The Columbian, 18 Mar 2013 – Either Way Eric Holder Decides, He’s Sure to Anger Many People Last December, when asked on an ABC-TV show if there would be a federal intervention into marijuana legalization laws passed in Washington and Colorado, President Barack Obama said, "We’ve got bigger fish to fry."On March 5, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, suggested the federal government has fewer bucks to spend, as well, and the Drug Enforcement Administration should not waste money or time chasing pot smokers in either state. Thus, marijuana reformists in both states have become strange new beneficiaries of the supposedly stark federal budget sequesters. The Washington Times reports that the Justice Department must cut more than $1 billion from its operations, which strengthens Leahy’s recommendation to focus on major federal crimes and not worry about new laws in Washington or Colorado.
US WA: Editorial: Delegation Drags Feet On Marijuana
Seattle Times, 17 Mar 2013 – WASHINGTON voters acted boldly last November to begin reforming our nation’s failed policy on marijuana. It was an act of leadership, in stark contrast to the inertia that has perpetuated the failed war on drugs for the past 42 years. Since then, state regulators have worked diligently to create the world’s first fully regulated recreational marijuana market, and Gov. Jay Inslee took the state’s case to Washington, D.C.
US WA: Editorial: New Pot Rules Won’t Please Everybody
Yakima Herald-Republic, 10 Mar 2013 – Initiative 502, the marijuana-legalization measure that Washington state voters approved last November, spelled out a number of ways to implement what is now the law. For example, I-502 sets up a three-tier system of marijuana producer, processor and retailer; determines taxes to be collected at each level; defines limits on possession amounts and thresholds for intoxication; and so on. That the measure was relatively tightly drawn, especially compared with a legalization initiative in Oregon last fall, is one reason why it passed here but failed down there. But Washington’s initiative left many of the critical details to the state Liquor Control Board, which on Feb. 28 conducted a well-attended meeting in Yakima on the matter.
US WA: Editorial: Approve Hemp Farming
The Herald, 08 Mar 2013 – While Washington, Colorado, and the Justice Department grapple with the intricacies and implications of the states’ historic votes to legalize recreational marijuana (with medical cannabis already on the books), our Legislature has a chance to do something noncontroversial and very belated on the other end of the weed spectrum: Allow the cultivation of industrial hemp. The difference between marijuana and hemp is vast. An important but frequently ignored fact is that the hemp plant contain the psychoactive ingredients that produce the marijuana "high." A person could smoke fields of hemp and only get a headache and burned lungs. Another important difference: Industrial hemp is an easy crop for farmers to grow – it is hardy and resistant. Marijuana, on the other hand, is fussy and difficult to grow, and prone to pests and mold. (A farmer would never want to grow the two varieties together, as the few remaining hemp opponents argue would happen to cover for an illegal grow, because it would weaken the properties of both plants.)
