Los Angeles Times, 10 Dec 2012 – SEATTLE – Customers have been drifting into Jay Fratt’s alternative pipe and tobacco shop, Smokin J’s, in the days since Washington state’s marijuana law took effect, wondering when cannabis would take its place on the shelves next to the handblown glass pipes. Hold on, he told them. Fratt is, before anything else, a businessman, and he quickly realized there was a lot of smoke in the details.

Los Angeles Times, 07 Dec 2012 – SEATTLE – More than 100 hard-core tokers gathered under the Space Needle at the stroke of midnight to light one up in celebration of the state’s new marijuana law, which made it legal on Thursday for those 21 and older to possess an ounce or less of pot. Voters in Washington and Colorado approved the nation’s first recreational marijuana laws in November. The Colorado law doesn’t take effect until January.

Los Angeles Times, 19 Aug 2012 – Some Pot Fans Are Surprised to Find Themselves Opposing a State Ballot Measure. SEATTLE – Washington’s annual Hempfest – a three-day celebration of pot, bongs and hemp bead necklaces that is typically one of Seattle’s largest festivals – was uncharacteristically worked up Saturday over what should have been cause for laid-back cheering: a fast-gaining ballot initiative to legalize possession of small quantities of marijuana.