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**LoP Guest** lop guest User ID: 96154 08-08-2012 12:25 AM

There is a really, really good chance that this initiative is going to pass. Support for it is like 60/40 with the polls they are doing now in washington state. It's about goddamned time. All i want in life is to own some coffeeshops like what they have in amsterdam, somewhere in the western washington area. Beautiful state, great vibes and intelligent people. I want to run a nice place with books, good coffee, organic buds and hash and live music. Cannabis is a good thing no wait it's the BEST thing nature provides. Endless and infinite combinations of flavors and colors, it's a connoiseur's dream with much more complex aromas and tastes than any kind of alcohol or tobacco. Just a wonderful thing, even smelling high quality stinky cannabis settles the stomach and lightens the heart. It's time people realized that the best things in life are simple and affordable like cannabis.

**Katz**

LoP Guest Wrote:

There is a really, really good chance that this initiative is going to pass. Support for it is like 60/40 with the polls they are doing now in washington state. It's about goddamned time. All i want in life is to own some coffeeshops like what they have in amsterdam, somewhere in the western washington area. Beautiful state, great vibes and intelligent people. I want to run a nice place with books, good coffee, organic buds and hash and live music. Cannabis is a good thing no wait it's the BEST thing nature provides. Endless and infinite combinations of flavors and colors, it's a connoiseur's dream with much more complex aromas and tastes than any kind of alcohol or tobacco. Just a wonderful thing, even smelling high quality stinky cannabis settles the stomach and lightens the heart. It's time people realized that the best things in life are simple and affordable like cannabis.

**Spread** · **Spread** More Washboard User ID: 114130 08-12-2012 02:07 AM **Posts: 11,708**

Legalizing marijuana could bring in $2 billion for Washington

The state's latest financial analysis says legalizing and taxing marijuana could bring Washington as much as nearly $2 billion over the next five years — or as little as nothing.

The Office of Financial Management released its fiscal impact statement for Initiative 502 on Friday, and the results track closely with its earlier analysis, released in March.

I-502, which will be on the November ballot, would legalize pot under state law and allow its sale at state-licensed stores, with tax proceeds dedicated to education, health care and substance abuse prevention. Oregon and Colorado voters will also decide on marijuana legalization measures this fall.

Marijuana would remain illegal under federal law, however, and it isn't clear how the federal government would respond if any of the states voted to legalize it. The Justice Department could prosecute employees of state-licensed pot shops, sue in federal court to block the laws from taking effect, or simply seize the tax revenue from the states as proceeds of transactions that are illegal under federal law.

Because the federal response remains unclear, Washington's analysts said they could not determine the ultimate effect of I-502 on the state's finances. However, they said, assuming a fully functioning marijuana market develops — and that it entirely replaces the existing illicit market —state revenue from pot sales could be more than $1.9 billion over the next five years. The state typically spends $30 billion per two-year budget cycle.

I-502 would create a system of state-licensed growers, processors and stores, and impose a 25 percent tax at each stage. People 21 and older could buy up to an ounce of dried marijuana, one pound of marijuana-infused product in solid form, such as brownies, or 72 ounces of marijuana-infused liquids.

The analysis anticipates 100 state-licensed growers supplying 328 marijuana stores that would sell more than 187,000 pounds to at least 363,000 customers. Those numbers are based on federal drug-use surveys.

Consumers would pay $12 per gram — the price currently charged by many medical marijuana dispensaries — plus the 25 percent marijuana tax, 10 percent state sales tax, and any local sales tax, the analysts assumed.

http://www.kval.com/politics/Legalizing-...44916.html

**Spread** · (This post was last modified: 08-12-2012 11:09 AM by Spread.)

dbl post.

**LoP Guest** lop guest User ID: 96154 08-12-2012 10:44 AM

No way it's going to work with $12 grams, PLUS 40% taxes on top of that. For freaking OUTDOOR bud NO WAY! $12 grams are typical at med shops in washington, correct, but that is for artisan quality top notch AAA grade INDOOR grown bud. Outdoor bud sells for $8 a gram MAXIMUM for the highest of the high grade. Nobody is going to be paying $18 a gram after taxes for commercial quality outdoor weed. The farmers who get the contracts are not going to be dready hippies from humboldt or other experienced growers like the ones who supply medical pot shops currently. They are going to be redneck landowners who switch crops to grow cannabis after it is legalized, they won't be growing the best in-demand clone only strains they will be growing average quality widely available hybrids from dutch seedbanks. I imagine what is going to be grown if this passes will be comparable to what you can buy for $5-7 a gram right now on the black or grey market.

This is just hilariously wrong and f*cked up.

Well the great thing about this is that the black market will get a boost! Average non-smokers now who become smokers, will realize that they do indeed love pot and can buy higher quality product for half the price on the black market. AWESOME!

**Spread** · **Spread** More Washboard User ID: 114149 08-12-2012 11:13 AM **Posts: 11,708**

$2 billion in 5 years seems like a waste of the state's time to me.

**Spread** · **Spread** More Washboard User ID: 114749 08-16-2012 06:54 AM **Posts: 11,708**

New Wash. marijuana group disbanding

A new Washington state marijuana industry organization is disbanding, a day after its press secretary was fired at the group's inaugural press conference.

