HOLY CRAP.
While I was eating jalapeno poppers in a basement on SE 82nd with Oregon’s Measure 80 crew last night, Washington’s pot legalization campaign was actually declaring victory.
So now marijuana is legal in Washington state. But what will the practical effects of Initiative 502 be?
I spoke this morning with campaign director Alison Holcomb, who spelled out what will happen over the next year in Washington. Thirty days from now, it will be officially legal to possess marijuana in Washington if you’re over 21. You can have up to one ounce of marijuana bud, one pound of marijuana “solids” (like brownies!), or 72 ounces of marijuana distilled in liquid. Twelve months from now, the state will have gone through a rule-making process to determine what the specific rules around growing, selling, and licensing marijuana distributors in the state should be. The process, a collaboration between the state’s liquor control board and departments of health and agriculture, won’t result in dispensaries until December 2013 at the earliest.
It’s important to note that, under the measure, manufacture and delivery of marijuana is still a crime. So is growing your own at home, unless you’re a medical marijuana cardholder. The laws around consumption of marijuana in public mirror the laws around consumption of liquor and cigarettes—you can’t smoke pot in public if anyone can tell it’s pot (so eating a pot brownie is okay) and you also can’t smoke it indoors in places where you can’t smoke cigarettes (so no lighting up in Vancouver bars).
Over the next year, it’s possible that the feds could swoop in and start cracking down on marijuana use in the state, since its possession still remains a federal crime. But Holcomb is hopeful that won’t happen. In 2010, Attorney General Eric Holder strongly discouraged California from passing pro-pot Proposition 16. This time around, he was silent on any state’s measure. “What we’re hoping for is that we’ll have a productive conversation with the feds,” says Holcomb.
Just so I understand, you can have it (possess) but can’t buy, sell, take possession (delivery) or grow it?
@Geez – You got it. That might change under the state’s rulemaking over the next year, but as Holcomb explained it, three things are illegal under federal law: Growing pot, delivering pot, and possessing pot. This vote only changes the law on that last past, possessing pot.
I added a note to the post that you also can’t smoke pot in public or indoors in places where cigarettes are banned.
You can’t smoke it anywhere in public if “anyone can tell it’s pot”? What kind of vague law is that going to be? I’m sure that if I lit a hand-rolled stick of tobacco in public, folks would be sure it’s a joint. And if people are going to be under the influence in public (nothing new there), what difference does it make whether someone can recognize the form it’s in? Is it so our children will continue seeing tobacco smokers but won’t have to observe the deadly marijuana cigarette? And if it’s legal for people 21+ to possess it, why can’t they grow small quantities at home, just as home-brewing is legal?
And in Oregon we get who knows how many more years of policies that are proven failures.
There’s no such thing as growing in small quantities. One plant would yield much, much more than the one ounce allotted.
This is fairly similar to the Portuguese model, where they have the same restrictions. The purpose of this is to prevent illicit trade with other European countries (or trade with States, in this case).
Unfortunately for the State of Washington, bad laws are rarely tweaked to become good ones. So, if California or Oregon passes optimal full-blown legalization without taxation, Washington citizens will be stuck with this model for many, many years. Just look at how long it took to repeal their liquor control measures.
Still, this is a very positive development. I’m shopping for retail space in Vancouver right now. I think my cafe’s policy will be something along the lines of “This is a private business. You can use the shop’s vaporizers, but you have to bring your own weed. And if you’re caught trading or selling weed here, we’re kicking you out.” But, I still need to clear this up with a lawyer.
“There’s no such thing as growing in small quantities.”
That statement depends on your definition of “small quantities,” and on what the law allows, which I’m arguing should have been much different for it to be an effective and long-lasting set of reforms. What do you call medical-marijuana patients growing under the limit for their own use, mass production?
Kudos to CO for going the simple way – treat pot like booze. Even for Liquor Control states like OR and WA, that much more easily replicates a system that has been in place, and [arguably] working since prohibition.
Now, if we can just get Bronco Bama to do something at that level…
So how in the hell are you suppose to obtain it then??? And does that mean if you get caught with it that they are gonna wanna know where you got it??? And if you don’t tell are you going to get into trouble??? So basically, do you have to have a card to be able to possess it or smoke it???
Ya”ll talkin about the law? Well I’d like to hear it potheads
regards
Sgt Barnes
When has it ever been hard to get the Hippie Lettuce in Portland? Why are you tripping so much about this? I don’t indulge but I would vote for decriminalizing it….PS no shock Colorado passed this.