Search Results: dawdy (37)

Washington patients have been under attack by their state legislature, which has pushed a bill that would pretty much end the state’s medical marijuana program and force patients into the highly-taxed recreational model. House Bill 2149 deservedly should die a quick death.
And at least state Sen. Ann Rivers recognizes the flaws. Late last week Rivers introduced Senate Bill 5887 which addresses some of the major issues patients have with the other bill – though it still needs some tweaking to be palatable to Washington medical marijuana supporters.

Steve Elliott ~alapoet~

By Phillip Dawdy
Special to Toke of the Town
Today is Legalization Day in Washington. Evergreen State voters made a loud and clear statement on November 6, dear readers, and here we are 30 days later leading the way in — finally! — taking cannabis to a new and different place.
This is the first time full legalization (or “legalization,” as some I-502 detractors still insist) has happened anywhere on Earth since America banned the fabulous cannabis plant in 1937. That’s a big deal — for Washington, for America, and for the world.
Even if you didn’t vote for 502 due to its many flaws, I encourage you to embrace this moment because something like this only comes around once in our lives. Americans, including my grandfather, have died for our right to tell the feds to stuff it over cannabis.
Breathe deep. Full absorption.

Seattle P.I.
Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes: “Philip, you’re making a big mistake.”

By Philip Dawdy
Around 4 p.m. at Hempfest on Sunday I was standing off to the side of the Share Parker Memorial Main Stage after watching a friend of mine propose to his girlfriend before a huge crowd. She said “Yes,” a teary moment was had by friends and I turned to head down an off-stage ramp.
I got a few feet down the ramp before encountering Pete Holmes, Seattle city attorney, one of I-502’s primary sponsors and a friend. I wore a black “No on I-502” T-shirt and had already given three speeches at Hempfest against the initiative.
Keep in mind there were multiple famous folks in the cannabis movement who came up to me over the weekend to try and flip me on my stance. I told most of them they were from outside of Washington state, their vote didn’t matter and patients and pot smokers in this state have to live with the potential consequences of 502 passing.

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.

THC Finder

Federal Court Judge Acknowledges Authority of a State Medical Marijuana Law

By Philip Dawdy
Cannabis Activist
A recent federal district court ruling in Spokane, Washington is something of which every medical cannabis attorney, patient, provider and advocate needs to be aware — not only in Washington State but throughout the entire Ninth Circuit.
The ruling is also something of a victory for Washington’s recently changed medical cannabis law, because for the first time a judge has ruled in a way that gives quasi arrest protection under the state medical cannabis law and has likely set an interesting precedent on probable cause and cannabis. And the ruling came from a federal court judge. It was also a bit of a slap to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Eastern Washington.

Barking up the wrong tree

By Philip Dawdy
Cannabis Activist
One of the most controversial provisions of New Approach Washington’s I-502 is its per se DUI limit of 5 nanograms of active THC metabolite per milliliter of blood.
It’s a limit that some critics have dubbed “unscientific” and “draconian.” Others claim that it is not a measure of impairment and would threaten the driving rights of every medical cannabis patient in Washington State.
These are serious criticisms. So how does New Approach Washington defend its 5 nanogram provision?

Images
Could this have been what I-502 proponent Roger Roffman was thinking about when he said “It is injurious to young people and their families. There are people who are victims of marijuana”?

By Philip Dawdy
Cannabis Activist
A debate on the merits of I-502 was held on May 8th at a theatre in Monroe in Snohomish County. About 100 people attended and they were treated to one of the initiatives main sponsors, Roger Roffman who is a social work professor at the University of Washington, calling cannabis “injurious.” So why is he a sponsor of an initiative that would make it legal for adults 21 and older to buy, possess and consume one ounce of cannabis?
Roffman explained that he thinks we can do better as a society in addressing the “harms” of cannabis by bringing it into a public health model of control and working to educate and discourage people from using it. Yes, one of the main proponents of the initiative said this.

Joe Mabel
The medical marijuana industry in Washington state does not oppose legalization in the wholesale manner in which Dominic Holden, above, claims they do; they merely object to many of I-502’s provisions

By Philip Dawdy
Special to Toke of the Town
The road to cannabis legalization is certainly proving to be an odd one in Washington State, filled with so many ironies that I’ve lost count. Here comes another set of ironies.
On April 13th, the New York Times published an op-ed by Dominic Holden, “news” editor of The Stranger. Its contents prompted me to send the following letter to the editor, which the paper decided wasn’t important enough to share with its readers. In my opinion, Holden has been writing about I-502 in a way that is both deceptive and journalistically unprofessional.
Here’s what I sent the Times:
In journalism school, I was taught that journalists should strive to avoid conflicts of interest and should always reveal them in instances where they cannot be avoided. Interesting then that in his “Smokeless in Seattle” opinion piece on April 13 in which he lambasted the medical marijuana industry for opposing a legalization initiative in Washington State, Dominic Holden did not inform readers that he used to be an employee of the ACLU of Washington.

Washington Medical Marijuana Society

​A week after a medical marijuana reform bill died in the Washington state Legislature, a group is filing an initiative to the people with the Secretary of State’s office on Thursday. According to the Washington Alternative Medicine Alliance, the initiative would ensure safe access to medicinal cannabis statewide, and would finally give real arrest and prosecution protection to patients in the state.

“The Legislature failed to act this year, so now it’s up to the people of the state,” said Philip Dawdy, director of WAMA. “We’ve been left with an unclear state medical cannabis law that is hurting patients as much as it’s helping them.
“Much of our state is a black hole when it comes to medical cannabis access,” Dawdy said. “That’s an unacceptable situation and it must be addressed. Taking this issue directly to the voters is our best option.”
The initiative would also create a state-licensed system of medical marijuana patient cooperatives and growers, similar to systems already operating in Colorado and Arizona.
The main backers of the initiative, besides Dawdy, are Seattle-based defense attorney Kurt Boehl and Ezra Eickmeyer, a political activist and lobbyist in the state capitol, OIympia.

The Pacific Northwest Inlander

​Almost 14 years after Washington state voters approved the medicinal use of cannabis, patients in many parts of the state still have no safe access to it. A bill which would have formally legalized medical marijuana dispensaries in Washington has died in the Legislature.

Thus ends yet another effort to clearly define the legal status of the cannabis storefronts, of which there are already more than 100 in Seattle, Tacoma and surrounding areas, reports Jonathan Martin at the Seattle Times.
Although there were enough votes in the Senate to pass the bill, according to sponsor Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles (D-Seattle), it didn’t make it past the deadline for bills to advance because of limited time in the short session, as well as due to opposition from some Republican lawmakers and a handful of cities.
1 2 3 4