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Washington, D.C. -- Reflecting growing national acceptance of cannabis, a bipartisan coalition of House members voted early Friday to restrict the Drug Enforcement Administration from using funds to go after medical marijuana operations that are legal under state laws. An appropriations amendment offered by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) prohibiting the DEA from spending funds to arrest state-licensed medical marijuana patients and providers passed 219-189. The Senate will likely consider its own appropriations bill for the DEA, and the House amendment would have to survive a joint conference before it could go into effect. Read More...

Washington, D.C. -- In its bid to fend off congressional interference with a pending marijuana decriminalization law, the District might have prompted President Obama to make an interesting declaration. The White House on Monday said it “strongly opposes” the amendment attached last month to the House spending bill that includes the D.C. budget. The amendment, offered by Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.), would bar the District government from spending any money on provisions that weaken its drug laws. The Harris Amendment, the Obama administration says, “undermines the principles of States’ rights and of District home rule” — which, setting aside the fact that the District is not a state, explicitly suggests that the White House believes marijuana policy should be left to individual jurisdictions. The Drug Policy Alliance, a national advocacy group, called that a “groundbreaking policy position” in a news release. “It is great to see the White House accepting that a majority of Americans want marijuana law reform and defending the right of D.C. and states to set their own marijuana policy,” said Bill Piper, the group’s director of national affairs. “The tide has clearly shifted against the failed war on drugs and it’s only a matter of time before federal law is changed.” The administration statement is not a total surprise: It is in keeping, for instance, with the Justice Department’s express hands-off policy toward local marijuana liberalization efforts across the country, and Obama has made comments tolerating the legalization laws in Colorado and Washington as “experiments.” But framing the debate as a matter of “states’ rights” could have an effect on the national debate over cannabis laws. What may be of greater interest on the local level is that the White House statement also appears to endorse concerns that the Harris Amendment may have inadvertently legalized marijuana, saying the budget rider “poses legal challenges to the Metropolitan Police Department’s enforcement of all marijuana laws currently in force in the District.” The D.C. decriminalization law is set to pass through a congressional review period and take effect later this week. Should the Harris Amendment subsequently become law, police could be barred from enforcing the new law, which makes small-time marijuana possession punishable by a $25 civil citation, without having a local criminal statute left to enforce. City lawyers were tasked with examining the possible effects of the amendment, officials said last month, but the results of any review have not been released. The White House statement on the spending bill, which is now on the House floor, also includes opposition to restriction on local funding for abortions, the ban on federal funding for needle exchange, and cuts to the District’s college tuition grant program. If the House passes the budget bill as expected, its inclusion in any spending law would be subject to negotiation with Democrats, and Obama’s opposition could be helpful in that process. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) called it “indispensable” in a Monday statement. But it is hardly a magic bullet: In a high-stakes 2011 budget negotiation, Obama famously traded away the District’s ability to spend locally raised tax funds on abortion in talks with House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio). Mike DeBonis covers local politics and government for The Washington Post. He also writes a blog and a political analysis column that runs on Fridays. Source: Washington Post (DC)

Washington, D.C. -- Hillary Clinton said Tuesday she supports medical marijuana "for people who are in extreme medical conditions" and wants to "wait and see" how recreational pot works in Colorado and Washington state. In an interview with CNN international correspondent Christiane Amanpour promoting her memoir Hard Choices, Clinton suggested she may be open to marijuana policy reform. Read More...

Washington, D.C. -- The Drug Enforcement Administration has been impeding and ignoring the science on marijuana and other drugs for more than four decades, according to a report released this week by the Drug Policy Alliance, a drug policy reform group, and the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, a marijuana research organization. “The DEA is a police and propaganda agency," Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, said Wednesday. “It makes no sense for it to be in charge of federal decisions involving scientific research and medical practice." Read More...

Washington, D.C. -- Thirty members of Congress, led by Reps. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), H. Morgan Griffith (R-Va.), Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) and Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), sent a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell on Tuesday demanding an end to the federal monopoly on marijuana research so that more studies can be done by scientists around the nation. "We write to express our support for increasing scientific research on the therapeutic risks and benefits of marijuana," the letter reads. "We ask that you take measures to ensure that any non-National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded researcher who has acquired necessary Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Institutional Review Board (IRB), Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and appropriate state and local authority approval be able to access marijuana for research at-cost without further review." Read More...

