Search Results: sarich (21)

In a move chided by most medical marijuana patients and just about every medical marijuana collective owner in the state, the Washington state House last night approved a bill that would eliminate medical pot shops as they currently exist and force patients into a heavily-taxed recreational system.
House Bill 2149 passed by a vote of 67 to 29 last night, has been billed as a way to help keep federal agents out of Washington as well as a way to help funnel more tax revenue through the recreational system. The measure also decreases the total amount of plants patients can grow at home from 15 down to six and drops possession limits from 24 ounces to three.

Medical marijuana dispensaries will have to apply for the same licenses as legal recreational shops in Seattle, which several activists argue is a move to wipe out medical marijuana dispensaries altogether by forcing the state to adopt the same policy.
Basically, by forcing medical shops to be recreational shops the government is setting the up to be shut down if the feds ever come in and shut everything related to Washington’s I-502 down.

Cheeba!
Allen St. Pierre, NORML: “They’re moonshiners. It’s a tiny group of people who don’t comport”

Medical marijuana patients in Washington state are offended after Allen St. Pierre, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), called medicinal cannabis dispensaries “moonshiners” in a Huffington Post interview.

“They’re moonshiners,” St. Pierre said of the dispensaries which opposed Initiative 502, passed by 54 percent of Washington voters. “It’s a tiny group of people who don’t comport.”
Of course, painting all Washington patient collectives with this broad brush — especially when St. Pierre is 2,600 miles away and doesn’t know what the FUCK he’s talking about — is the height of irresponsibility. I’ve been in close to 90 medical marijuana access points in Washington state, and I can personally tell you that the vast majority are not profiteers, and definitely not “moonshiners.”
“Now patients that grow in collective gardens are ‘moonshiners’ according to the head of NORML!” responded patient advocate Steve Sarich of Cannacare on Facebook Wednesday morning. “Only state-run marijuana is acceptable to NORML?”

Northwest Leaf

No On I-502 says that New Approach Washington is using a McCarthy-style campaign, employing their considerable financial resources, complicit members of the media and influential local political connections to misinform the public regarding the specific issues surrounding the group’s opposition to I-502, a marijuana “legalization” initiative on the November general election ballot.

The “No On I-502” Committee has announced a Wednesday press conference “to clarify, once and for all, our opposition to I-502 and to debunk the propaganda from NAW, and some in the press, that we represent some mysterious, greedy group of marijuana business interests that they’ve failed to specifically identify.”

Speakers at the press conference will include top marijuana attorneys Jeffrey Steinborn, Aaron Pelley and Douglas Hiatt, who will address the facts surrounding both legalization issues and the “per se” DUID provisions of I-502, including the dramatic impact this law will have on tens of thousands of voters in Washington state.

The Marijuana Project

By John Novak
The Washington State Office of Financial Management has finally released its much anticipated report on the marijuana “legalization” initiative, I-502. (See link to the report at the end of this article)
While it claims that the state could see a financial windfall in the billions from the taxation and regulation of cannabis, it also warns of some very serious consequences and the possibility of zero revenue.
Steve Sarich, a well known Seattle area medical marijuana personality and anti-I-502 activist, sued the Office last month, stating the early numbers being used “are so far off it’s incredulous.”
He and the other activists that joined the lawsuit demanding a new report that included all the risks, including possible results from federal lawsuits.

Burien Daily

Real Legalization Or ‘Decrim On Steroids,’ I-502 Appears Headed For Victory

Washington state’s Initiative 502, which would legalize and tax marijuana and sell the herb through state-licensed stores, got a big funding boost over the weekend, receiving $1.25 million in new donations. The funds allowed I-502’s backers to buy a $1 million TV advertising blitz in August, according to campaign manager Alison Holcomb.

Meanwhile, a new statewide poll, paid for by Seattle TV station KING 5, found that a healthy 55 percent of Washington voters support I-502 ,with just 32 percent opposed.

The first marijuana legalization initiative to ever make the state ballot in Washington, I-502 raised the $1.25 million from just four deep-pocketed donors, including matching $450,000 contributions from Progressive Insurance founder Peter Lewis — well-known for his financial support for drug policy reform — and from the New York-based Drug Policy Alliance (DPA), reports Jonathan Martin at The Seattle Times.

