I mentioned yesterday that Colorado enacted rules that look a lot like Washington’s model. Two can play that game: Washington has no medical marijuana (MMJ) regulation and taxes, and could use something.
WA passed it’s MMJ initiative in 1998. That made it legal to grow, distribute, posses, and use marijuana by those with a medical “recommendation”. In 2011 the legislature tackled the issue and passed out a bill to the governor regulating and taxing the industry. The US Attorney (Eric Holder) threatened the governor with dire consequences, including jailing state clerks that processed such things. She vetoed the bill under fear, and so it remains status quo.
If you go to Hempfest in Seattle you can get a “recommendation” in just a couple of minutes, so it’s value is basically zero. That changes my sentence above to effectively read “grow, distribute, posess, and use marijuana.” In other words, completely free-market with no regulation or taxes to be paid. So WA had legal marijuana since 1998, but didn’t know it.
So I’m thinking like CO put the WA model on top of theirs, WA should slide the CO model under theirs. The CO model seems to address all the basics WA needed a long time ago.