If the dispensaries operated within the letter of the law for the MMJ framework... but they don't. Most of it is just a front for recreational use. Legit dispensaries should welcome some regulatory cleanup to concentrate legit customers/patients. That doesn't mean the medical framework should be rolled into the recreational. No, no, no. I don't know that laws need to change - just get rid of the farce and bad actors in the medical side. The recreational stores competition is the black market, not a properly regulated medical one.

The dispensaries shot themsleves in the foot here, because they got greedy and started handing out licenses to anyone. Think of how many people you know with medical authorizations...and then think of how few of them have a legitimate chronic, debilitating medical condition. They can't really hold any kind of moral high ground here.

The dispensaries main function right now, it seems, is to provide some sort of quasi-legal competition to the recreational stores. Under the WSLCB licensing scheme, there really isn't going to be much competition for the retail stores, just as there wasn't for liquor stores. This is by design. With retail prices running 3x-4x the black market prices, the mmj dispensaries are the best alternative to "the dude". Since it's all pretty much the same weed (enough with the 70's urban legends of laced dope, already - the vast majority is locally grown by experts), why not go with the easiest & cheapest option?

She points out a very valid problem. We have, what, less than 5 legal recreation pot stores in Seattle right now? And we have more than 100 MMJ shops, all selling untaxed pot for cheaper prices. And it is ridiculously easy to get an MMJ prescription on the flimsiest of pretexts.

If nothing changes, the legal recreation stores are doomed to fail. If it is easier and cheaper for people to get weed at an MMJ shop, then they will. Duh.

While I don't think ALL medical shops should be closed and merged into the 502 stores, we definitely need to do something to reduce the number of MMJ stores and sham patients, and encourage recreational users to go to the 502 stores. That's what they're there for.

We need way more legal 502 stores to serve a market as big as Seattle. The legislature should reduce the tax somewhat, so that it isn't easier and cheaper to buy it on the black market. And the MMJ market needs some tighter regulation to end the sham of 90% of the "patients", and provide for the real needs of legit medical users.

My main point of disagreement is that I think we should do all that without threatening to arrest people.

It seems like there are some interim steps that could be taken short of completely merging the MMJ & recreational distribution chains: 1. create a licensing system for MMJ similar to what the WSL&MCB (is that what we're calling it these days?) currently doles out to the recreational market; if a dispensary doesn't have a license, they're operating illegally and can be shut down. 2. tax the product sold through MMJ dispensaries. It won't capture growers & distributors, but it will exert some upward pressure on prices through that chain, putting them at least somewhat more in balance with recreational competition. 3. Establish a set of standards for qualification for MMJ cards, namely, specific conditions covered and requirement that patients receive a prescription from a qualified medical provider. This would greatly reduce the number of "bogus" patient diagnoses (which I agree make up a significant percentage of the MMJ customer base), thus driving many of those individuals into the recreational market.

These wouldn't do much in terms of the black market trade, but then neither would any of the proposed "fixes" listed in the article, so far as I can see. But, it would establish a higher degree of legitimacy for the MMJ system, while ensuring those who qualify due to legitimate medical conditions continue to have access to MMJ at lower costs than the recreational market.

The MMJ industry is largely a sham. I feel sorry for those few with a real MMJ need, as their dispensaries are overrun with idiots just looking to score (which is now totally unnecessary).

How is other prescription abuse (of controlled substances) handled from a legal standpoint? Wouldn't this logically be handled the same way?

Alison Holcomb is a LIAR. I'm surprised anyone in the state is willing to listen to her lies. A truly disgusting human being whose only goal is to better her political career no matter the cost.

If they want to put the dispensaries and Black/Free market out of business all they have to do is undersell them. Squeezing the MedMJ market will Not drive them into the overtaxed,overpriced State stores instead they will go to the more reasonably priced Black/Free market.

I think SLOG keeps burying the lede here. The most important thing that Pete Holmes is advocating for is legal home grows. This is the part of 502 that really irks me, I am glad to see the other states got it right. I can legally brew my own beer and grow my own tomatoes. Not allowing the same thing with MJ was a huge mistake. Allowing home grows would be a significant step in solving the access issue for medical patients as well.

Aside from the MMJ dispensaries, MMJ law allows sick people to grow their own medicine. So I can have medicine the dispensaries don't even carry yet, like organic CBDa oil, with no THC, so I don't get high. Without this, I would be paralyzed with MS spasticity, bedridden and unable to transfer from my wheelchair, which means I'd have to move to a nursing home. After all the progress WA has made with MMJ, let's not go backwards!

The mmj "racket" is entirely necessary as long as prices are fixed too high and there are only five retail stores within the city limits. The recreational system is a complete bastardization of the intent of the voters. Holcomb should be ashamed of her complicity in this ridiculous sham.

the "low THC strains don't get you 'high'" is a myth that for some reason everyone just takes w/o question. I've not found that to be the case at all, have taken pure CBD, zero THC gel caps and guess what? It's an experience extremely similar to pure THC. The first is more of a "body high" maybe, the later a little more "cerebral," but both make you "high." If you don't believe me take 30 to 50 milligrams (I think that's the common measure) of CBD. If I had to drive on either (which I don't), or go to work even, it would be THC for sure - CBD can make you totally fucked up. You can argue some type of semantic distinction (the altered I feel on THC is "high" the altered I feel on CBD is "not high") but really it's a stupid, groundless dichotomy that's trotted out as policy convenience. It all pretty much gets you high.

Also what a dickhead Holcomb is - classic "burn the village to save it" power-hungry ideologue.

Washington voters wanted recreational marijuana. They voted for it and got it.

The problem is we allowed the WSLCB to be the regulator of this new market. They are not about regulation. They are about total control. Their only goal is to maintain tightfisted control. They don't care about the potential revenue, or the citizens. Thus, we have 5 recreational stores in to serve a city of 750,000 people. And, the state is realizing almost nothing in revenue compared to what could potentially be flowing into the coffers.

The medical marketplace was here first. It is flourishing. However, the state is not getting it's fair share. So, let's allow a business style regulatory agency to manage them. License them and tax them. All the while open things up so patients can grow their own and avoid the marketplace all together.

Get WSLCB out of the picture entirely. They are a failure and don't belong in this arena.

So we need to start prosecuting people over a relatively harmless plant so we can stop prosecuting people over a relatively harmless plant.

Anyone else see a problem with this line of thinking?

I-502 is turning into a Rube Goldberg machine that gives you eggs and toast while kicking you in the nuts.

The state board of alcohol and cannabis trade should issue cannabis production, processing, and sales licenses to anyone who pays the fee and is willing and able to operate in a safe and lawful manner. Instead, they are seemingly attempting to maintain artificial scarcity. So, now we have five stores in Seattle, and the proposed solution to related problems is to fine and jail people who are involved in the per-existing markets? That's not what I thought I voted for.

"I-502 is turning into a Rube Goldberg machine that gives you eggs and toast while kicking you in the nuts".......Love the imagery !

Makes perfect sense - if the legal process is the rule of law, then why do we need the medical shops?

This ridiculous story is just a transparent excuse to pick on her since she was going to get rid of Sawant.

More Stranger thoughtless agenda-based partisanship.

see also: related discussion

@17: The law states that "[t]he Seattle Police Department and City Attorney's Office shall make the investigation, arrest and prosecution of marijuana offenses, where the marijuana was intended for adult personal use, the City's lowest law enforcement priority."

So sure, our police and prosecutors can go after unlicensed wholesale sales or any distribution to children, but unless they're working with a budget surplus or are somehow overstaffed, they have--by law--no time to investigate or prosecute retail sales to adults as suggested here.

The Washington State Liquor Control Board violated state law in their preparation for their scheme to maintain artificial scarcity of cannabis in this state. Every discussion of fixing any problems surrounding Washington pot law in this state should start with fixing the mess WSLCB made, not with arresting or prosecuting anyone for pot.

People mostly don't want to buy cannabis on the black market, and they mostly don't want to hassle with getting a doctor's recommendation for medical cannabis. If we provide a preferable alternative, they'll take it. We've yet to do so, and the blame should fall squarely on the liquor board.

Short of Phil M's suggestion @15, another simple fix would be for the legislature to scrap 502 and adopt Colorado's model. I was initially glad that CO and WA had adopted different models as it gave us a chance to compare and contrast. Two years in and it's abundantly clear that the CO model is vastly preferable.

The solution is not to get rid of the medical stores, but make them all legal. Instead of adjusting reality to fit a flawed model, adjust the model to fit reality.

NEWS FLASH......I-502 DIED LAST WEEK!

For all of you who think that the only way to save the I-502 model is to deny patients safe and affordable access to medication, we just thought we'd point out that I-502 model has been officially declared DEAD ON ARRIVAL.

We don't need to scrap it. That would require someone in the Seattle Democratic Leadership to actually pronounce it dead. Since they stuck their necks out on this "New Approach to Prohibition", they're going to try desperately to salvage their brainchild from imminent failure. They can't, and won't, admit that it's a failure.

But their shill and desperate attacks against medical patients, and their threats of firing up the War on Marijuana again in Seattle are sinking faster than the Titantic. These same unscrupulous people that promised both patients and the voting public that "I-502 would not effect medical", and thought that their well planned strategy might actually work.....got shot down by....of all people....the Feds.

What no one here has even mentioned here is the 800 pound Indian in the room. The feds have decided not to fight the tribes and given them the go-ahead to grow and sell marijuana.

This means that there is not ONE DAMN THING that Petey Holmes, Alison Holcomb, Ann Rivers, Jeanne Kohl-Welles, or the Governor, can do to stop the sovereign Indian Tribes from establishing the first OPEN MARKET model for marijuana sales in Washington State.

The Nisqually Tribe, that has their own cigarette rolling operation in Shelton, is already getting ready to sell two, three, and four packs of professionally rolled, labeled and packaged joints. The Suquamish Tribe, who was at the heart of this battle, is already writing their own regulations for production and distribution. All of them can tell Holmes, Holcomb and the Governor can go pound sand....and take Kohl-Welles and Rivers with them.

Very soon you'll be able to buy OPEN MARKET marijuana, not over-taxed and over-regulated STATE GOVERNMENT MARKET marijuana, at an Indian smoke shop on River Road in Puyallup.....for $5 a gram....without the five pages of crazy LCB regulations on advertising.

YEP....I-502 is dead and all that's left the fun of kicking dirt over this plot to replace one Prohibition with an even more unscrupulous and insidious "New Approach" to the same old failed system.

Holmes and Holcomb know this is coming....which is why they are making increasingly crazy demands to make felons out of medical providers. They need to take them down before the legislators find out that 502 died when they weren't paying attention.

If trusted Alison Holcomb and Pete Holmes when they told you that I-502 would end Prohibition, and wouldn't harm patients....I'd ask for your money back....because you most certainly got lied to.

My hat is off to the Suquamish Tribal leaders that led the way on this effort. The Tribes deserve to take credit for ACTUALLY bringing Washington an Open Market model for cannabis distribution and totally destroying the government model that Holcomb and Soros planned to spread across this country like a virus.

Steve Sarich

Cannabis Action Coalition

so marijuana is legal but medical marijuana is illegal? because the state doesn't get tax revenue from mmj sales?

do they know that weed is easy to find? mmj stores should become 'wellness centers', start taking donations and give out free weed as a thank you to people that have donated.

I thought we voted many years ago to make ALL marijuana offenses law enforcements lowest priority and again last year with I-502 which had a clause saying it was not to effect existing medical marijuana laws. I guess laws we voted for don't matter when they get in the way of the I-502 sponsors' political agendas

I encourage everyone who is interested in this issue to read the Holmes/Holcomb/Schochet memo (the 20-page road map to which Heidi referred in this post). Skim the top-level points, then dig into the detail on each, and go to the footnotes if you want justification for claims made. I see this differently after having done so.

@23: No, not all marijuana offenses, just "those where the marijuana was intended for adult personal use."

We did that at a time at which most offenses for which arrests and prosecutions occurred were those to which the law applied. Would we have done so if the law regarding cannabis was what it is in Washington now? The more I think about this, the more strongly I suspect that we would not have.

Seed to plant regulation is shit and does not have the safety of the consumer or public in mind. Regulate labs, require testing of product for medical and recreational than its game on in a free market. Marijuana is medicine but its also my SAFER choice for recreational.

I've smoked pot for nearly 50 years. It has negatively affected my life through fines, jail, and the stigma of being a convicted felon. Now this woman wants to make a new class of criminal for not paying taxes on this plant. Give me a break, along with all the other peaceful people who smoke it and get on to doing something that actually improves our society and our state. This law is a joke and anyone who thought you could charge people $800 an ounce for something easier to grow than lettuce should get their heads examined... or relax and smoke a bowl!

How can medical cannabis be a scam? I went to my healthcare professional to inquire about cannabis and wether or not it might help me. My healthcare professional told me that I have a "qualifying condition" and cannabis may help. There are no fake patients in the medical cannabis world because a person can only enter that world through a healthcare professional.

"How can medical cannabis be a scam? I went to my healthcare professional to inquire about cannabis and wether or not it might help me. My healthcare professional told me that I have a "qualifying condition" and cannabis may help."

The hospital said the same thing for a friend of ours...

Medical marijuana is not dead but we just need a better plan moving forward.

None of the regulations matter as long as the state can't beat the price of a person selling it out of there house in my opinion the goal should be getting it out of the schools and off the streets not making tax money

"There are no fake patients in the medical cannabis world because a person can only enter that world through a healthcare professional.”

BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!

I guess the entire senior class of my son’s high school has a debilitating illness. How sad.