Seattle -- A federal lawsuit is challenging Washington state’s authority to tax marijuana as long as marijuana remains illegal under federal law. The case arises from the state’s attempt to collect sales taxes from a medical marijuana dispensary. But lawyer Douglas Hiatt, who filed it late Thursday, said it could throw a wrench in Washington’s plans for collecting taxes on recreational marijuana, too. Read More...

One of many maddeningly absurdities of the War in Drugs is how we treat the people who were once “criminals” when their past activities are no longer “crimes.” Consider the marijuana prisoners in Washington and Colorado. There will be men and women serving time -- not just federal, but state time -- for cultivating marijuana plants, processing, transporting and selling them as part of a commercial marijuana operation. Meanwhile, already in Colorado and soon in Washington, men and women will be licensed to legally cultivate marijuana plants, process, transport and sell them as part of a commercial marijuana operation. Eddy Lepp currently sits in a federal prison in Colorado for doing what is going on in countless Denver warehouse grows. Some might make the argument that those activities were illegal in the past and those men and women need to serve their time. Why? What is the purpose of their continued incarceration, to send a message to never grow and sell marijuana again? What is the net societal gain in taxpayer funding of the continued incarceration of successful illegal marijuana cultivators and sellers who could be contributing members of society, paying taxes by legally cultivating and selling marijuana? The further you dig into this rabbit hole the more absurd it becomes. Did you know almost all the 21 medical marijuana states ban someone who has been busted for growing marijuana from becoming medical caregivers and working in or owning a dispensary? In many cases, the person was busted for a personal grow and many of those were for medical purposes before any medical marijuana laws existed. Where is the logic in banning some of the best medical growers in a state from helping sick people because they were helping sick people before it was legal? Don’t we want to encourage good growers to follow the law rather than forcing them to make their living illegally? Apparently not, if this latest press release from my friend Lynnette Shaw is any indication. I met Lynnette many summers ago at some cannabis event. She was fierce and brash and ebullient as she joined me for a podcast interview, explaining about her work with the Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana (MAMM), one of the first dispensaries to help those who were now called “medical marijuana patients” in 1997 just after California passed the Compassionate Use Act. I remember Lynnette’s zeal to fight Uncle Sam on the medical marijuana issue. She had such hope and determination and just knew that with the right legal strategy, an eye on the Constitution, and proper education of elected officials, she and the rest of the Bay Area medical marijuana community could change the world… and they did! But not without great personal cost. The feds attacked Lynnette and MAMM with every alphabet soup agency in their drug war arsenal. The feds went after MAMM’s building’s landlord and had it seized through asset forfeiture. The IRS, treating her like Al Capone, used tax law to bankrupt her, even seizing her Social Security. The courts, to heap insult upon injury, then declared she was banned for life from working in, consulting for, or selling to any legal cannabis business. Understand that for over a decade, Lynnette was working with city and county officials, trying to stay well within California’s state laws and guidelines, paying taxes and getting business licenses, and was generally considered by patients, officials and neighbors to be operating a top-notch facility, a standard-bearer for what legal, regulated medical marijuana in California could be. The Lynnette I saw at the most recent event was humbled and contrite, cautious and weary. But even after all her work helping patients has been rewarded with personal devastation, she still keeps fighting to get back into her passion -- helping sick and disabled people. Help support Lynnette Shaw in her fight to remove the lifetime injunction that is unjust and cruel, unnecessarily burdens patients, and essentially leaves her without a career. FOUNDER OF FIRST LICENSED DISPENSARY IN NATION TO FILE FOR RELIEF FROM FEDERAL CIVIL INJUNCTION LYNNETTE SHAW, ONE OF THE FOUNDERS OF THE MEDICAL CANNABIS DISPENSARY SYSTEM, HAS LIFE SENTENCE BARRING HER FROM PARTICIPATION. Lynnette Shaw created the Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana in Fairfax California in 1997. It was the first legal/licensed/registered/taxpaying medical cannabis dispensary in the country. It operated trouble-free, working closely with local police and Town/County/State officials, until the Federal Government closed it down in Dec. 2011. "My top notch legal team advises me that the time is right to seek dissolution of my Federal permanent civil injunction that is cruel, unusual and unique." stated Lynnette Shaw. "I fought like a wildcat from the Delta to preserve our patients' rights for over 15 years. The Feds finally crushed MAMM by instituting a forfeiture action against our landlord. They set every enforcement agency against me including the IRS. The IRS retroactively removed my tax deductions after 15 years then zeroed out my Social Security. I am bankrupt. "However, the Town of Fairfax is willing to stand up for all the work I did for over 15 years. They want me back! More importantly, our members need the return of MAMM. I have no husband or children, no relatives close by. The patients were my family. All I am asking is to be able to return to work for the many patients here in Marin that have nowhere to turn for medical cannabis. I deserve to be allowed to serve the community again, after protecting everyone except myself from the Feds and going down with the ship, in the name of love and compassion. “I am informed that since MAMM closed, County health facilities are inundated with seriously ill patients who no longer have access to medical cannabis which they had used successfully to treat their symptoms. As well, I am informed that there has been a proliferation of street-drug dealers in Marin since MAMM was closed. Of course, these drug dealers are unregulated, as are their wares. “There are currently thousands of licensed dispensaries in 21 states operating successfully. My time to be freed has come. “We intend to ask Judge Breyer to dissolve the injunction in the name of public interest and my Constitutional rights. There is a good future in legal medical marijuana. I am interviewing potential business partners/investors/donors who wish to see the recovery of the Marin Alliance and its time-tested and successful dispensary system." http://www.hightimes.com/read/pioneering-dispensary-owner-barred-life

