That means we are staying in South Park at the old County Line building for the forseeable future. I spoke with bridge project manager Tim Lane this morning and he doesn't know the timeline on the bridge, or the fate of our building, and he was off to a meeting about those very subjects.
Even if the county is tearing down the bridge, there's no need to tear our building down, so I suspect that we may be there as long as we like. The county is supposed to take ownership of our property at the end of the month, and almost all of the boats and boat people have moved out of our back yard. So we will need to negotiate a (cheap) lease with the county, or just squat it out, after this month.
And then, we'll have to start dreaming and fundraising the future of the Cannabis Resource Center. Set your mind's dial for brain storm!
Ferbuary 18, 2010, Everett, Wash. -- The jury in Snohomish County v. Cammie McKenzie returned a verdict of not guilty! Tokeofthetown.com has a summary:
Updated January 25, 2010 -- We received a third and final installment of documents from the Washington State Department of Corrections.
October 27, 2009 -- The Washington State Department of Corrections has a medical marijuana policy which requires patients with voter-approved ailments to "provide evidence published in a peer-reviewed scientific publication to support the medicinal use of marijuana" for their qualifying condition.
To learn more about how and who came up with this odd, legally-curious policy, the Cannabis Defense Coalition filed a public disclosure request for:
all records related to requests and appeals for the medicinal use of marijuana; and
all records related to DOC Policy 380.200, Directive IV, Medicinal Use of Marijuana.
In October 2009, the Department of Corrections provided a first installment of documents amounting to 785 pages. In December 2009, we received a second installment of documents totaling 494 pages. In January 2010, we received a final installment of 491 pages. We are making these documents available online for all to review, in searchable PDF format.
On January 20, 2010 at 1:30 p.m. the House Public Safety Committee will hold a vote on HB 1177, which would decriminalize misdemeanor marijuana possession, and HB 2401, which would regulate marijuana like alcohol. This is do or die time for both of these bills.
Unable to wait to see this proposed legislation, we obtained a copy of the initiative text and the five sponsor affidavits filed with the Secretary of State on Monday. We are making the initiative text available online in searchable PDF format, and below that, in plain text. According to the Secretary of State, "this is a preliminary draft of the initiative as originally submitted by the sponsor."
Attorney General Rob McKenna is one of the most vocal anti-marijuana zealots elected to public office in Washington State. His office is largely responsible for the ridiculous Department of Corrections policy on medical marijuana use by parolees. And he frequently takes times to spew federal anti-drug propaganda about marijuana's increased potency being of such concern that we should "stay the course" on the government's war on marijuana.
We have created a printed public service announcement detailing Rob McKenna's position on incarcerating nonviolent potheads.
Below is a line by line analysis of HB 2401. We have color-coded the entries with our view of whether the change is positive, negative, neutral, or something related to alcohol parity which one might want to consider. Legend:
Positive impact
Unknown impact
Alcohol parity impact
Negative impact
Neutral impact
P2, L2. A new section spells out the legislative intent: 1) to legalize marijuana, 2) to remove criminal penalties for adult marijuana use and cultivation, 3) to tax marijuana in order to fund drug education, and 4) to regulate marijuana like alcohol.
The Cannabis Defense Coalition annual membership meeting will be held Saturday, December 5, 2009. We plan on making a day (and night) of it, with the official business happening from approximately 2-4 p.m.
