Comments on: Almost No Organized Opposition to Marijuana Legalization in Washington State

By: revisionist

revisionist — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 21:42:14 +0000

My question is really — who is opposed? I mean who would spend money or organize to keep it illegal other than the DEA trying to protect their racket.

By: PCM

PCM — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 20:42:41 +0000

This isn’t an issue I follow closely, but I get the impression — from Seattle’s alternative newspaper, The Stranger* — that a lot of the opposition is coming from Washington’s medical marijuana vendors. This summer’s recent Hempfest — apparently the largest pro-weed function in the country — reportedly didn’t even take a final stand on I-502, the organizers were so divided. The vendors claim that I-502′s DUI standards will put functionally sober medical marijuana users in jail; others claim the vendors simply want to suppress competition from non-medical suppliers and keep their own profits as high as possible. From what I’ve read — and again, it’s not something I follow closely — I’m leaning heavily toward the latter explanation.

By the way, there is apparently some evidence that I-502 opponents have not reported all of their campaign expenditures (for signs, posters, etc.) to the Public Disclosure Commission, so the official financial reports may be at least slightly misleading.

Finally, Washington’s billionaires recently killed an income-tax initiative with an alarmist last-minute advertising blitz. If the medical marijuana vendors have taken the proper measure of the Washington electorate from this debacle (viz., that they are timorous, gullible morons), they will contribute a whole bunch of money and spend a whole bunch of money in the final week before the election. On the other hand, the for-profit hospice industry killed Washington’s Death With Dignity initiative the first time ’round, also with a scary last-minute advertising blitz. However, voters eventually figured out the opposition was arguing for their pocketbooks rather than the sanctity of life and passed Death With Dignity the next time it was up. So, even if I-503 fails this fall, and even though the Washington electorate is what it is, we can hope a properly tweaked version will pass the next time round.

*The Stranger is home to nationally known sex columnist, gay (etc.) rights activist, and Colbert Report “friend of the show” Dan Savage.

By: HotFlash

HotFlash — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 20:25:40 +0000

Well, it would certainly be nice if the prohibition against mj was lifted. It seems a little less than urgent, I suppose, compared to war, economic gutting, torture, and all that. However, the War on Drugs, and on marijuana in particular, has been the means of and excuse for criminalizing and incarcerating (for a handsome profit) many Americans who have not committed any other crime, ie, no violence, theft, etc. or those other bad things which are supposed be the results of drug use and the reasons for which drugs are supposedly prohibited.

S’all just for profit and population control. Well, maybe WA will slip under the radar, sure hope so.

By: drmaddogs

drmaddogs — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 18:58:23 +0000

Give it time. When things are closer to frutition, the opponets will come out of the woodwork. And when they do, expect the “to a hammer, everything looks like a nail’ to prevail in the opponets.