Washington, D.C. -- The federal government just ordered all the marijuana it wants -- something it would send most Americans to prison for doing. On Monday, the Drug Enforcement Administration issued a new rule that increases the U.S. government's production quota for medical marijuana from an annual 21 kg to 650 kg. That's about 1,433 pounds of pot in total. The U.S. government grows marijuana for research purposes at the University of Mississippi in the only federally legal marijuana garden in the U.S. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) oversees the cultivation, production and distribution of these crops. "NIDA recently notified the DEA that it required additional supplies of marijuana to be manufactured in 2014 to provide for current and anticipated research efforts involving marijuana," reads a recent Federal Register's statement from the DEA. The statement goes on to specify a production quota of 650,000 grams of pot for the current year. The DEA decided to grant NIDA access to more marijuana "in order to provide a continuous and uninterrupted supply" of cannabis for research, according to the statement, which also says that the federal government was "unaware" of NIDA's need for additional marijuana when the initial production quota of 21 kg was set in 2013. Read More...

Washington, D.C. -- The Obama administration would be willing to work with Congress if lawmakers want to take marijuana off the list of what the federal government considers the most dangerous drugs, Attorney General Eric Holder said Friday. "We'd be more than glad to work with Congress if there is a desire to look at and reexamine how the drug is scheduled, as I said there is a great degree of expertise that exists in Congress," Holder said during a House Appropriations Committee hearing. "It is something that ultimately Congress would have to change, and I think that our administration would be glad to work with Congress if such a proposal were made." Read More...

Washington, D.C. -- Far from being discouraged by the shifts in public opinion, state laws and even within the Obama administration on the legalization of marijuana, federal drug agents are now driven to "fight harder," Drug Enforcement Administration chief Michele Leonhart said Wednesday. Leonhart, who reportedly criticized President Barack Obama for comparing marijuana to alcohol during a closed-door meeting with a law enforcement organization, suggested during testimony Wednesday before a House Appropriations subcommittee that voters in Washington state and Colorado were duped into legalizing marijuana. Read More...

Tacoma, Wash. (AP) -- As Washington prepares to open its first retail marijuana stores in the next few months, tens of thousands of military service members have been warned not to shop in any of them. They face criminal charges and career-ending discipline if caught with a substance still banned by the federal government. "Our soldiers understand what's legal," Lt. Gen. Stephen Lanza, the senior Army officer at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, said in an interview last week. "From our perspective, marijuana or any type of illegal drug is something that's not tolerated." Read More...

