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Washington state legalizes marijuana

Posted on 11/06/2012 9:36:26 PM PST by djf

I-502, a voter initiative designed to legalize the possession and personal use of Marijuana, appears to have passed.

With 50% of the statewide votes counted, the initiative leads with a 55% to 45% approval rating.

Up to one ounce of marijuana, grown at state-licensed facilities, and sold (and TAXED!) at state retail locations, will now be allowed.

There will be standards set for driving while impaired, as well as a zero-tolerance policy for persons under 21.

It is estimated it will take about a year for all the machinery to get set up before people can buy retail hooch!

Negotiations are expected between the state law and the federal level.


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Society
KEYWORDS: cannabis; culturewars; drugs; drugwar; marijuana; potheads; wa2012; warondrugs; wod; wodlist; wosd
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To: JustSayNoToNannies

Common sense for one.


61 posted on 11/08/2012 7:42:50 PM PST by Bellflower (The LORD is Holy, separated from all sin, perfect, righteous, high and lifted up.)
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To: Eva

Were they marijuana cookies, or some other drug? What kind of a meeting would have marijuana cookies? Did you pull over and call for a cab? Did you talk to the host about it? How was the incident resolved?

Do you live in CO or WA?


62 posted on 11/09/2012 6:32:58 AM PST by stuartcr ("When silence speaks, it speaks only to those that have already decided what they want to hear.")
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To: Bellflower
It is likely smoking pot and doing drugs that is one of the major openings for delusional demons to enter into these people’s lives.

Does that include using the mind-altering drug alcohol?

No.

How do we know this is so?

Common sense for one.

The battle cry of those too lazy to substantiate their claims.

63 posted on 11/09/2012 7:33:47 AM PST by JustSayNoToNannies (A free society's default policy: it's none of government's business.)
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To: Eva; MarMema
The study was done on teens so either way it doesn’t matter to our initiative, which is for those over 21.

Those teens grow up to be pot smoking adults, who are poorly equipped to take care of themselves. Too many teenagers get their pot from the jar that the parents keep on their dresser.

Teens started reporting several years ago that they could get pot more easily than they could get cigarettes or beer. It appears that the most effective way to keep a drug out of teens' hands is to legalize it for adults (which gives sellers an incentive not to sell to kids - namely, the loss of their legal adult sales).

64 posted on 11/09/2012 8:04:40 AM PST by JustSayNoToNannies (A free society's default policy: it's none of government's business.)
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To: Eva
I attended a meeting, where food was served after the meeting and when I saw one of the hosts pick up a cookie, I thought it looked good and picked up one too. By the time that I got home I realized that the cookie was no ordinary cookie.

The legality of marijuana would no more make such incidents common than the legality of alcohol has made the spiking of beverages common.

65 posted on 11/09/2012 8:07:29 AM PST by JustSayNoToNannies (A free society's default policy: it's none of government's business.)
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To: JustSayNoToNannies

Legalizing it would not prevent the teens from getting pot. They’ve been taking from the jars on the parents’ dresser for years. The pot smoking parents are constantly heard, saying that they would prefer to have their kids driving high on marijuana than drunk on beer, as well as the remark, well it didn’t hurt me, so it won’t hurt them. It’s no big deal. It’s a mind set, that marijuana is harmless. It’s not.

I know someone who shared her home grown medical marijuana with a young man, who after leaving her house, ran over and killed a man and spent 3.5 years of his young life behind bars.


66 posted on 11/09/2012 9:55:48 AM PST by Eva
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To: Eva
Who cares about the teens? I smoked in college now and then and made it through Organic Chemistry with a B as I recall.

The point is that the war on drugs, as your posts also prove, has been a complete failure. Legalizing it here will be a cash cow and people smoke it anyway. Lots of them.

Should the money they spend to smoke it go to the mexican cartels or to our state?

In Washington we voted to keep the money in our state and not support violent gangs in Mexico. Bring it feds.

67 posted on 11/09/2012 10:21:13 AM PST by MarMema (eh.)
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To: Eva
Teens started reporting several years ago that they could get pot more easily than they could get cigarettes or beer. It appears that the most effective way to keep a drug out of teens' hands is to legalize it for adults (which gives sellers an incentive not to sell to kids - namely, the loss of their legal adult sales).

