed, sure. But you're competing for the same customers at the black market still, so if you can't undercut them, the state's just going to lose money. Remove the criminal element, sell 1/8ths for $25 at your medieval WSLSs that are suddenly good for something, and it's win, win, uh, pass for everyone.

I just got off the phone with Chopp's office and the lady who answered said whoever is in charge of Ways and Means has agreed to hear it in that committee.
That feels very fast.

@8 no, people back East are competing with the black market.

We in the West will, like our energy supply, be much much cheaper.

Remember, don't buy your MJ cigs if they don't have the WSLCB stamp on em!

I called Chopp's office a few minutes ago and was told that the bill is now set for a hearing in Ways and Means.

@11: WINRAR

@10 - no idea what you're talking about Will, which I find comforting. Cheap, like how? You're booze and cigarettes? And central Appalachia doesn't produce any weed at all, nope.

My point is that it can't be half-assed to really work, and more importantly, it can't be OVER-taxed. It needs to be full-scale marijuana farming and legal distribution. Large enough scale to give no incentive to illegal growers and buyers. You can get weed legally on just about every goddamn corner in this city, and it's barely made a dent in the illegal trade. While the clinics here provide a nice service to many, there's no incentive to use them for most people.

What the feds will say about this is a different story, plus I'm was off track here, but whatever...

Did it.

@9 thank you for the news! That would be Ross Hunter, methinks...

@12: Baconcat: Other than a Windows GUI for a computer file archive and compression utility, what is WINRAR?

@13 don't be surprised to see regulations lowering licensing fees that say most or all of a store's pot must come from Washington farmers, like they did with the artisanal distilleries and 'raw materials'. Protective AND legalizing!

Probably would be good if that rule had a sunset clause built in, giving local farmers more time to develop their industry before needing to compete with out-of-state suppliers and networks, like those in California or Colorado but eventually freeing the market...

Whoa, is that even Constitutional? Could that be read as a tariff on another states' goods?

The email link at the end is broken. Fortunately, Chopp's actual email address is in the URL, so you can copy it from there.

@16: A WINRAR IS U

@17 so long as we don't try to ship it across state borders, other than the typical customs exemption for "personal use" (e.g. you can take 2 24-pack of beer or cider and 4 bottles of wine and 12? cigars so pot is what?), I don't see where they have a Constitutional leg to stand on.

After all, our Founding Fathers grew, taxed, and regulated weed. They even sold stamps for it.

Be like George Washington. Be like the State of Washington. (well, except for the slavery thing)

Thanks @18 for the advice.

@15 It is indeed. The woman who answered said it so fast I barely caught it.

WINRAR is also the sound a Corgi makes when it is extremely excited about something.

Here's the email I got:

Representative Ross Hunter has agreed to hear HB 1550 in the Ways and Means Committee.

Norma Wallace
Senior Legislative Assistant

Is Monday 3/7/11 the deadline for this session? I see no changes to 1550 status and the next scheduled House ways and means is Wednesday. Am I doing the math wrong or is 1550 essentially dead?

http://apps.leg.wa.gov/cmd/default.aspx