Search Results: holcomb (38)

Graphic: Chico Police Officers’ Association

​Members of the Chico Police Officers’ Association have revealed themselves to be some real grandstanding hot-doggers. These “public servants,” the lowest-paid of whom makes $70,000 a year straight out of your taxpayer pocket, are refusing to do their jobs.

Did you know police officers got to pick which laws they enforce? Did you know these big-bellied buffoons in blue, if they personally disapprove of a law, feel entitled to ignore the damn thing? Hell, maybe we should have all gone into law enforcement, if it’s that cushy a gig.

These drama queens, apparently trying to make some sort of point but mostly just ending up with “we’re a bunch of unprofessional ass-bags,” have sent a letter to Chico, California City Councilman Mark Sorensen stating that under federal law, they cannot be involved in any part of the city’s recent commercial growing and marijuana selling ordinance.

Photo: Don Skakie
Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes: “Ending marijuana prohibition and focusing on rational regulation and taxation will free up law enforcement resources to combat violent and property crimes, and it will restore respect for government and the law”

​There’s a new move afoot to legalize cannabis in Washington state. The newly formed political action committee New Approach Washington on Wednesday filed an initiative to legalize, tax and regulate marijuana in the state. Sponsoring the measure are prominent civic leaders, along with members of the public health and legal communities.

The initiative would authorize the Washington State Liquor Control Board to regulate the production and distribution of marijuana for sale to adults 21 and older through state-licensed stores. A new marijuana excise tax would be earmarked for prevention, research, education, and health care. State and local retail sales taxes would be directed to the general fund and location budgets.
Unfortunately, the initiative would not allow the cultivation of marijuana by recreational users (medical marijuana patients in Washington are already allowed 15 plants). Cannabis users would be required to buy their supply at state-licensed stores. Another possible sticking point is the codification a THC blood level of of 5 ng/ml as per se driving under the influence; that would criminalize any driving by most medical marijuana patients, although very few daily medicinal users would be impaired at that level.

Photo: Steve Elliott
Bud room at The Healing Center Organization in Seattle

​Here in Washington state, in the Puget Sound area, I have seen a beautiful flowering of the cannabis subculture in the past 18 months.
It has been my privilege to be part of a moment that will almost inevitably be seen as something of a golden age in the medical marijuana scene in Seattle, when for a brief moment a vibrant, caring community felt its power and potential.
Since I became an authorized patient in 2007, I’ve seen the scene change from a handful of insular, exclusive (and often paranoid) collectives — none of which would take me as member, even with my legal authorization — to a plethora of dispensaries competing for my business.

Photo: Smashed Frog
One amendment to SB 5073 would ban print advertising by medical marijuana dispensaries.

​Version Passed By Senate Would Ban Print Advertising By Dispensaries; Law Prof Calls That ‘Clearly Unconstitutional’

The Washington Senate approved a bill Wednesday night which, if approved by the House, would legalize and regulate medical marijuana dispensaries in the state.

The bill, intended to bring the medical marijuana supply chain out of a legal gray area, was approved by senators on a 29-20 vote after lengthy debate, reports Manuel Valdes of The Associated Press. The measure now moves to the House.
Senators approved several amendments to the bill which are opposed by the medical marijuana community, including a troublesome ban on print advertising which would strip dispensaries of their First Amendment right to advertise. Distressingly, Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles (D-Seattle), author of the bill, introduced that change.
​One University of Washington law professor and First Amendment expert called the proposed ban on print advertising by dispensaries “clearly unconstitutional,” reports Curtis Cartier at Seattle Weekly.

Graphic: Potspot 411

​Washington state has no medical marijuana patient registry, but the Legislature is considering following Oregon’s lead as part of a sweeping overhaul bill pending in Olympia.

Patients in Washington are anxious about the proposed registry, seeing it as an invasion of privacy and a tempting tool for police, who strongly favor it, reports Jonathan Martin at The Seattle Times. Reflecting those fears, the current proposal in Washington calls for a voluntary registry.
But Oregon’s 11-year experience with a mandatory registry has resulted in patient advocates, police, attorneys and health-care professionals describing it as the least controversial part of the Beaver State’s medical marijuana law.

Graphic: AP/CBS

​A coalition of House lawmakers has reintroduced legislation that would legalize and regulate the “production, distribution and sale” of marijuana to adults in Washington state.

House Bill 1550 allows for the state-authorized cultivation and distribution of cannabis and marijuana-related products. It is similar to HB 2401, which in 2010 didn’t make it past the Committee on Public Safety & Emergency Preparedness.
A state fiscal analysis of the measure estimates that regulating and taxing marijuana sales could yield some $300 million in new revenue per biennium, while also reallocating an estimated $25 million annually in law enforcement costs.

Graphic: THC Finder

​A coalition of lawmakers in the Washington House and Senate has introduced legislation seeking to expand the state’s 12-year-old medical marijuana law and create greater legal protections for authorized patients, providers, and caregivers.

Senate Bill 5073 and House Bill 1100 seek to provide state licensing to medical marijuana producers and dispensaries in order to assure that qualified patients “will have access to an adequate, safe, consistent, and secure source of medical quality cannabis.”
The proposed laws do not in any way alter or amend patients’ existing rights to possess up to 24 ounces of marijuana for medical purposes, and cultivate up to 15 cannabis plants.

Graphic: Working World

​Should companies be able to fire employees for using medical marijuana — at home, with no effects on job performance — even in states where the medicinal use of cannabis is legal?

Washington judges and lawmakers will be wrestling with that question next month as the state Supreme Court hears the case of a woman fired for legally using pot medicinally, and the Legislature looks at a bill to expand patient protections in the state’s 12-year-old medical marijuana law, reports Vanessa Ho of the Seattle P.I.
The case before the high court involves a woman suing her former employer after she failed a drug test and was fired from a customer-service job in Bremerton. The woman, using “Jane Roe” as a pseudonym in court records, was using marijuana authorized by her doctor for debilitating migraines.

Photo: RCMP

​A Los Angeles-based company is proposing a 600,000-square-foot indoor hydroponic medical marijuana grow that would be the largest in the United States.

The proposed grow would be located in one of the largest vacant buildings in Chico, California, located at Chico Municipal Airport Industrial Park, once occupied by clothing distributor Koret, reports Toni Scott of the MediaNews Group.
The property is being eyed by Plant Properties Management, LLC, which has hopes of creating a business model unparalleled in the medical marijuana industry.

Photo: Steve Elliott/Reality Catcher
Seattle Hempfest 2010 Hemposium participants, from left: Rob Kampia, MPP; Doug McVay, Berkeley Patients Group; Alison Holcomb, ACLU of Washington; and David Nott, Reason Foundation

​Another Seattle Hempfest has entered the history books, and this 19th gathering of the tribes was another great one.

Among the highlights of the event — you know, other than the obvious ones, like 4:20 at the Seeley Stage — were the Hemposium discussion panels including marijuana policy experts from across the country.
For policy wonks and committed marijuana activists, some very exciting quotes came out of those sessions.
Here are five of the best.