Police in Washington divert efforts to other crimes due to marijuana law 03/20/14 09:26 PM —Updated 03/21/14 12:23 PM The number of misdemeanor charges against adults over the age of 21 for marijuana possession have severely dropped in Washington state after voters approved a ballot measure last election that legalized recreational marijuana use. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, the new marijuana laws have allowed law enforcement officials to spend more time on other criminal offenses instead of marijuana charges. ACLU’s Washington state chapter found that in 2013, the number of filed misdemeanor marijuana possession charges were 120 cases, which is down from 5,531 cases in 2012. The state ballot initiative has freed up time for police officers, the ACLU says, and has re-focused the efforts that are typically exerted on misdemeanor marijuana offenses – including basic investigation, paperwork and court time – to other criminal cases per day. “The data strongly suggest that I-502 has achieved one of its primary goals - to free up limited police and prosecutorial resources,” state ACLU’s criminal justice policy counsel Mark Cooke said in a news release. “The hope is that could free up scarce limited public safety resources to focus on more pressing needs,” Cooke said. The Daily Rundown with Chuck Todd, 2/21/14, 10:53 AM ET Washington State slow to implement marijuana regulation There is still some concern about the ballot measure with police officers worrying about underage users potentially getting their hands on marijuana. Currently, Washington’s law prohibits people under 21 from possessing it, and adults 21 years or older may possess up to “one ounce of usable marijuana.” But numbers from Washington's Administrative Office of the Courts shows that misdemeanor possession charges have fallen in the past two years among people under 21. Last year, the number of marijuana charges was 1,963. In 2012, the number was 3,469 and in 2011, the number was 4,127. Cooke says that racial disparities still exist in the number of marijuana charges. Among the 120 possession charges last year, the data showed that black adults were three times more likely to have marijuana possession charges filed against them than white adults. This ratio also pertained to the data before the ballot measure was passed in 2012.

Washington, D.C. -- The tidy Takoma Wellness Center, one of the first medical marijuana dispensaries to open in the nation's capital, has a quaint reception area furnished with black leather chairs, plants and artwork. On the front desk are a pile of business cards and a sign-in sheet. In the back, shelves are stocked with the latest marijuana accessories: pipes, cookbooks, even a machine that mixes the drug into butter or oil for cooking. All that's missing are more patients. Since opening this summer, the three Washington, D.C.-based marijuana dispensaries have served a total of 111 patients in a district with about 600,000 residents. That's about 100 times fewer patients, on a per capita basis, than states such as California or Oregon, where the drug can also be legally used to alleviate illnesses. Not surprisingly, all three of the dispensaries say they are losing money. "I think there was a general expectation that the numbers would be higher," Jeffrey Kahn, owner of Takoma Wellness Center, said in an interview. The low numbers reflect a medical marijuana program that is considered the most restrictive in the nation. Patients can get prescriptions only from doctors with whom they have had an ongoing relationship, and only if they suffer from one of four conditions: HIV/AIDS, glaucoma, cancer or severe muscle spasms, such as those caused by multiple sclerosis. Although just three dispensaries have opened, the law allows up to five. To even visit one, patients must register with the health department, make an appointment and show a district-issued ID card before passing through security. That's a stark contrast from California, where patient registration is voluntary, doctors use their own judgment to determine whether medical pot can relieve an ailment, and some dispensaries are located just steps from the beach or deliver to a patient's door. In other states, the list of qualifying conditions is longer. A law passed in Illinois this year included 30 ailments. "They deliberately have the most buttoned-down laws in the country," said Mark Kleiman, a professor of public policy at UCLA. He said the district's strict rollout of medical marijuana reflected a desire by local officials "to keep the feds calm." For more than a decade, D.C. officials struggled to make medical marijuana available to their residents. In 1998, 69% of district voters approved a medical marijuana initiative. But such efforts were routinely overruled by conservative members of Congress, who wield unusual influence over the district's laws. After the 1998 ballot measure, then-Rep. Bob Barr, a Republican from Georgia, amended the district's budget to keep money from being spent on the program, effectively blocking it. But changing attitudes from Congress, as well as from the Justice Department, have opened the door for the district to quietly begin its medical marijuana program. Even Barr, who left office in 2003, reversed his position after aligning with libertarians. His newfound opposition to government intrusion led him to lobby Congress in 2007 on behalf of the Marijuana Policy Project, a nonprofit advocacy group that supports legalization, to remove his own amendment. (He is now running for Congress again as a Republican in Georgia's 11th District.) The Barr amendment was removed in 2009, and medical marijuana became legal in the district in 2010, drawing little notice from Congress. By that time, medical cannabis was legal in 14 states. Even when Colorado and Washington state passed laws legalizing recreational marijuana use last year, Congress said "nothing. Not a whisper," said Kleiman, who advised Washington state officials on how to set up their legal marijuana program. The Justice Department subsequently said it would not challenge the legalization programs as long as they were well-regulated. That move paved the way for dispensaries in Washington, D.C., to operate with little fear of federal intervention. "We're part of a robust regulatory system that the Justice Department called for," said Takoma's Kahn. Many patients and doctors praised the district's program, saying marijuana has been shown to relieve pain and improve appetites. Michelle Hill, a patient at another dispensary, Metropolitan Wellness Center, said the drug helped with the severe spasms she suffered because of a spinal cord ailment. "When I smoked cannabis, I had none of those issues," she said at a D.C. Council hearing in October. The district is looking into increasing availability by expanding the list of qualifying ailments. "We'd love to be able to help those patients," Scott Morgan, a spokesman for the dispensary Capital City Care, said of allowing more ailments to be treated. "We're looking forward to that. We think that's going to be a big help to the program." The changed landscape also has advocates confident that Congress will not object to a proposed local law that would decriminalize the possession of small amounts of pot. "Congress is unlikely to step in," said D.C. Councilmember Tommy Wells, who has proposed making possession of 1 ounce or less of pot a civil offense, subject to a fine that may be as low as $25. The measure, aimed at curbing a disproportionate number of arrests of African Americans for marijuana possession, has support from 10 of 13 council members, as well as Mayor Vincent Gray. Seventeen states have similar laws. Councilmember Yvette Alexander opposes decriminalization, warning it could exacerbate the district's drug problem. "I think it's going to encourage the drug market even more, if there's no fear of a crime or criminal record," she said. But Wells predicted that it would be law by early next spring. "I was excited about the response — or rather lack of response — by Congress," said Dan Riffle, lobbyist for the Marijuana Policy Project, adding that he had not heard opposition from any legislators about the decriminalization bill. "Everyone gets the message that marijuana is going to be legal sooner rather than later."