Legalizing it would not prevent the teens from getting pot.

I said "most effective way" not "100% effective way." Adult legality and regulation does a better job of keeping the drugs alcohol and tobacco away from teens than banning marijuana does in keeping that drug away from teens.

They’ve been taking from the jars on the parents’ dresser for years. The pot smoking parents are constantly heard, saying that they would prefer to have their kids driving high on marijuana than drunk on beer, as well as the remark, well it didn’t hurt me, so it won’t hurt them. It’s no big deal. It’s a mind set, that marijuana is harmless. It’s not.

I know someone who shared her home grown medical marijuana with a young man, who after leaving her house, ran over and killed a man and spent 3.5 years of his young life behind bars.

Nothing you say above distinguishes marijuana from the legal drug alcohol; do you support banning that drug for adults?

68 posted on 11/09/2012 10:27:05 AM PST by JustSayNoToNannies (A free society's default policy: it's none of government's business.)
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To: JustSayNoToNannies

Alcohol doesn’t cause permanent loss of IQ and is not carcinogenic. Also there are clear standards for driving under the influence of alcohol that cannot be so clear for marijuana.

If marijuana is so easy to obtain for teen agers, it is even easier for adults. So, what’s the big deal? I don’t know anyone who smokes marijuana that has any trouble getting it.

I know that the Gateway drug claim is controversial, but I’ll will give you an anecdotal story about it anyway. A friend of mine, who has a very laissez faire attitude toward drugs, talked about her drug experiences openly with her kids and even allowed them to, or at least didn’t stop them, smoking marijuana and drinking beer at home, as long as they didn’t drive afterwards. Her son started using other drugs and eventually became a heroin addict. He called her one time, when he was contemplating suicide, and told her that she was the worst mother in the world because she made drugs sound so harmless and like so much fun.

As a matter of fact I know two mothers, with similar attitudes and similar results. Both of the boys were top students before the marijuana use. One of them who had been in advanced classes and a soccer star, dropped out of high school. I don’t know what happened to the other.


69 posted on 11/09/2012 10:44:46 AM PST by Eva
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To: djf
-- What are the Feds gonna do? Invade the state? --

The feds will arrest and prosecute sellers. That's what it does now. The state can't provide immunity against a federal crime, and no state has offered to pay for the legal defense of somebody charged by the feds.

Not saying it's right or moral, just noting that all power flows from the barrel of a gun, and the feds have superior firepower, and the will to use it.

70 posted on 11/09/2012 10:53:06 AM PST by Cboldt
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To: Eva
-- A recent study indicates that regular marijuana use among teenagers lowers their IQ by about 8 points. --

Yeah, but if they ALL reduce their mental capacity by the same amount, 92 becomes the new 100, and there isn't any IQ change. ;-)

71 posted on 11/09/2012 10:55:55 AM PST by Cboldt
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To: stuartcr
-- Will it be legal to grow one's own? --

Just from the article (not looking at the law itself), the only legal pot is that supplied by the state. So, the answer to your question is "no."

72 posted on 11/09/2012 10:57:40 AM PST by Cboldt
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To: djf

Good. Maybe some of the suppliers and users from here will head there.


73 posted on 11/09/2012 10:59:09 AM PST by petitfour
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To: Cboldt

Since one can make their own beer and wine and grow tobacco without being taxed, I imagine that would change.


74 posted on 11/09/2012 11:31:22 AM PST by stuartcr ("When silence speaks, it speaks only to those that have already decided what they want to hear.")
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To: Eva
Alcohol doesn’t cause permanent loss of IQ

Marijuana and IQ:
'“Scientifically, these are extremely preliminary findings,” cautions Carl Hart, associate professor of psychology at Columbia University, who has studied the cognitive effects of marijuana in humans in the lab and was not associated with the research. [...] There are also other factors — such as child abuse or other trauma — that might lead people to seek escape in heavy marijuana use and could also affect brain function. Meier and her colleagues did not examine these factors but say it’s possible that such elements could explain the results better than marijuana itself.' - http://healthland.time.com/2012/08/28/does-weekly-marijuana-use-by-teens-really-cause-a-drop-in-iq/

Alcohol:
"researchers confirmed previous findings that alcoholism is associated with thinking problems and lower IQ" - http://www.ur.umich.edu/0506/Oct17_05/15.shtml

"heavy drinking may have extensive and far–reaching effects on the brain, ranging from simple “slips” in memory to permanent and debilitating conditions that require lifetime custodial care." - http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/aa63/aa63.htm

and is not carcinogenic.

