Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Legal pot means big changes for Washington's drug-sniffing dogs
KATU.com ^

Posted on 03/20/2013 6:13:34 PM PDT by Daffynition

SEATTLE -- The passage of I-502 made things difficult enough for the humans tasked with creating and enforcing the laws for legal marijuana. Now, try explaining the difference between "personal use" and "intent to sell" or the gray area between state and federal law to a dog.

That's why many law-enforcement agencies around the state, including the Seattle Police Department and Washington State Patrol, will no longer be training their drug-sniffing dogs to alert for marijuana.

“Moving forward, it makes most sense not to train dogs to alert to marijuana as that would likely lead to unwarranted investigatory detentions of people who are not breaking any law," said Alison Holcomb, author of I-502 and drug policy director for the American Civil Liberties Union.

The Washington Association of Prosecuting Attorneys sent out a memo advising the state's law-enforcement agencies that narcotics dogs are no longer required to be trained to alert for marijuana in December. And, marijuana was removed from the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission's Canine Performance Standards test in January.

(Excerpt) Read more at katu.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; US: Washington
KEYWORDS: cannabis; donutwatch; drugs; drugwar; marijuana; statesrights; tenthamendment; warondrugs; wod; wodlist; wosd
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-64 next last
To: steve86
An ounce would last awhile. It's 28 grams, and someone smoking a gram a day would be pretty much high all the time.

A more casual smoker could probably make it last a couple months.

21 posted on 03/20/2013 6:52:36 PM PDT by Trailerpark Badass (So?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: Slyfox

my friend who works in drug court says that marijuana these days is much stronger than it used to be. “This is not your father’s marijuana.”

So how stoned would someone get on one ounce? Would you get arrested for smoking one ounce of the new marijuana, but with the old-time stuff you could smoke two ounces? Where will it be sold? Will there be brand names? Advertising? Point-of-sale posters and other marketing aids? Who are the distributors? The state?

Will there be tests like breatholators for overconsumption? What will they measure?

What a mess, so many ways this can be done wrong.


22 posted on 03/20/2013 6:59:30 PM PDT by Veto! (Opinions freely expressed as advice)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: Gator113
Just because it’s legal doesn’t mean that you should be forced to breath that crap...

Well, the way ObamScare was thought up, you know, mandatory that we pay for other people's birth control including abortion.

It is possible that we will have to pay for other people's 'medicinal' mj.

Plus, boner problems and sex change operations.

Good Night, stop me before I croak!

23 posted on 03/20/2013 6:59:33 PM PDT by Slyfox (The Key to Marxism is Medicine ~ Vladimir Lenin)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: Veto!
Please see my post @ 23.

I am too verklempt.

24 posted on 03/20/2013 7:01:38 PM PDT by Slyfox (The Key to Marxism is Medicine ~ Vladimir Lenin)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: Daffynition

So are they going to force employers to have to hire the stoners?


25 posted on 03/20/2013 7:02:29 PM PDT by dfwgator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Slyfox

We are certainly in trouble. Good Night.....


26 posted on 03/20/2013 7:06:11 PM PDT by Gator113 ( ~just keep livin~)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: Veto!
Where will it be sold? Will there be brand names? Advertising? Point-of-sale posters and other marketing aids? Who are the distributors? The state?

Yes to most of these questions, other than the distributor/sales, at least here in WA. The details are being worked out, including commercial growing permits, how much to grow in aggregate and how to price it (has to be high enough for the state to take a meaningful share of tax but not so high to lose many sales to the black market). Liquor sales just went from the state to private so I don't think marijuana will be sold by the state. Very likely some subset of the retail liquor distributors will get it. There has to be some identifying hologram or whatever on the package to distinguish it from black market. Maybe actual DNA identifiers later. State already has blood tests for DUI set up.

27 posted on 03/20/2013 7:15:55 PM PDT by steve86 (Acerbic by Nature, not Nurture™)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: Veto!

I read the same thing in an autobiography of a jazzman, who used to occasionally smoke reefers back in the 1930s. He tried marijuana on a lark decades later in life (1970s/80s, I think), and was absolutely floored at how more potent the strains had gotten. It scared the hell out of him, and he didn’t try it again.

Although, on the other hand, I always also recall my grandfather relating his first encounter with it. He never even heard of marijuana until he was about thirty years old, but he made a trip to Houston in the late-1920s or early-1930s, and saw some Mexican woman writhing in a gutter. Perplexed, he asked someone standing nearby, and found out she was all high from smoking reefers.


28 posted on 03/20/2013 7:16:03 PM PDT by greene66
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: greene66
I read the same thing in an autobiography of a jazzman, who used to occasionally smoke reefers back in the 1930s. He tried marijuana on a lark decades later in life (1970s/80s, I think), and was absolutely floored at how more potent the strains had gotten. It scared the hell out of him, and he didn’t try it again.

Getting old is a bitch. Grampa doesn't like roller coasters anymore, either.

