Why the Republicans' Pot Bill Is Scaring Medical Marijuana Activists

What lawmakers look like to medical pot proponents: A local activist’s depiction of Republican State Senator Ann Rivers, who pushed through a pot bill that people in the medical marijuana community say will end the world as they know it. STEVE SARICH’S FACEBOOK PAGE

In the ongoing and ugly war between recreational and medical pot, the medical camp recently lost a huge battle.

On February 13, the Republican-controlled Washington State Senate passed a measure—called the “Cannabis Patient Protection Act”—that, if it passes the house and is signed by the governor, will do exactly the opposite of protecting patients, according to some activists. The bill seeks to do away with all current medical marijuana dispensaries, folding that market into the state’s new recreational pot industry created by Initiative 502. Dispensaries that are currently operating would have until next July to get licensed through the Washington State Liquor Control Board or be shut down. And medical marijuana patients would be required to join a registry if they wanted to buy cannabis without the steep taxes that people using weed for fun and pleasure are now paying.

This is basically the nightmare scenario that medical pot activists have been warning about for some time.