Bad bad news

I called that one when the celebration began.

Hey, where are all the rabid supporters of the legalization bill they said wouldn't undercut medical marijuana users? those people said the concerns of medical marijuana advocates were false arguments put forward by money grubbing pot industry monopolists? Oh, right, they got theirs and they are happily stoned at home.

Hmm. State approves legal selling and taxing of weed, then eradicates any way of people getting weed other than would generate tax revenue. Shocking.

I am so pissed at our city and state lawmakers right now.

If we're talking about stories told to the voters, why don't we go back to when medical marijuana was sold to voters as a purely home-grow law with no chance of California-style dispensaries? The law turned into something it was never intended to be: a completely unsustainable, unregulated free-for-all. My able-bodied stoner friends with their MMJ cards prove the absurdity of the current system. What we have now is a small number of medical patients being used to justify a huge number of recreational users who are pissy that they'll have to pay taxes and buy from a commercial storefront. If there is another way forward that better serves the legitimate medical patients while shutting down most of the fraudulent use of the medical card system by recreational users, I have yet to hear about it from you or other activists.

If we're going to have medical marijuana, sooner or later we're going to have to regulate it like medicine, prescribe it like medicine, and quality-control it like medicine. It's going to take some steps to get there. Hell, it would be a good start to get the medical research really going so we can move toward truly medical-grade extracts of completely controlled strength with known medical uses and side effects--but that won't happen until we get the federal government on board to allow the research. The best thing that could possibly happen long-term to end the war on marijuana and ease toward reclassification would be for Washington to establish a model system in which the end of prohibition is handled carefully.

The political reality in D.C. is that DOJ is not going to allow recreational pot to move forward as long as our MMJ system makes it impossible to properly regulate the market. And the political reality in THIS Washington is that this bill, or something very much like it, is going to pass and be overwhelmingly popular with voters. The best thing for true-believer MMJ activists to do--if it's not already too late--is to suggest thoughtful changes to the bill that have major benefits for legitimate medical users at a minor cost of additional diversion of the recreational market. If this bill is really the calamity you make it out to be, even small degrees of improvement would be major public policy wins.

But by all means "just say no" to the bill if it makes you feel better to rage against the machine.

Thanks for the legislative hotline number. I'm calling to let my legislators know how strongly I support reining in our clownishly unregulated MMJ system.

Also, just reading through the bill--the 3 plant maximum can be exceeded with a doctor's recommendation. Seems like an important detail.

Man these republican senators are really the worst.

oh wait, these are democrats.

Not a shock. Considering how similar WA democrats and Republicans are on the drug war, and how much money the prison industry kicks back to BOTH parties, it wasnt a shock that they would slither in and try to undo 502 one step and a time.

Now lets see if this finally lights a fire under the ignorant voters asses and helps to boot out corporate and bluedog democrats from state office.

I don't think there's any question that the state legislature behaved in a sneaky, underhanded manner.

But, I do hope you'll forgive someone from outside the state for a bit of head-scratching on this one. I realize it's distressing to see a pre-existing infrastructure get torn up, but do you have any estimates as to what the increased cost to patients would be under the downsized medical marijuana rules, or under the general recreational rules?

It might help understanding if we knew what was at stake in terms of dollars and access.

As someone who lives in a prohibition state, I'm still jealous of whatever legal system you'll have after these restrictions on your medical marijuana protocols, should they go into effect.

Let's be honest, while there are undoubtedly some people who use it medically, a large number of people were using it recreationally. You can see you just from the advertisements in the Stranger that the dispensaries seemed to be unofficially courting recreational customers, such as offering 24hr "aaah-thorization". It's hard to take these medical marijuana establishments seriously when they deliver 24–7 in a Volkswagen van emblazoned with a giant pot leaf. Bartell's doesn't deliver Viagra in a blue van with a giant boner on it.

The black market is very very happy.

Yes, what @12 said. The medical marijuana dispensaries in my area are coincidentally located in the same locations as pretty well known illegal dealers. It's actually great the way the properties have been cleaned up and adorned with big green crosses, but these businesses exist to sell marijuana to the same people who have been buying it all along, under the fig leaf of a green card prescription.

I also know people for whom medical marijuana has been a godsend for pain control. I'd like to see it be available pharmaceutically and I'd certainly like more research to be done. But keeping the existing dispensaries is not high on my list of concerns.

Guess someone figured out how to avoid listening to CAC whine.....

Patients like myself who aren't able to grow their own medicine need to have access to collective gardens for safe and affordable medicine. We won't be able to afford the recreational stores prices since most patients are either on disability or low income like me. Also the patient registry violates the hippa laws. Most people who have card have it because of many different issues which are very debilitating without this medicine. As far as places which are opened late, patients sometimes have different hours that they need to get their medicine. We are asking for no changes until the recreational stores are up and running so we can see how well they work. I am all for regulation with medical cannabis as long as it helps and doesn't harm patients that are already dealing with a lot of issues. Also this will put a huge amount of people out of work and in the long run will cost the state money, in terms of businesses filing for bankruptcy, and people who work there having to collect unemployment and go on disability if they aren't already. Not to mention the taxes that these businesses pay. If this passes we will go to the black market as we will have no other choice.

flood Governor Inslee with calls, 360-902-4111. Let him know that he'd better veto HB 2149

Create a mandatory government registry for pot patients

What other medications require a government registry?

@7,

If the legislature is really that interested in putting the kibosh on using prescriptions for recreational use, they can crack down on the doctors giving frivolous MMJ prescriptions.

"Ahhh but they have a D next to their name that doesn't mean they're corrupt, har har I'm so smart for pointing that out" - Most of these comments.

I voted for I-502 because the status quo was bad. I'm really sorry that legislators now see medical marijuana as an easy target, but before the easy target was young black men whose entire life used to be ruined by the idea of having a few grams of pot on them. You expect me to bend over backwards and cry about how the people who were mostly lying to get pot are now going to have a harder time getting it while paying less taxes? Tens of thousands of people aren't getting criminal records because of that vote. Fuck anyone who thinks medical marijuana patients are automatically more worthy of tax free access to weed than people who were caught possession marijuana worthy of their fucking freedom.

It's always bothered me about Washington's Medical Marijuana laws that you go to a not doctor, they put none of their reputation on the line and then you get accepted into an elite club of people who used the law to their advantage. The state will not make very much profit from you. The state will never give a fuck about you. Unless you take the Tim Eyeman strategy of submitting the bill over and over again legislators aren't going to stop trying to squeeze the profit from you. If I were to craft a better law I would use real doctors, who put their license on the line for specific people who actually need the drug. That's what medical marijuana would mean to me. What we have now is lie to get marijuana for less taxes laws. The idea that the legislature would continue to protect such a childish definition of medical is pretty fucking funny. Maybe I'm just bitter that I can't join the club without lying. I'll be one of the first in line at the retail stores. Money where my mouth is.

Any End Run around the Public can't Be a good One!

Nooooooo, how can they be completely ignoring the rights of patients like this? our state senators clearly are ignoring the will of the people. All in the name of profit! So sad, contact those on the Ways & Means committee ASAP and express your outrage and opposition, set up a meeting in person if you can: http://www.leg.wa.gov/Senate/Committees/…

There is an initiative in the works trying to protect patient rights, but there is no funding to gather signatures :( You can print out sheets of your own here: http://www.cppwa.org/home/initiative-mea…

Also, there is a change.org petition out there but not sure how much effect online peiotions have, but here is the link: http://www.change.org/petitions/washingt…

More information about the fight to save WA's MMJ, including news, updates & opportunities for action: https://www.facebook.com/saveWAMMJ

@17 you are assuming its going to be expensive. It will not be whole saale price is alreday dropping under $4 a gram and the producers I interviewed with said they'll be producing $1 a gram herb in a matter of a year, tax that and allow for $2 a gram of profit by the shops and herb is still only $5 a gram. This is not rocket science. People make money on tomatoes and they are 60 cents a pound, herb isnt that much more difficult to grow than decent organic tomatoes

There are things about this that suck. But most of the problem is due to intervention by the feds. If we had been able to pass the law that would have regulated medicinal marijuana like other prescriptions in WA state, this wouldn't be necessary. Too bad the feds threatened to arrest our governor is she signed it into law. The fact is the combination of 502 and our medical marijuana laws don't really make sense together. It makes it too easy for adolescents to get it, and too easy for people who don't really need it as medicine to skirt the taxes put in place by 502, because there is absolutely no oversight on medical marijuana cards. Again, there could have been, but the feds squashed that really fast. It's unfortunate that this bill will make it more difficult for the people who actually need marijuana as medicine, but most of what they have done here makes sense. Additionally, there should be no need for the defense clauses in court since recreational marijuana is now legal, unless you are arrested by the feds, in which case our laws can't help you anyways.

Grandfathered my ass. This is exactly why I opposed i502 to begin with. Hope your recreational dope was worth the extreme pain the rest of my life is going to be..