Marijuana Legalization

In 2012, Washington and Colorado voters made history when they approved measures to legalize recreational marijuana. Washington Initiative 502 “authorizes the state liquor board to regulate and tax marijuana for persons twenty-one years of age or older.”Since the vote in Washington, the Liquor Board has written a complex set of rules for the state’s new, legal recreational cannabis marketplace. The agency has also set limits on the amount of marijuana that can be grown. And the Board has begun to license growers, processors and retailers.For now, the Obama administration has signaled it will not interfere with Washington and Colorado’s legal pot experiment, unless there is evidence that legal pot is “leaking” to other states or children are getting access to the legal product. The feds are also watching to see if criminal organizations exploit the legal market.The first marijuana retail stores in Washington opened in July 2014.Recreational marijuana is also set to become legal in Oregon on July 1, 2015 after voters approved Measure 91 in November 2014.

Wash. Liquor Board Has One Year To Catch Up To Pot Legalization

NWNews | By Austin Jenkins

Published December 4, 2012 at 3:35 PM PST

OLYMPIA, Wash. – Pot becomes legal in Washington on Thursday. But state officials have not even begun to write the complicated rules for who can grow it, process it and sell. That year-long process begins Wednesday.

By the end of this week, adult possession of up to one ounce of usable marijuana will no longer be a crime in Washington. But Initiative 502 -- approved by voters in November -- does much more than decriminalize possession. It requires the state to license and regulate marijuana producers, processors and retailers.

That’s not something that can happen overnight. In fact, the initiative gives the state of Washington until December of next year to put in place the regulations. In government lingo that lengthy process is called rulemaking.

The Washington Liquor Control Board will take the first step this week. It plans to issue a formal notice to stakeholders that the agency will begin to write the rules for people who want to grow marijuana. The regulations for processors and sellers will come later.

On the Web:

I-502 Implementation (Washington State Liquor Control Board)