Which state will be the first to legalize marijuana? Most likely, California or Colorado, but several legislators in Washington have some ideas of their own - such as selling marijuana in state-run liquor stores and taxing it at a 15% rate.
"Treating marijuana more like liquor will turn a drain on our scarce resources into a net benefit," says Seattle Rep. Mary Lou Dickerson, "that can help us fund drug treatment and other strategies that really do make a positive difference to people’s lives.”
HR 2401 was introduced in the Washington House in December by Dickerson, Rep. Roger Goodman and four others.
Update: On Jan. 20, 2010, the Public Safety Committee voted 6-2 against the bill. Another bill that would decriminalize marijuana (HB 1177), rather than tax and regulate it, also was voted down, 5-3.
“Decriminalization is a step in the right direction,” Goodman acknowledges. “We’re still punishing people, but we're punishing them less. But meanwhile the illegal market thrives.”
Though the bill calls for a marijuana being made available at liquor stores, Goodman hopes to later amend that. Where marijuana would be sold then is unclear.
For her part, the seven-term Rep. Dickerson explains: “We have spent a fortune investigating and incarcerating people for using marijuana. We have not only spent huge sums in this failed effort, we have required individuals and families to spend huge sums on lawyers and other expenses in order to avoid drug-abuse violations on their records. Those who couldn’t afford an effective legal defense have often seen their jobs and lives seriously harmed by the record of the legal violation.
"And what have we accomplished with these societal, personal and family costs? I don’t see the positive benefits. The expensive emphasis on prosecution and fines or other punishment has not deterred marijuana smoking, nor has it had any noticeable impact on accessibility to marijuana. The fact that other countries which have legalized marijuana have not seen consumption rates rise sharply is further evidence that our present policy is a monumentally expensive failure.
"The people I represent have made clear how they feel by their votes on medical marijuana and their votes on the local ordinance that made marijuana investigations the lowest police priority. We simply can’t afford to waste more time, money or human resources on efforts that don’t work and that can actually backfire to harm people we want to help."
