Liquor Control Board Announces Pot Rules; MMJ Pissed

By now you’ve seen the headlines; if you’re a medical marijuana distributor you’ve gotta be pissed.  But fair enough; gotta regulate the industry all the way and eliminate the black market, which doesn’t care to whom it sells; keep it from kids – control the supply.

Seed to sale tracking, so you know whose product you find across state lines.  Concessions to the Feds.  Who’ve been cool as shit so far; to be fair, they’ve got bigger concerns.  Here’s an idea to balance the budget: defund the DEA!

Growers and Processors should find plenty of secure warehouse space for their LCB-mandated-high-security operations in the industrial district. Taxable retail sales are expected to begin mid 2014; licenses to operate 334 stores statewide will go on sale mid-November 2013.  61 in King County.  21 in Seattle.  

Medical Marijuana dispensaries must obtain a retailer’s license by 2015.  There are currently 200 MMJ dispensaries in Seattle.  Squeezed out, bitch!

Silver lining:  If you’ve got a medical card you can still own more than an ounce, and grow up to 3 “unlicensed” plants.

NEZs and SL

As well as delineating DRUG FREE areas (i.e. the 1000 buffer rule), cities should designate NON ENFORCABLE ZONES (NEZs).

Places where it's okay to smoke weed in public.

Private clubs should be permitted to encourage members to relax and enjoy a pipe or two, clearly - employees worried about second-hand smoke don't have to work there (an analogy would be cigar bars or golf clubhouses).  

In addition, certain open air spaces should be designated NEZs.

Quiet corners of parks could be set aside, for example.  Of course, they’d have to be gated to keep minors out, like ashrams.  Or made otherwise inaccessible to minors, like ewok treehouses…  

Furthermore, certain "churches" should be designated SOVEREIGN LAND (SL), where marijuana is used for spiritual purposes, or for recreational purposes, who cares?  Who are we hurting over here?  

At Hempfest, a cross-section of subcultures co-mingles so excellently – can you imagine 50,000 drunk people getting together like that?  They’d murder each other.  Better to lump us together, give us stoners a place, keep us from mixin with the square citizenry is all one can ask.  

As it is now, if one doesn’t own one’s home, one has no legal place to get high.  Even if one does (or rents from a sympathetic landlord), private abodes are no place to meet interesting strangers and socialize.