Search Results: olympia (54)

No On I-502

By Ezra Eickmeyer
The sponsor of I-502, New Approach Washington, in collusion with Seattle alternative weekly The Stranger, have been accusing the medical cannabis community of opposing Initiative 502 because of greed.
So, let’s say for the sake of argument that everyone who provides cannabis to patients was just a greedy capitalist trying to get a million bucks. We all know that is NOT the truth at all, but just humor me for a moment. 
Their current “market” consists of medical patients ONLY, no more than 160,000 people, but very likely less. Considering that these patients are mostly in the Puget Sound region, we estimate that about 2 to 4 percent of the population either has become or will become a patient. 
I-502, assuming the feds don’t trample it, would open up the market to everyone over 21, or close to 5 million people, of which 10 to 30 percent are likely customers. That seems like a huge increase from 2-4% of the population. I can be bad at math and almost flunked trig in school, but I think 502 would potentially provide a 250 percent to 700+ percent increase in the size of the state’s legal cannabis “market.”

THC Finder

By Ezra Eickmeyer
Safe Access Alliance
Washington state’s I-502 was carefully crafted to look like “responsible” cannabis legalization to the general public. Unfortunately, in trying too hard to appease law enforcement and other opponents of legalization, I-502 creates a list of brand new threats to medical cannabis patients and providers without actually legalizing marijuana. 
I-502 only decriminalizes possession of an ounce or less of cannabis and only applies to adults, 21 and older, who purchase cannabis from a state licensed store with heavy taxes. 
We can’t allow this initiative to set national standards for other legalization initiatives in other states, nor can we stand by and allow it to pass, knowing the years of trouble it will take to try and fix this terrible initiative. Meanwhile, many patients will lose their driving rights and be forced back to the black market for medicine. 
We have to come together to oppose this initiative and send our own message; that changes in policy need to be good changes, not just any changes, and that patients can organize and defeat threats against us. 

Steve Elliott ~alapoet~
This collective, in Olympia, Washington, is a real innovator among medical marijuana access points

Washington’s Sonshine Organics Also Features A Marijuana Farmer’s Market Twice A Month

A medical marijuana access point in Olympia, Washington, has taken convenience to the next level, opening a drive-through window for patients.

Having visited about 70 collectives now in my capacity as “Toke Signals” marijuana/dispensaries reviewer for the Seattle Weekly, the drive-through window at Sonshine Organics is a feature I’ve never seen before. To my knowledge, this is the first one in the Pacific Northwest.
According to Sonshine’s Sarena Haskins, the drive-through window is open on Fridays and Saturdays for the convenience of patients. “For example, busy mothers who don’t want to leave their kids in the car,” she told me.

Jon Miller
Sensible Washington organizer and attorney Douglas Hiatt, right, fires up activists before a marijuana march in downtown Bremerton, Washington, earlier this month

Sensible Washington Announces Paid Signature Gatherers in Bremerton, Washington 
Sensible Washington on Monday announced that several “gracious and anonymous donors” have agreed to pay signature gatherers $1 per valid signature, “to assure we get our Bremerton initiative on this November’s ballot.”
This initiative would make cannabis the lowest enforcement priority within the city, as well as ban the city from cooperating with the federal government in the implementation of federal cannabis policies (federal non-cooperation).

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.

Sensible Washington

Recently the cannabis advocacy group Sensible Washington announced it was filing initiatives making marijuana the lowest law enforcement priority in six cities throughout Washington State. Now signature gathering drive has begun in three of those cities: Olympia, Everett and Bremerton.
“It is our goal to get these quickly on the ballot, as to effectively run a successful campaign to pass these initiatives into law,” said Anthony Martinelli of Sensible Washington.
If put on the ballot and passed, these initiatives, all titled the Marijuana Reform Act of 2012, will make cannabis the lowest law-enforcement priority, and also prohibit city and local law enforcement from cooperating with federal authorities over the implementation of federal cannabis policies.

The Weed Blog

​Washington state cannabis advocacy group Sensible Washington on Wednesday is filing initiatives to make marijuana enforcement the lowest priority for law enforcement in six cities throughout the state.
“Today in Spokane, Olympia, Bellingham, Everett, Kent and Bremerton we will begin our campaign to bring about local reform to our cannabis policies, by introducing initiatives to make cannabis the lowest enforcement priority in these cities,” said Sensible Washington Steering Committee member Anthony Martinelli. “In addition, these initiatives will prohibit local law enforcement from cooperating with federal authorities in the implementation of federal cannabis policies.”

Sensible Washington

​Washington state legalization group Sensible Washington announced earlier this year that they would be running local, city-wide initiatives in 2012. Last month the group declared Spokane its first city. Now, just days away from filing, the group has announced the next five cities where they’ll be running initiatives:

• Everett
• Olympia
• Bremerton
• Kent
• Bellingham
According to Sensible Washington, these initiatives will combine making adult cannabis offenses the lowest law-enforcement priority, and prohibiting cooperation of local law enforcement with federal authorities in marijuana enforcement.

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.

Mike Purdy’s Public Contracting Blog
The Washington State Capitol building in Olympia

​History was made on Wednesday as 42 members of the Washington Legislature petitioned the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration to reschedule marijuana from its current Schedule I status to a less restrictive classification to allow for its medical use.

“I don’t think a state legislature has done this before,” Seattle-based activist Philip Dawdy told Toke of the Town Thursday evening.

Among the lawmakers signing the letter to DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart was Rep. Timm Ormsby, brother of federal prosecutor Michael Ormsby, U.S. Attorney for Eastern Washington. Ormsby, along with Western Washington U.S. Attorney Jenny Durkan, last year oversaw a federal crackdown on medical marijuana dispensaries in the state.
1 2 3 4 6