Agencies Recommend Scaling Back Washington State’s Medical Marijuana System After Legalization

Discussion in 'Marijuana News' started by dabs710, Oct 23, 2013.

  1. #1 dabs710, Oct 23, 2013
    Last edited by a moderator: Oct 23, 2013
    Agencies Recommend Scaling Back Washington State's Medical Marijuana System After Legalization
     
    By: Jon Walker Tuesday October 22, 2013 8:48 am
     
    Now that Washington State has legalized marijuana for adults, three state government agencies are recommending changes to the state's medical marijuana system to bring them more in line with the newly approved recreational system. Most of these proposed changes would scale back the state's medical marijuana law.
    Some of the biggest proposed changes that would impact regular people include:
    • Reduce the amount a qualified patient or designated provider can possess at any given time from twenty-four ounces of useable marijuana to three ounces. (Regular adults are limited to only one ounce.)
    • Eliminate home grows and the ability for a qualified patient or designated provider to possess marijuana plants in any stage of growth. (Currently, patients can grow up to 15 plants.)
    • A single system for medical and recreational producer and processor licenses. Only recreational marijuana stores with an endorsement may accept medical marijuana authorization cards. Make the new regulatory system for medical marijuana effective no sooner than January 1, 2015. (There are currently more dispensaries operating in many parts of the state than there will be licensed retails.)
    • Utilize the same tax structure as recreational marijuana, but provide an exemption from state and local retail sales and use taxes on purchases by medical marijuana patients registered with the Department of Health. (Medical marijuana is not current subject to any special tax.)
    The proposed modifications would still allow qualified patients under the age of 21 to legally access medical marijuana, but all qualified patients would need to register with the Department of Health. The agencies don't want the less regulated medical marijuana system to undermine the new recreational one.
    The suggestions come from the Liquor Control Board,  the Department of Revenue and the Department of Health. The three agencies were given this task by the state legislature. These are only recommendations. Most changes would need to be adopted by the state legislature.
    Given how significant some of these proposed changes are, expect them to generate strong opposition from parts of the medical marijuana community.

     
  2. SMH...
     
    WA is going about this the wrong way..have a recreational system that looks like it was designed to fail, and then slowly destroy the medical side. Pretty much people will continue to use the black market if the recreational side is too pricey, and kill the medical side because the state doesn't want to lose out on money. I think WA voters could've gotten homegrows on this bill, CO is surrounded by states that heavily frown on marijuana and are worried about "drugs getting past the borders", yet they allow homegrows.
     
  3. In short, the people pro-legalization crowd who were warning others about the flaws in this bill were correct.
     
  4. The failure is not in the bill,,the failure is that the politicians adding taxes and regulations did not vote marijuana legal,their party does not support legalization and their lobby money isn't coming from pro-marijuana sources.
    Any businessman knows the only way to corner any market is to under-price the opposition to drive them out of the market,,25% taxes added three times plus growers profits plus distributors profits = street dealers can raise their prices and still undersell legal marijuana shops,,,you cannot make  5 dollars a gram taxes off something that can be grown for pennies a gram especially with thousands of experienced growers and already established outlets.
    As long as prohibitionist or persons with vested interests are in positions of authority whether it is federal,state or city they will throw a wrench in any reform effort.
     
  5. First of all these are recommendations that will recieve public input, secondly, good. Well everything besides the no personal grow law, and I got a feeling that won't be changed. I've always though 24 ounces for a patient is fucking crazy and providers aka drug dealers can just go away and stop acting that are helping people when they are actually charging patients the same price the state will $12-15 a gram. What people don't realize is the biggest impact on the state will be felt in the outskirts and away from the Seattle area where it is sold by greedy individuals to patients at higher costs and lower quality. I knew this was going to happen and it should because there needs to be a true separation from rec and medical. Why? So the people who truly need are the ones that benefit from the mmj not greedy, profiteering "providers" and dispensaries that have no clue about the medical benefits of cannabis. I am not saying all are or that they need to be rocket scientists on weed, but at least know the difference between an sativa and indica. Also, note how patients are exempt from retail and sales tax on it, basically these changes effect growers and providers who seem to think that using a not for profit law as a disguise to rake in large amounts of money and still pass high prices on to their patients as nothing more then business. Well if that's the case time to pay taxes like a BUSINESS, we live in America, we pay taxes, deal with it.
     
  6. Mikeyak,,if no other medicines are taxed in OR then mmj shouldn't be taxed either. Either it is medicine or it isn't.
     
  7. I agree with that and that will need to be changed on a federal level, but until then why should people posing as providers not pay taxes on something they are profiting on even though they are not suppose to be. And too say the mmj industry is largely medical, unfortunately, is become a joke. Rescheduling is needed SOOOO bad to help medical patients. The taxes only apply to growers and distributers who, by paying the tax, will show they are truly in it for the patients, not for profit AS THE LAW STATES, if they dont raise their prices to generate a profit, like many others outside of the Seattle area have. Larger grows will be tolerated so I see no reason why the price would need to be raised to grow if they can grow on a more commercial level as well. So in the end, the only people who SHOULD pay a tax in mmj currently is the growers and "providers" who have to realize that while currently its recognized as medicine in WA but not by the Feds unfortunately yet, so therefore, they have to abide by the same laws as everyone else and that includes taxes.
     
