The following is presented as part of The Columbian’s Opinion content, which offers a point of view in order to provoke thought and debate of civic issues. Opinions represent the viewpoint of the author. Unsigned editorials represent the consensus opinion of The Columbian’s editorial board, which operates independently of the news department.
The clearest sign that a person is a baby boomer may be the tendency to shake one’s head when hearing of ideas being considered by the Legislature about marijuana.
For a generation raised on “Reefer Madness” and Cheech and Chong routines, the only time 20th-century legislatures seemed to consider a possible change to marijuana laws was to debate whether to increase the penalties for having it or lower the quantity of possession that would result in a felony.
Now, the Legislature considers proposals on how many people should be allowed to grow and sell marijuana, who should get those licenses, whether the limits on how much a person can buy at one time should be increased and whether to ask the feds to please, please, please let us buy pot from a state-licensed dispensary with a debit card so the stores don’t have so much cash on hand.
The primary sentence enhancement related to marijuana under consideration this session is whether to tack on an extra 12 months to the prison term of someone convicted of robbing a pot store. Legislators are considering the creation of a 13-member state-sponsored commission on the plant’s production and processing, set up by the Department of Agriculture, to oversee various aspects of the growing and distributing of marijuana. This would only happen if enough of the state’s marijuana growers ask the department to do that.
A generation ago, pot growers did everything they could not to have contact with the government, and the government’s only interest in overseeing the growers’ activities was to stop them.
The Legislature also is considering whether to be concerned about how strong the marijuana is getting, and whether to put additional restrictions on who can buy the products high in tetrahydrocannabinol, the plant’s active ingredient. While all marijuana products currently can be sold to anyone 21 or older, the initial proposal would have upped that to 25 for high-THC products.
The proposal had support from groups that deal with addictions and substance abuse, but opposition from the marijuana industry, which has some of the strongest and best-heeled lobbyists in Olympia.
The age limit eventually was stricken from the bill, and, as often happens when the Legislature faces significant opposition, has been replaced with a study of the possible health risks of high-THC products to youth and adults.
The Legislature toyed with a proposal to allow people to “grow their own” at home, but bogged down a bit on whether the total number of plants should be four, six, 10 or 15.
Such proposals have been introduced since recreational marijuana became legal more than a decade ago. They likely fail because they bump up against two pillars of the system that has grown up since Initiative 502 passed — a thriving marijuana industry with growing political clout and an ever-increasing pile of tax money collected from sales.
Because marijuana is now a legal commodity in Washington, it is subject to mundane legislative proposals. There are proposals to limit how big or how numerous a pot shop’s signs can be and what can be on them, or who gets to say where a pot shop can or can’t be located.
Republicans are generally more dubious of loosening marijuana laws than Democrats, but that doesn’t keep them from coming up with ideas to change the way the taxes are spent.
One proposal this year suggested doubling the amount of money cities and counties get from legalized marijuana taxes. Another suggested that nearly one-third of that tax take be set aside to help cover higher reimbursements for Medicaid services rather than being dropped into the state’s general fund.
But Democrats, who control the tax and budget processes in the Legislature, didn’t schedule either for a hearing. Members of an earlier generation might say Democrats bogarted the Republican tax ideas, if they didn’t have to worry about someone younger replying “OK, boomer.”
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