Gee, ya think? State's effort to legalize pot faces legal pitfalls

It takes some genuine morons to continue to beat this particularly long-dead horse into a pulp.

Here's a clue, gang:  This garbage is illegal.  All right?  You get that?

You can waste time, effort, energy... and money... to legalize this shit, and it won't matter.  It's illegal.

Nothing is happening at the federal level to change any of this, and until or unless it does, then this whole thing is a waste of time, time better spent fixing our economy.

And, BTW? The same morons shilling this "$215 million in revenue" lie?  Many of them were the same clowns pushing the dollar-per-pack tax increase for cigarettes that has resulted in... well... a $10 million per month LOSS of tax revenue, meaning the INCREASE actually caused a REDUCTION of $120 million per year.

Taking it a step further, there's really no lie the druggies won't tell to get this crap legalized; they've been working on it for decades, and the fact is this: you "legalize" this and then heavily "tax" it, what's going to happen?

It's a weed, people.  Folks WILL grow their own.  Your revenue house of cards is likely to fall apart quickly.  You'll likely have to spend even more money to enforce tax laws then you do now to enforce drug laws.

Make no mistake: the entire impetous behind this is just to hand the people another legal way to get wasted... as if they needed one.

Well done.

State's effort to legalize pot faces legal pitfalls

An effort to decriminalize and tax recreational pot sales for adults in Washington state has the support of several high-profile officials and a slight majority of state voters. But even if backers gather enough signatures and the measure ultimately becomes law, the effort is a gamble because, in the event of a conflict with federal statutes, the feds would trump.

By GENE JOHNSON

The Associated Press

PREV  of  NEXT

TED S. WARREN / AP

Young marijuana plants are shown in this Sept. 15, 2009 file photo in Seattle at a medical marijuana growing operation.

An effort to decriminalize and tax recreational marijuana sales for adults in Washington state has won some high-profile endorsements — including from two former Seattle U.S. attorneys and the former head of the FBI here — and its sponsors are well on their way to collecting enough signatures to place the measure before the Legislature.

Supporters say it would boost funding for education and public health, and polls show a slight majority of Washington voters approve.

But Initiative 502 faces serious legal pitfalls. Not only could the federal agents raid and shut down the state-licensed pot grows and retail stores, they could ask a judge to simply throw out the entire system on the grounds that it conflicts with federal law.

And that new tax revenue, conservatively estimated at $215 million a year?

The feds can almost certainly just take it, as proceeds of drug deals that remain illegal under federal law.
Whether the federal government would actually take such steps is anybody's guess — and it's what makes the effort, which is being closely watched by legalization advocates around the country, a gamble.

"This is an evolving area of the law," says Alison Holcomb, the initiative's campaign director. "We'd be foolhardy to say we think we know what's going to happen."

I-502 would create a system of state-licensed growers, processors and stores, and would impose a 25 percent excise tax at each stage. Adults 21 and over could buy up to an ounce of dried marijuana; one pound of marijuana-infused product in solid form, such as brownies; or 72 ounces of marijuana-infused liquids. It would be illegal to drive with more than 5 nanograms of THC, the active ingredient of cannabis, per milliliter of blood.

More: