Seattle Times, 31 Mar 2013 – Washington’s new pot consultant has one overarching, discouraging message for lawmakers and state budget writers: Don’t look at weed as an ATM. Potential tax revenue will probably be less than half of the $450 million the state has projected as a maximum return, said Dr. Mark Kleiman, in an interview with TVW’s Austin Jenkins.

Seattle Times, 31 Mar 2013 – Options Are Tricky Rules to Bar Smoking Where Liquor Is Sold Being Considered Gov. Jay Inslee wants the state Liquor Control Board to figure out how to stop the spread of bars allowing marijuana consumption.

Seattle Times, 28 Mar 2013 – Protecting Historic, Residential Zones Is Goal Size, Location of Operations Would Be Restricted The Seattle City Council is proposing new rules for marijuana that would restrict dispensary and retail locations, as well as the size of grow operations, in an attempt to limit impacts on neighbors, particularly in residential and historic areas.

Seattle Times, 20 Mar 2013 – Mark Kleiman’s Options Go From Current Policy on Pot to a Model Mirroring the Alcohol Industry The state’s chief pot consultant remains a bit mysterious, as Mark Kleiman’s duties as a UCLA professor didn’t allow him to join his team in Olympia as state officials announced they had been chosen to help implement a legal pot law.

Seattle Times, 15 Mar 2013 – Sharon Foster is the public face of legal marijuana in Washington state. Foster, a retired lobbyist, chairs the state Liquor Control Board, the agency charged with creating a new legal pot system. And decisions about how much weed should be grown, who should grow it, and how to keep it from the black market fall to her and board members Ruthann Kurose and Chris Marr.

Seattle Times, 15 Mar 2013 – Randy Simmons Used to Handle Audits and It. Now He’s Getting the State into the Pot Business. Just after Washington voters legalized recreational pot in November, a longtime drug dealer walked into the Olympia headquarters of the state Liquor Control Board.

Seattle Times, 01 Mar 2013 – This Forum, in an Area That Opposed the State Marijuana Law, Has a Different Flavor Than the Earlier Ones. YAKIMA – Yakima County overwhelming opposed Initiative 502, which enacted the state’s new legal pot law, and a Thursday public forum here to discuss implementation had a less friendly flavor than similar marijuana forums held on the west side of the Cascades.

Seattle Times, 08 Feb 2013 – Acrimony and Politics Brewing As Washington Begins to Write Its Laws Controlling Legal Marijuana. Debate, acrimony and recriminations – in other words, politics – around the state’s new legal marijuana law have intensified in the state Capitol.

Seattle Times, 27 Jan 2013 – ‘Startups’ Look for Investor Financing The State Is Ground Zero for a New Industry The elegant Washington Athletic Club (WAC) will host some unlikely guests Monday: pioneering pot entrepreneurs pitching their products to an angel-investor network, the ArcView Group, based in San Francisco.

Seattle Times, 25 Jan 2013 – Crowd Gathers at Seattle Pot Forum Consumption Estimates Are Crucial Factor for State They came in suits and cowboy hats, with cropped gray hair and long ponytails, and they filled one room at Seattle City Hall and spilled into another, about 400 strong.