| KOMO 4 |
| Wanna see a lot more of this at Hempfest? You could next year, if I-502 passes. |
A Hempfest marred by dozens of busts for people just passing the joint at 4:20? Say it ain’t so!
It could happen if I-502 passes and is enforced as written.
But you’d think Seattle Hempfest would be heaven on Earth after the passage of “legalization” Initiative 502 in Washington state, if all the information you had to go by was a Marc Emery quote — posted by trophy wife Jodie — on Facebook today.
“Next year at Seattle Hempfest, if I-502 passes, everyone will be able to carry an ounce of marijuana around on their person and not be concerned with arrest!” Emery wrote from prison. “Or losing their job! Or losing custody of their children. Or violating probation. Or getting a criminal record.
“Tourists and residents of Washington state would be afforded the greatest legal protection available to any marijuana user in the whole world,” Emery claimed. “After I-502, visitors and residents in Washington State will have more legal right to possess and smoke marijuana than any American or Dutch resident has in Holland!”
Quite a rosy picture, that.
Too bad it has — like most of what either Emery has to say these days — vanishingly little to do with reality.
Let’s take a look.
What if I-502 passes and is enforced — AS WRITTEN — at Hempfest 2013?
Well, as far as carrying around an ounce of marijuana and not being concerned with arrest? Unless you bought that ounce at a state-licensed store, you’d still get busted.
If you took Emery at his word and happily passed what you believed to be that gloriously legal joint to your buddy — after all, Marc Emery said it was OK! — then you’d get your ass busted for “distribution.”
| Joe Mabel |
| I-502 would put some shiny new tools in their hands… “Hey, did I see you pass a joint, stoner?” Be aware of what it is for which you’re voting. |
If that bag in your pocket contained a crumb over 40 grams — not that unusual for some of us — you could be busted for felony possession.
Doesn’t sound very, er, legal anymore, now does it?
Oh, if you somehow avoid being thrown in the slammer for any of the other new crimes 502 will put on the books — God help you if you accidentally pass the joint to a minor, by the way — you’d better hope some redneck cop with an attitude about stoners doesn’t pull you over on the way home.
Or worse yet, sit there waiting to shoot hippie fish in a barrel as they leave Hempfest, just pulling ’em over as they leave, and ordering blood tests. Easy as pie!
Because if you show up over 5 ng/ml — which, by the way, is an arbitrary and totally unscientific cutoff point for DUI, with no meaningful studies backing it up — you’re gonna pull a DUI charge that will make you homesick for the good ol’ days of simple possession. It’s gonna be a lot more expensive than that possession charge woulda been, too.
Does that sound like a fun Hempfest to you?
Vote for I-502, and if they actually enforce the damned thing, that’s what you’ll have to look forward to, next year!
Side Note To Marc and Jodie
Marc Emery, you are a deeply clueless tool. You either have NO IDEA what you are talking about, or you have sold out to law enforcement (not surprising, since they have you in a cage).
Actual patients and activists here in Washington OPPOSE I-502, because it is an execrably bad piece of legislation.
Unscientific DUI limits — pandering to public fears rather than educating the public? REALLY?
No home cultivation… REALLY?
Only one ounce — with 40 grams and above still a felony … REALLY???
CONGRATS, Marc Emery — you just became irrelevant to the cannabis movement in Washington State!
Anybody who wants to know what’s going on in Washington, speak with people in Washington, NOT some clueless, arrogant Canadian prisoner in Mississippi.
I-502 sets a horrible precedent. If its execrable DUI provisions and ban on home growing become law here, future states will model their legislation upon it!
It’s important to support credible legalization efforts wherever they’re occurring — for example, this November, both Oregon and Colorado will have measures on the ballot which don’t include a dumb-ass DUI provision. By all means, vote for them.
But don’t be fooled by this piece of garbage.