DrugSense

DrugSense

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.)

Kitsap Sun, 08 Mar 2013 – BREMERTON – Seeking a new career following economic hard times, Christy Stanley is hoping to set up shop in what one man referred to at a forum Thursday night as "The Green Market." Around 200 residents, including Stanley, converged on the Kitsap Conference Center, many to voice their concerns and opinions on the state’s fledgling effort to regulate the sale of marijuana following its legalization.

DrugSense

Seattle Times, 06 Mar 2013 – Eight former U.S. drug chiefs warned the federal government Tuesday that time is running out to nullify Washington and Colorado’s new laws legalizing recreational marijuana use, and they want a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday to question Attorney General Eric Holder on his plans. The federal government still considers marijuana an illegal drug with no medical value, like heroin. Holder recently said his decision on how to respond to legal marijuana for adult use in the two states is imminent.

Seattle Times, 05 Mar 2013 – The state received so many bids for the new position of marijuana consultant that officials are delaying the announcement of a winner. Liquor Control Board spokesman Mikhail Carpenter says there were 98 applications for the job, which entails advising the board on rules governing the state’s new legal marijuana industry. Voters last fall passed Initiative 502, which legalized up to an ounce of marijuana for adults 21 and over and called for a system of state-licensed growers, processors and retailers.

DrugSense

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.

The Columbian, 21 Feb 2013 – Questions about taxation further complicate unprecedented saga As members of the Washington State Liquor Control Board continue to feel their way down the dark tunnel of marijuana legalization, they keep bumping into more questions than answers. A crowd of 450-plus people showed up for a public forum in Spokane on Tuesday, and the "what-ifs" vastly outnumbered rational solutions. It was one of the largest turnouts in the continuing series of WSLCB meetings, which visited Vancouver on Feb. 7.