  8. It looks to me like the commercial interests are lobbying for this, preventing people from growing their own.
     
  9. Anyone who read the bill should've expected this to happen.
     
    There were several analysis of the current circumstances being played out, before the bill was even voted on.
     
    The tax scheme makes it impossible for the medical marijuana system, home growing, and the recreational system to co-exist. The liquor control board say so themselves.
     
  10. And it begins. Is there I get to point and say i told you so. Eliminate the competition by making laws to ban them. And this is why it will never pass in ca.
     
  11. If the people that manufacture Aspirin pay taxes then marijuana producers should pay taxes,,I was saying patients should never pay any direct taxes for the medicine,,I am sure Bayer pays taxes like any other corporation,,little too none.
     
  12. Yeah until the feds and state start cracking down and making it a bitch for everybody including patients because the supply is either siezed or forced underground and prices skyrocket. Fortunately Cali is so saturated with high quality bud that won't be for awhile. But still IMO, Cali will eventually legalize, even if its begrudgingly. The real answer to all of this would be changes to federal laws regarding cannabis, but unfortunately it looks like it is a state by state process as of now.
     
  13. Bayer should pay taxes, but unfortunately their medicine is recognized as a medicine by ultimately the people who decide who should and should not be while cannabis not. Its bullshit and one of the biggest scams performed by our gov. but until federal laws change there's not a whole lot that can be done besides writting reps. and voting and following current state laws to show that while the system WA has now is far from perfect, it ultimately should accomplish at one least one thing and that is to take the criminal element out of the cannabis market and therefore show the rest of the country that they should follow suit.
     
  14. #14 dabs710, Oct 23, 2013
    Last edited by a moderator: Oct 23, 2013
     
    Amendment 64, as far as patients rights are concerned, has been a benefit. Colorado MMJ patients are now allowed to possess more marijuana, grow more plants, no recreational taxes (only sales tax that they've always had), and dispensaries have even less restrictions now than before Amendment 64. Colorado's system allows home growing, it has a DUI limit but with a defense (unlike I-502 that has no defense), and is not taxed as heavily. The issue of taxation is being put before the voters, on their "AA" measure. 
     
    The problem isn't the idea of legalization. The problem is with the language of the bills. These bills, like I-502, are called "legalization", when they are faux-legalization, or semi-legalization at best.
     
    Oregon's Measure 80, which was a complete legalization bill that had almost no funding, polled just as high as Prop 19 did in California, that had a lot more funding and was much more restrictive than Measure 80. Both polled at 46.5%. The idea that we need a legalization bill that involves strong heavy pointless regulations like I-502, or even Prop 19, is complete nonsense.
     
  15. It's legal who cares seems to be the norm around this group. Now they will have to pay for their ignorance.
     
  16. Lets start sending letters, post cards, emails and phone calls to our U.S. Congressmen telling them if they don't support repealing all anti MJ laws we will vote against them in the next election.  And lets find out who is running for Congress and let them know we will vote, and work for their election, if they will support legalization of MJ. 
     
  17. These are draft recommendations at this point. Now is the time to send comments before they are finalized and sent to the Legislature. Thousands of comments might have an effect.
     
    [SIZE=smaller]The full set of draft recommendations can be viewed [/SIZE][SIZE=smaller]here[/SIZE]
    [SIZE=smaller]Written comments may be submitted at [/SIZE]<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='mailto:medicalmarijuana@[member="LiQ"].wa.gov'>[SIZE=smaller]medicalmarijuana@[member="LiQ"].wa.gov[/SIZE]</a>[SIZE=smaller] through November 8, 2013[/SIZE]. Below is the timeline for finalizing, reporting and delivering the final recommendations to the Legislature.
    [SIZE=smaller]Date (2013)           Milestone[/SIZE]
    \t\t\t\t[SIZE=smaller]October 21[/SIZE]
    \t\t\t\t[SIZE=smaller]November 8[/SIZE]
    \t\t\t\t[SIZE=smaller]December TBD[/SIZE]
    \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t[SIZE=smaller]Draft recommendations submitted to stakeholders for comment[/SIZE]
    \t\t\t\t[SIZE=smaller]Deadline for written comments[/SIZE]
    \t\t\t\t[SIZE=smaller]Liquor Control Board will consider adoption of recommendations[/SIZE]
    \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t[SIZE=smaller]January 1, 2014[/SIZE]
    \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t[SIZE=smaller]Deadline for the Liquor Control Board to submit recommendations to the Legislature[/SIZE]
    \t\t\t\t\t
     
  18. Exactly, I'm sure there will be thousands of complaints regarding these recommendations, so lets make it clear to the WSLCB that these changes are unacceptable and far too extreme by voicing our opinions on these stupid although fairly predictable recommendations. If you Don't like it, let 'em know. Also contact local state reps who ultimately will make the final decision and find out where they stand and tell them why its important that a lot of these changes aren't made.
     
  19. And get every one of your friends who use MJ to join you in spreading the word and talking to their reps.
     
  20. A brazen attempt at total monopoly by a state-backed (and now loosely fed-ok'd) organization which was just handed a freshly legal market - I wish I could be surprised. In practice it would be nothing short of extortion against the medical users of this state. They'll get me plants when they pry the seeds from me cold, dead hands.
     

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