Seattle -- Figuring out how much marijuana people use has been one of the trickiest, and most important, questions facing the bureaucrats who are setting up Washington state’s new legal pot system. Underestimate demand, and marijuana fans might stick with their black market dealers. Overestimate it, and the surplus legal production could wind up being diverted out of state, or to kids. Now, researchers working with the state’s official pot consultant think they have their best look yet at cannabis consumption in Washington — aided by a novel survey aimed at figuring out how much the heaviest users of marijuana burn on a typical day. In a study released Wednesday, a RAND Corp. team figured that Washington’s roughly 750,000 marijuana users will have consumed between 135 and 225 metric tons of the drug in 2013. The median figure they came up with is 175 metric tons. That’s more than 6 million ounces, enough for around 340 million joints, and more than twice what the state estimated before voters approved Washington’s legal weed law last year. Read More...

Officials Want To Keep Home Grows for MMJ Washington -- The state Liquor Control Board recommended that home growing still be allowed for medical-marijuana patients, reversing an earlier proposal that inflamed activists and patients. Board members, who are charged with implementing the state’s new recreational pot system, want to allow patients or designated caregivers to grow up to six plants at a time — three flowering and three non-flowering. Read More...

Pot Shots Fired: Recreational vs. Medicinal Washington State -- As Washington begins to accept applications for the state’s first regulated recreational pot shops, cries of protest about its plans for medical marijuana are coming from unexpected quarters: the left. A year after voters put their state on track to become one of the only places in the world where marijuana can be legally owned and sold for purely recreational use, the state legislature still has to decide what to do with its rickety, fifteen-year-old medical-marijuana system. With the Department of Justice’s hawkish eyes trained on the state—determined to ensure that the drug, which is still illegal under federal law—remains under strict control, some bureaucrats and lawmakers are afraid that Washington’s unregulated medical-marijuana system could doom the whole experiment. Read More...

Marijuana's Risk To Drivers Debated Washington -- As California advocates ponder a renewed push to legalize marijuana for adults, law enforcement officials and traffic safety experts are warning of a side effect of states allowing the drug for medical or recreational use: the danger caused by people driving while high. Research is incomplete on how much marijuana it takes to impair driving. But Gil Kerlikowske, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, said being even a little intoxicated on marijuana is unacceptable. Read More...