Cannabis Defense Coalition

​Seattle-based medical marijuana patient advocacy group the Cannabis Defense Coalition (CDC) has expressed serious concerns about Senate Bill 6265, currently in the Washington state Legislature.
A internal email sent to CDC members on Tuesday, February 7, outlined the group’s five biggest concerns with SB 6265 thusly:
1. Giving too much for too little
“SB 6265 would legalize a limited number of medical cannabis access points in a limited number of jurisdictions, but it will come at great cost to the Washington State medical cannabis community,” CDC said. “Governor Gregoire — whose partial veto last year put an end to the ‘designated provider model’ under which most access points were operating — has set boundaries on any medical cannabis bill she is to sign, and SB 6265 represents what is acceptable to her.
“The bill would provide broad authority to local counties, cities and towns to regulate medical cannabis collective gardens and access points through zoning, taxation, licensing, health and safety requirements, etc.,” the email said. “This will allow pot-friendly jurisdictions like Seattle and Tacoma to license, tax and regulate the medical cannabis businesses which have sprouted up in their midst, and over which they have uncertain authority.”

Josh Farley/Kitsap Sun
Portrait of the Asshole as an Old Man: Drug cop Roy Alloway terrorized Washington medical marijuana patients for years. Now he’s pleaded guilty to federal charges of illegal gun sales, and could go to prison for up to five years.

Every now and then, karma gets it right.

A former police narcotics officer indicted after a federal investigation into illegal gun dealing at Western Washington gun shows pleaded guilty on Wednesday. He faces up to five years in prison, and is scheduled for sentencing on January 20.

Roy Alloway, a 56-year-old retired cop from Port Orchard, was indicted in May by a federal grand jury in Seattle along with three other men, reports Levi Pulkkinen at the Seattle P.I. Alloway was the biggest alleged gun dealer indicted, but the same sting also targeted another man purported to have sold a gun which was used to kill a Seattle police officer.
Alloway, a longtime Bremerton undercover narcotics detective, was infamous for his boorish behavior on the job with the Bremerton Police Department — especially when dealing with medical marijuana patients, with whom he had a deservedly horrible reputation. He pleaded guilty to illegally operating as a gun dealer and to income tax fraud.
The officer was so despised among Washington’s medical marijuana patients that a strain of medical marijuana was ironically named after him in retaliation for his being a raging asshole.
His 10 years with the West Sound Narcotics Enforcement Team (WestNET) made him a well-known officer around the state, particularly for his work in marijuana eradication, reports the Kitsap Sun, Alloway’s hometown newspaper.

Photo: Jessica Nuna
This photo was taken by an employee inside Medical Herb Providers dispensary in Spokane, Washington during the raid

​One Drug Enforcement Administration agent, accompanied by about a dozen Spokane Police officers, on Wednesday raided at least three medical marijuana dispensaries in Washington state.

Medical Herb Providers (MHP), Essence of Mother Earth and Alternative MMD were all raided separately, reports Curtis Cartier at the Seattle Weekly.
According to Jessica Nuna of MHP, by the time law enforcement left that shop, they had taken about 32 cannabis plants, $1,400 in cash, several ounces of dried marijuana flowers and several laptop computers, cellphones and other electronic devices.

Photo: Josh Farley/Kitsap Sun
Drug cop Roy Alloway terrorized Washington medical marijuana patients for years. Now he’s been federally indicted for illegal gun sales.

​Narc Is So Despised, A Local Strain Of Marijuana Was Named In His ‘Honor’

A former Washington drug cop so notorious for his misdeeds and aggressive tactics that a strain of medical marijuana was named after him in retaliation has been federally indicted for unlawfully selling guns.

Roy Alloway spent 32 years in law enforcement, the last 10 of which he was involved in the WestNET regional drug task force. Alloway took something of an unhealthy personal interest in giving additional pain to medical marijuana patients, according to many activists in the area, who “see him as a cop determined to lock up even legal users of pot,” wrote Nina Shapiro at the Seattle Weekly.
Alloway made a career of trashing houses and intimidating their occupants, apparently not giving a damn if the people he harassed were legitimately sick or not.
And that’s exactly why a potent marijuana strain was named “Alloway” in his “honor.” Created by a well-known Everett breeder associated with advocate Steve Sarich of CannaCare, the Alloway strain includes the genetics of popular Seattle strain PermaFrost, with a little White Widow reputedly in the mix as well. 
“Where do you begin?” said Sarich, who was raided by Alloway and WestNET in 2007.
“This guy is a real piece of shit, and has been for years,” Sarich told Toke of the Town Monday afternoon. “I can’t wait to see how many of the cases Alloway was involved with are overturned, if he gets locked away on these charges.”
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