The wise voters of Washington State voted to legalize marijuana. The law went into effect last Thursday at midnight. There were the predictable news reports of people blissfully smoking away. It is now legal, in Washington State, to possess up to an ounce of useable marijuana, 16 ounces of marijuana infused product in solid form or 72 ounces of marijuana infused product in liquid form. The state intends to regulate and TAX the sale of marijuana. The tax will be used to fund substance-abuse prevention, research education and health care. It seems as though they are wisely trying to prefund the predictable problems created by encouraging more pot smoking.
In addition, laws prohibiting driving under the influence will be amended to include maximum thresholds for THD blood concentration. Some activists are concerned because if this is set too low medical marijuana users will be at risk of a DUI charge. The logic escapes me. It really doesn’t matter why you are taking a drug. If it impairs your ability to drive, you shouldn’t drive. Apparently activists think we should be more tolerant of dangerous drivers if they are smoking pot for a good reason.
Marijuana is still illegal under federal law and subject to federal prosecution. The federal government does not need the state’s permission to prosecute for a federal crime. Nice!
It is still illegal to grow your own marijuana in Washington, other than medical marijuana, and it is illegal to sell marijuana to the public because no rules have been established and no licenses have been issued. Technically, it is still illegal to use marijuana publicly, even in Washington State. So I guess you can smoke pot, in your own home, but only if you don’t purchase it or grow it. This seems more than a little confusing; but I suspect most marijuana users are used to being confused. If this makes sense to you, you probably work for CNN who considers this law to be a model for other states to follow.
Perhaps I am wrong, but I suspect that the end result will be pretty similar to the status quo. All that really happened here is that the state is going to step and compete with drug dealers. A 25% tax is going to tempt a lot of people to find a way around the problem. Since marijuana smokers already know how to get the stuff illegally, the black market is already up and running. In the future drug dealers in Washington State will probably still go to jail, they just will be charged with tax evasion.
Of course Washington State also became the first state to vote to make gay marriage legal on the same day they voted to legalize marijuana. I, for one, am really sick of all the gay marriage stuff, from both sides. They can change the definition of marriage, but that won’t change the laws of nature. It doesn’t take a lot of research to learn that marriage has always been about a man and a woman joining together to create a family. Children are part of the deal. That is why it is still illegal in most states to marry if you should not have children. That is why they used to require blood tests to rule out syphilis before you could get married. So my message, to both camps, is they can have the word. Let’s just stop calling marriage, “marriage” and call it something else. There are several choices: wedlock or matrimony would be good. Then, in the end, gay couples get the word, but nothing else changes. We keep the institution of marriage, they get the word. Problem solved and we can all move on.
TDM