Don’t Treat MMJ Patients Like Recreational Users Washington -- Gov. Jay Inslee and the state’s legislators are poised to make history as they devise a plan to harmonize their medical cannabis program with one that allows anyone 21 or older to buy and possess marijuana. What Washington lawmakers decide will shape how patients are treated elsewhere in the nation. Inslee has shown courage implementing Initiative 502, pushing the federal government through letters and meetings to accept his state’s new adult-use marijuana law. As a congressman, he fought to protect the medical cannabis program in his state from federal interference. Now that same determination is needed to support the spirit of the 1998 medical-marijuana state initiative that created safe access. Read More...

Washington Starts Accepting Applications for Recreational Marijuana Licenses On Monday, Washington State will begin accepting applications from individuals hoping to obtain a license to operate a recreational marijuana business. Applications will be accepted from hopeful growers, shop owners, and edible companies. For a period of thirty days, the state will accept applications. “This is a historic first,” said Beverly Crichfield of the Department of Revenue, which will start accepting the special marijuana business license applications Monday morning. They’ll be processed and forwarded to the Liquor Control Board for review, and should be issued early next year. Crichfield said the Revenue Department, which will be the first stop for license applications for would-be marijuana businesses, has seen a noticeable uptick in queries about the licenses in the past week, both over the phone and in person. There’s also been an increase in the number of people trying to register as a marijuana business without the special form. They’re being told to wait until the form is available after 8 a.m. Monday. Despite interest, Crichfield was unsure of what type of volume to expect. Interested individuals can learn more about the state’s application process here. [Source]

Washington May Allow Outdoor Marijuana Grows Karen McCall, chief rules writer for Washington’s Liquor Control Board is recommending that the state allow recreational marijuana to be grown outdoors as well as indoors. She believes it is important to decrease the program’s carbon footprint. Allowing outdoor growing, which utilizes the sun rather than electricity, could have a positive impact on the environment. Outdoor grows require less power because they rely on sunlight rather than artificial light. McCall says that with the proper security, outdoor grows would work as well as indoor grows. McCall’s change of opinion came after the state released the proposed guidelines for the program last month. The release elicited hundreds of responses from concerned citizens, some of whom believed that restricting outdoor grows would exclude people who could not afford the electricity or indoor growing space from being able to participate in the program. Those in favor of banning outdoor marijuana grows are concerned about security issues including robbery. The Liquor Control Board is still working to develop Washington’s regulations for recreational marijuana. [Source] Click to Read More

Pigs Fed Marijuana in Washington With Washington’s legal marijuana program will come a significant amount of waste– excess stems, roots, and leaves of marijuana plants that will need to be disposed of. In an attempt to come up with a creative solution, farmer Susannah Gross has decided to start feeding the waste to her pigs. The result? The marijuana-munching pigs are fatter than the pigs who have not been given marijuana, and their meat allegedly tastes better. Four months ago, Gross began putting marijuana-waste in with her pigs’ feed. At the end of their lives when they were sent for slaughter, the pigs that were given marijuana weighed 20 to 30 pounds more than their siblings. Gross attributed that to the pigs having the munchies. The pigs were butchered by Willian von Schneidau, who owns a specialty butcher shop in downtown Seattle. The marijuana-fed pork sold quickly, and according to von Schneidau, “Some say the meat seems to taste more savory.” It’s unclear whether the specialty feed had traces of THC in it. As legal marijuana programs become more prevalent across the US, solutions such as this for preventing waste could turn out to be a win-win for farmers and consumers alike. [Source]

Washington Reveals Legal Marijuana Guidelines May 20, 2013 Last week, Washington state officials released proposed rules for the state’s new legal marijuana system. The rules that were released are an initial draft and will likely be edited and amended in the coming weeks. The Liquor Control Board’s release details the regulations for Washington’s legal marijuana program, which was approved by voters last November. New state run marijuana shops will be allowed to be open 7 days a week for up to 20 hours per day. Both residents and non-residents would be allowed to purchase up to an ounce of marijuana at a time. Only marijuana, not concentrates, would be legally sold at the state run shops. The only ‘altered’ forms of marijuana that can legally be sold and possessed are infused edibles or liquid tinctures. The benefit to this is debatable– a ban on concentrate sales may mean that determined consumers will attempt to make their own at home in a process that can be dangerous if one does not know what they are doing. Continue reading here....... http://news.nuggetry.com/marijuana-legalization/washington-reveals-legal-marijuana-guidelines/ Trix