Bill for decriminalizing marijuana is in the Senate. (Seattle: violent crime, felony)

[70Ford]

Evidently, it costs money to prosecute people caught with a joint.
Pot's Shot - News - The Stranger, Seattle's Only Newspaper

What has this to do with moving? Well...some people like to get high and not worry about the "man". At least 11,553 did, according to the article. They weren't so good about avoiding the man, though.

[azoria]

Washingtonians are such hypocrites. Smoking pot should be ok, but smoking legal cigarettes is illegal everywhere in this state.

Is this what makes them so *liberal* and *progressive* here? The schizophrenia?

[AzDreamer]

I bet most conservatives would be happy to legalize drugs if at the same time the politicians would also get rid of welfare. There are too many folks that would love to lay around all day getting high while being supported by taxpayers.

I'm sorry that honest hard-working folks that just want an occasional toke get punished but it's like that with everything. Just look at the traffic laws. Speed limits on our highways are set low so the worst drivers don't get in over their heads. Complete stops have to be made even when there isn't another car for blocks.

[j_k_k]

I hope it gets legalized. There's nothing more hypocritical than locking people up for marijuana while not only allowing liquor, but making the state the pusher for the hard stuff. The only meaningful difference is that executives and old school politicians like alcohol and mostly do not like pot. Well, that and the minor difference that liquor's social consequences are an order of magnitude worse.

And that's coming from someone who fricking hates marijuana, and hates worst of all hanging around a bunch of stoned people, staring stupidly at me, laughing at stupid things, and encouraging me to join in. I just prefer to be elsewhere.

It's stuff like five-to-ten hard time for selling pot, while the corporate swindlers get three years in a country club for stealing billions, and there's actually even talk of pardon for people who rat out serving CIA agents, that has caused me to determine that I will never see justice or intelligence rule my nation in my lifetime.

[cdelena]

While I am not in favor of legalizing another intoxicant without restrictions, it does make sense to de-criminalize pot possession. It is stupid to charge a user with a felony or to jail any of these people that are not an impact on society. Distribution, driving, or growing are a separate discussion.

[j_k_k]

Originally Posted by cdelena

While I am not in favor of legalizing another intoxicant without restrictions, it does make sense to de-criminalize pot possession. It is stupid to charge a user with a felony or to jail any of these people that are not an impact on society. Distribution, driving, or growing are a separate discussion.

Well, in that separate discussion, if it were legal to consume but not to distribute or create, then you'd have kind of a silly situation. However, I'd be okay with treating its manufacture and distribution like liquor is treated in most places. Brew your own alcohol, and there are some rules concerning both manufacture and distribution; they seem like mostly sensible rules.

Far as driving goes, I bet if you told the pothead world that it could henceforth possess and smoke all the dope it wanted, so long as said world didn't get behind the wheel, I think it would satisfy them for at least five years (before they started arguing that people should be allowed to drive stoned).

It would be interesting to know what percentage of the national jail population is in jail solely for:

--nonviolent, nonlarcenous marijuana possession/distribution
--nonviolent, nonlarcenous drug possession of all kinds

If it were up to me, both of the above would be legal and everyone in jail solely for either would be pardoned. However, everyone currently in jail for either combined with even the theft of a candy bar or a burst of spraypaint, much less the least form of assault or threat of violence, would simply be executed. Sorry, national emergency, can't afford to jail people for stupid things, can't afford to feed people who combine drugs and property or violent crime. Got to pay for a big corporate bailout, and we need the tax revenue from drugs, but not the jail cost of feeding imprisoned drug gangsters. In WWII we drafted millions of people and got over 300,000 of them killed for the sake of a national emergency, so there is legitimate precedent for the state requiring a lot of people to die for it. I suppose in order to justify that we'd have to have a congressional declaration of war on a semi-abstract noun, but since we had Wars on Poverty, Drugs, Terror and so on, we could surely have a War on Financial Suck.

[Freebird2007]

hope it doesn't pass. Washingtonians are stupid enough as is

[HeyHolliday!]

I will admit, I smoke marijuana every now and then. Unfortunately if used to much it can make people unmotivated and lazy. The same could be said for alcohol and all the other thousands of prescription drugs though.

While I don't have the link for the article now (I will post it when i have the time to find it), I do remember reading in The Seattle Times that marijuana was the largest cash crop in the United States. If our Federal Government legalized it we could get rid of all the criminals who make money off it and create thousands of new jobs and create billions in tax revenue which the government need. There is also plenty of other economically viable uses for Hemp which could be used for fuel, clothes, and plenty of other things I probably don't know about.