This editorial will appear in tomorrow’s print edition.

Initiative 502 has given the Legislature a big fat opening to separate medical cannabis from the legalization of recreational marijuana.

I-502 proposes to authorize and regulate the use and sale of marijuana in Washington. It’s an initiative to the Legislature, which means that lawmakers have three options: They can adopt it as is, ignore it and let it go to the ballot, or come up with an alternative measure to put on the ballot alongside it.

The issue belongs to the voters, though legislators may well be able to improve on the initiative as written.

With the legalization option out in the open – and cleanly contained in its own bill – lawmakers ought to be able to craft a medical marijuana policy that doesn’t amount to sneaky, corrupt pseudo-legalization.

They could get two-thirds of the way there with one simple step: explicitly outlawing clinics and medical practices that do virtually nothing but hand out so-called green cards to almost anyone who walks in the door.

The proliferation of pot docs and retailers in this state over the last few years has made a mockery of the 1998 initiative that carefully authorized the therapeutic use of marijuana for the genuinely ill within a doctor-patient relationship.

The law forbade sales of the drug and restricted its use to suffering patients who couldn’t be helped by ordinary treatments.

Those restrictions remain in force but are routinely flouted. Potheads and partiers claiming “intractable pain” can easily find practitioners who will legalize their habits for $100 or $200 – often promising them the money back if they don’t get authorization papers. In Tacoma, the situation is such a sham that police say they’re running into gang members who’ve been “medically” authorized to smoke dope.
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This editorial will appear in tomorrow’s print edition.

Ballot measures account for most of the action in this off-year election, including gargantuan media battles over a couple of them.

Voters beware: All three initiatives on the state ballot have something in common – each got nearly all of its funding from a single source. A summary of our past recommendations:

Initiative 1183

Commercial fortunes are at stake with I-1183, which would privatize the sale of hard liquor in Washington. It promises immense profits to Costco, which has broken state spending records promoting it.

On the other side, the Wine and Spirits Wholesalers of America – representing business profiting from the status quo – is funding a ferocious opposition.

Also in the mix are unions out to protect the employees of state liquor stores who could lose their jobs if Costco has its way with the electorate.

Amid the flurry of confusing ads, it’s easy to overlook the fundamental issue: Should the sale of liquor be tightly controlled or greatly expanded under a profit-driven model? We’re swayed by the U.S. Centers of Disease Control, which has concluded that privatization increases the abuse of alcohol and the social problems it fuels.

Initiative 1163

This measure is the handiwork of a single union, the Service Employees International Union, which is again exploiting the plight of elderly and disabled to advance its interests.
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This editorial will appear in tomorrow’s print edition.

Is Tacoma – a city with more cannabis dispensaries than pharmacies – really out to jail seriously ill patients whose doctors have recommended marijuana use?

That’s the contention of the people behind Initiative 1, a measure that would order the city’s police to make marijuana offenses their “lowest enforcement priority.” Their chief argument is that people with cancer, multiple sclerosis and AIDS stand to be prosecuted and see their homes confiscated – although not even the hard-nosed U.S. Justice Department has shown the least interest in doing so.

The overwrought claims about the sick being persecuted point to the difficulty of identifying a practical – as opposed to a political – purpose for this initiative. If the city or county ever prosecuted a dying cancer patient or wasting AIDS patient for using medical marijuana, it would be – and should be – a scandal.

In reality, the police don’t waste much time pursuing adults for possession of small amounts of marijuana for recreational use. A minor marijuana charge is commonly a byproduct of a serious bust – as when a crack dealer gets caught with some weed in his pocket.

As far as we can tell, Initiative 1 would pretty much tell the police to do what they’re already doing.
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This editorial appears in Wednesday’s print edition.

Marijuana advocates have to stop mistaking Tacoma for Seattle.

Sure, Seattle police may “walk past miles of glass” pipes at that city’s Hempfest, as the attorney for a legalization group told a Seattle reporter.
But that is no reason to expect that Tacoma cops would also ignore obvious drug paraphernalia at a knockoff festival in Wright Park last weekend.

Tacoma hasn’t gone anywhere near the lengths that Seattle has to make itself a safe haven for pot smokers. Yet that hasn’t stopped Hempfest festival organizers from demanding the same kid-glove treatment. They are complaining because police confiscated pipes and bongs and shut down several booths at the Saturday event. Read more »

Posting this antidote to magical thinking to stoke the indignation of the Web’s marijuana fan club. Always entertaining.

Excerpt:

About 9% of adults who use marijuana develop an addiction to it. Among people who begin smoking before the age of 18, this number is as high as 17%. Although addiction to marijuana does not cause dramatic physical dependence, it can lead to substantial problems in education, work and relationships. In fact, addiction to marijuana is defined by the inability to stop using despite recognition of harmful consequences. Without harmful consequences, there is no diagnosis of addiction.

The short-term effects

…

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The Associated Press is reporting that supporters of Initiative 1068 – which would legalize the cultivation, sale, possession and use of marijuana – are having trouble getting the necessary 241,000 petition signatures before the July 2 ballot deadline. They were counting on financial help to pay for signature gatherers from the Service Employees International Union, but that hasn’t materialized.

I think the weed backers missed a bet. They should have teamed up with Costco, which is using its own employees as signature gatherers at its stores for an initiative to get the state out of the liquor business. Convince …

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If you can believe an interactive website set up by Mayor Mike McGinn, the top priorities of Seattleites, in this order, are:

• More light rail.

• Legalizing pot.

• Opening nude beaches.

It’s a wholly unscientific, self-selected poll representing a small fraction of Seattle’s population. Which is a good thing, because I’d hate to think Seattleites in general were more concerned about restrictions on skinny-dipping and dope-smoking than about homelessness (Priority 25) or public safety (Priority 31). They can’t be that wacky … can they?

Tacoma doesn’t have a similar website. If it had one, some priorities …

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This editorial will appear in Wednesday’s print edition.

Medical marijuana advocates made a deal with the voters in 1998 with Initiative 692: no sales, no shops, no dispensaries, no co-ops, nothing that would even vaguely resemble a legalized dope industry.

The year before, Washingtonians had rejected a loophole-riddled initiative that would have abetted the loosey-goosey quasi-commercialization already seen in California. I-692 included a crucial safeguard: authorized patients could use marijuana, but they had to grow their own supply or have it provided by a caregiver. No money was to change hands.

One patient per caregiver: The law explicitly says the caregiver must “possess no more marijuana than is necessary for the patient’s personal medical use.” And he or she must “be the primary caregiver to only one patient at one time.” That language would not be in there had the law envisioned shops with scores or hundreds of paying customers. Read more »