Seattle lawyer and Safe Access Alliance president Kurt Boehl (BALE') said Wednesday the group will dissolve. Boehl said he formed the trade industry organization because he thought there was a need to help marijuana-related businesses in the state, but he and the rest of the board of directors decided it was best to call it quits after the firing spectacle.

http://www.sacbee.com/2012/08/15/4729838...nding.html

**Spread** · **Spread** More Washboard User ID: 114749 08-16-2012 07:02 AM **Posts: 11,708**

Sensible Washington Announces 2013 Initiative To End Cannabis Prohibition

Sensible Washington has announced plans to launch another marijuana law reform initiative to repeal criminal and civil penalties from the state code. Unlike the group’s previous attempts, the 2013 effort is intended to appeal to a broader voter base, by making the legal age 21 and over —with an added caveat —extending the juvenile code to 21 for cannabis-related offenses. This would allow for marijuana convictions to be expunged from adult records, alleviating the life-altering harms of a conviction, such as denial of future employment and educational funding opportunities.

This November, voters will decide the fate of the “legalize, tax, and regulate” Initiative 502. Sensible Washington contends that it’s not written to withstand a federal challenge. A March 2012 report from the Congressional Research Service states: “Under the Supremacy Clause, state laws that conflict with federal law are generally preempted and therefore void”. The belief that the tax and regulate portions of I-502 will not survive a federal challenge is also shared in a report from the Washington Office of Financial Management: “To the extent that the federal government continues to enforce its criminal laws related to marijuana, it would impede the activities permitted by this initiative… Consequently, the total amount of revenue generated to state and local government could be as low as zero.”

Sensible Washington asserts that the 5ng limit for driving under the influence of cannabis (DUIC) – in addition to a zero tolerance limit for those under 21 – is not supported by science, and will result in convictions of people not guilty of actual impairment. This will be particularly detrimental to medical cannabis patients, who will not be exempted from the new limit.

Sensible Washington maintains that the repeal model of ending prohibition eludes federal preemption. This method was used in 1932 to successfully end alcohol prohibition via Initiative 61 “Repeal of the Bone Dry Act“. I-61’s success established a legal precedent for repeal as a valid path to legalization. Sensible Washington’s initiative removes cannabis from Washington state’s list of controlled substances. The federal government would have no means to preempt it, as they don’t have the legal authority to reinstate criminal sanctions at the state level.

Regardless of the outcome of I-502, individuals will continue to be prosecuted for cannabis-related offenses, which is what Sensible Washington hopes to curtail with their 2013 campaign. If they are successful in collecting enough signatures and passing their initiative in the general election, cannabis will become legal for responsible adults 21 and older by December, 2013.

http://www.theweedblog.com/legalization-...uana-laws/

**Spread** · **Spread** More Washboard User ID: 115445 08-18-2012 11:40 PM **Posts: 11,708**

New challenge for marijuana providers: tax audits

Tax enforcers have started auditing medical marijuana dispensaries in Washington, escalating a dispute over whether the outlets should be collecting money for state government.

The state Department of Revenue has worked since 2010 to tell marijuana establishments that they must remit sales taxes on their transactions. Some 50 dispensaries have registered with the state, helping the state collect some $750,000 in taxes from the industry over the span of one year.

Officials believe that there are many other outlets that remain unregistered, and that some registered entities are improperly reporting that they had no taxable business.

"We've been doing the educational part and now we're doing the enforcement part," said Mike Gowrylow,a spokesman for the Department of Revenue. He emphasized that there was no particular focus or crackdown on medical marijuana entities, just that the state was continuing its normal efforts to identify noncompliant businesses. The agency is currently conducting audits on two marijuana dispensaries.

Some in the pot community have encouraged dispensaries to pay taxes as a means of achieving legitimacy. But Seattle medical marijuana lawyer Douglas Hiatt said he doesn't believe the state can tax medical marijuana sales, nor would he allow one of his clients to cooperate with an audit.

When the Department of Revenue recently tried to require one of his clients to pay taxes, Hiatt said he threatened to litigate, and the department backed down.

"There's no way they can do this," Hiatt said. "DOR doesn't have the power to tax marijuana. It's not only that you can't tax it because it's illegal, it's that you can't tax it because it's medicine. There's an exemption for prescription medicine under state law, and an authorization is the functional equivalent of a prescription."

Gowrylow said state law does not consider medical marijuana a prescription drug.

Hiatt and others have also argued that dispensaries are not selling the drug but exchanging items as part of a cooperative. None of that really matters from a tax standpoint, Gowrylow said, because there is an exchange of value taking place.

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/New-c...798093.php

**Spread** · **Spread** More Washboard User ID: 116218 08-24-2012 07:44 AM **Posts: 11,708**

DEA tells 23 medical marijuana storefronts to shut down

The Drug Enforcement Administration mailed letters Thursday to 23 medical marijuana businesses in Western Washington, warning they could be prosecuted and the properties seized if they are operating within a school zone.

“Please take the necessary steps to discontinue the sale and/or distribution of marijuana…within 30 days,” read the letter, signed by Matthew G. Barnes, special agent in charge of the Seattle office.

Neither the DEA nor the U.S. Attorney’s Office, which supported the action, would release the names of the 23 dispensaries or disclose which cities they’re located in.

Barnes said in a statement that “additional notifications” will be sent “as necessary.”

“I am confident that once notified of the ramifications and penalties associated with renting a property for marijuana distribution purposes, property owners will take appropriate steps to rectify the situation on their own. The DEA will not turn a blind eye to criminal organizations that attempt to use state or local law as a shield for their illicit drug trafficking activities,” Barnes said in a statement.

http://blogs.seattletimes.com/today/2012...shut-down/