"Alcohol is a known cause of cancers of the:
Mouth
Throat (pharynx)
Voice box (larynx)
Esophagus
Liver
Colon and rectum
Breast

"Alcohol may also increase the risk of cancer of the pancreas." - http://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancercauses/dietandphysicalactivity/alcohol-use-and-cancer

Also there are clear standards for driving under the influence of alcohol that cannot be so clear for marijuana.

Roadside sobriety tests can fill the gap until we get biochemical tests in place.

If marijuana is so easy to obtain for teen agers, it is even easier for adults. So, what’s the big deal?

The big deal is that keeping marijuana selling illegal hyperinflates its profits and channels those profits into criminal hands.

I know that the Gateway drug claim is controversial

The gateway claim is nonsense - research shows that the correlation between earlier marijuana use and later use of other drugs can be explained by a "common-factor" model, that is, a third factor that causes both results, such as individuals' opportunities and unique propensities to use drugs, or mor broadly a social or psychological predisposition towards anti-social behaviour. (http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB6010/index1.html, http://rds.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs2/hors253.pdf)

75 posted on 11/09/2012 11:55:23 AM PST by JustSayNoToNannies (A free society's default policy: it's none of government's business.)
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To: JustSayNoToNannies

The study was done very carefully over a period of 30 or more years and included a group, who did not use marijuana. The Universities that were involved were top notch.


76 posted on 11/09/2012 12:27:18 PM PST by Eva
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To: Eva
The study was done very carefully over a period of 30 or more years

Since it was a longitudinal study, timespan was a minimum criterion and not a guarantee of being the last word.

and included a group, who did not use marijuana. The Universities that were involved were top notch.

Which still doesn't make it the last word. The researchers themsleves said it’s possible that such elements as child abuse or other trauma could explain the results better than marijuana itself.

The harms of alcohol to the brain are at least as well established, as I showed - so you have yet to present a reason why alcohol should be legal but marijuana illegal.

77 posted on 11/09/2012 1:02:47 PM PST by JustSayNoToNannies (A free society's default policy: it's none of government's business.)
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To: Eva
I know that the Gateway drug claim is controversial

The gateway claim is nonsense - research shows that the correlation between earlier marijuana use and later use of other drugs can be explained by a "common-factor" model, that is, a third factor that causes both results, such as individuals' opportunities and unique propensities to use drugs, or mor broadly a social or psychological predisposition towards anti-social behaviour. (http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB6010/index1.html, http://rds.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs2/hors253.pdf)

I see I forgot to mention that the same sort of correlation between earlier marijuana and later harder drugs also exists between earlier alcohol and tobacco and later illegal drugs - so if marijuana is a "gateway" so are alcohol and tobacco.

78 posted on 11/09/2012 1:07:11 PM PST by JustSayNoToNannies (A free society's default policy: it's none of government's business.)
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To: JustSayNoToNannies

Yes, there are just as many parents who allow teenagers to drink alcohol. Many times, they are the same parents.

Each one of my kids had students in their grade school classes who brought marijuana to school to share and sell, that they had taken from the jar that their parents kept on the Dad’s dresser. The first time it happened, there was one girl bringing alcohol to school and another bringing marijuana and I reported both, not the names, just the fact that it was happening in the girls room. The principal told me that he would do something about the alcohol, but not the marijuana.


79 posted on 11/09/2012 2:46:22 PM PST by Eva
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To: Eva
Still no reason why alcohol should be legal but marijuana illegal.
80 posted on 11/09/2012 2:54:10 PM PST by JustSayNoToNannies (A free society's default policy: it's none of government's business.)
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