Friday, August 29, 2014

Pot heads dodge a bullet, but still get bitch-slapped.

Local dopers SHOULD rejoice, given how this trip-wired minefield COULD have blown up.

But instead... for now... the doper initiative remains in effect, albeit on life support and near death.

The City of Fife very nearly buried a shiv in the heart of I-502, which this blog has maintained from the getgo in reality, legalized nothing.

Those here locally bent out of shape over the county ban and the, say, Washougal ban are just going to have to fume.

The irony of this decision, MMH, LLC v. City of Fife 14-2-10847-7, is that had the court ruled in favor of Wetherbee, the next tripwire would have been a ruling on the Constitutionality of the law in toto, as Fife had taken the position that Federal preemption had rendered the entirety of I-502 unconstitutional.

That question was not expressly addressed.

Meanwhile, locals need to look out.  Between the massively increasing tax burden on pot, which was falsely sold as some sort of fiscal cure all based on the astoundingly false levels of revenue promised with passage and the pot black market, massive efforts of enforcement will likely have to take place not because pot itself is illegal, but the sale of it without various government entities getting their CUT is illegal... and the retail business is likely to get slaughtered as a result.

Because of revenue questions, if anything at all is to happen in the legislature, look out for a gigantic fist fight to break out.  Legislators need to tax pot at the promised $520 million dollar per year rate. and that could drive the cost of pot up past the cost of heroin and cocaine by a substantial amount.

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