Doesn't change the fact that the WOD has screwed up the country more than it's helped it.

29 posted on 03/20/2013 7:22:29 PM PDT by Pearls Before Swine
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: greene66

Interesting. I guess it’s getting stronger all the time, and not in a good way. Traffic accidents and crime rates will go up.


30 posted on 03/20/2013 7:25:39 PM PDT by Veto! (Opinions freely expressed as advice)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: steve86

Thanks for all that info.

I bet if we dug down to the roots of manufacturing, sale and distribution, we’d find tobacco companies. They’ve lost sales in the last decade, have knowledge and equipment to grow and process marijuana cigarettes. If indeed, it will be in cigarette form. Do you know?

Or does grannie have to roll her own?


31 posted on 03/20/2013 7:30:46 PM PDT by Veto! (Opinions freely expressed as advice)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies]

To: greene66

I would think it’s more likely for a person in a gutter to be drunk than stoned but certainly can’t talk from experience. Is a semi-comatose or confusional state common? Wonder if this involved some degree of ataxia?

Once marijuana becomes available here I certainly will be on the lookout for people writhing in gutters, and if it seems safe might ask one what led to their being there.


32 posted on 03/20/2013 7:32:50 PM PDT by steve86 (Acerbic by Nature, not Nurture™)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: Veto!

I think so too. More traffic deaths, more crime, more creepy dopeheads hanging around in public. Another step down into the degenerate cultural sewer that America has become.


33 posted on 03/20/2013 7:34:48 PM PDT by greene66
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 30 | View Replies]

To: steve86

I’m just relating what my grandfather told me, regarding his first ‘encounter’ with it. She might have been boozed up too. Whatever the case, it certainly left an impression on him, and probably solidified his notion of dope and the dregs of society going hand-in-hand. Which is a contention I pretty much share.


34 posted on 03/20/2013 7:38:41 PM PDT by greene66
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: Veto!

They are considering building huge greenhouse-type structures adjacent to the hop fields near Yakima. There is water and plenty of sun six months of the year. I believe the crop has to be grown in state and none can be exported. Tobacco, of course, wouldn’t do so well here so there is no tobacco company presence.

The preliminary product depictions I’ve seen were baggie-type things that are imprinted with the state’s seal. They were also discussing something like brownies or cookies. If I ever tried it, one of those would probably be my choice. Probably only once as $5 cookies or whatever wouldn’t last long in my budget.

No idea if there will eventually be marijuana cigarettes. I don’t think the state knows yet. They just hired their primary consultant for business strategy as well as agricultural and distribution aspects. There’s a whole lot to do by December on this when you consider how long the state takes to get anything done (no problem for the black market).


35 posted on 03/20/2013 7:42:26 PM PDT by steve86 (Acerbic by Nature, not Nurture™)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 31 | View Replies]

To: steve86

They also don’t even know where they will get the seeds yet for the first crop. That is kind of a difficult legal problem for the state.


36 posted on 03/20/2013 7:45:31 PM PDT by steve86 (Acerbic by Nature, not Nurture™)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]

To: steve86

Speaking for some former associatess, pot was usually purchased in 1/8 and 1/4 ounce bags, or grams. A gram was good for 3-6 doobies, depending on how fresh the weed and how good the roller.

3.5 grams/eighth. Do your own math.


37 posted on 03/20/2013 7:51:02 PM PDT by Don W (There is no gun problem, there is a lack of humanity problem!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: steve86
Anyone: Pardon my ignorance but is one ounce like one session for one person? I have no idea.

A single oz would get a hardcore pot smoker high all day every day for a few weeks.
38 posted on 03/20/2013 8:18:25 PM PDT by fr_freak
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: Slyfox
She is allergic to cigarette smoke and weed bothers her also. But, the smell was really bad even if she wasn't allergic to it. She called the cops and they went to see the perps.
I asked my sister if MJ becomes legal what would you do, you wouldn't be able to have the cops take care of it.


Come on now, would she call the cops of someone were smoking a stogie? Strong smell is a pretty poor excuse for getting bent out of shape over pot (if it were legal). What about backyard BBQs, mulch piles for gardens, etc.? The only real solution, for someone who demands a smell-free environment, is to get a house out in the middle of nowhere where no neighbors bother you.
39 posted on 03/20/2013 8:23:05 PM PDT by fr_freak
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: dfwgator
So are they going to force employers to have to hire the stoners?

Last election cycle, we had a proposition here in CA to legalize pot, but it had a provision in it to prevent "discrimination" against pot smokers in employment and some other areas. I believe that is why it failed to pass. I, myself, voted against it for that reason. I'm cool with legalization, but I also think that employers should be able to say "you're fired" to pot smokers if they want. Of course, I think that employers should be able to say "you're fired" to anyone, at any time, for any reason they choose.
40 posted on 03/20/2013 8:27:09 PM PDT by fr_freak
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-64 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson