cannabisnews.com: WA Officials: Challenges Still Exist on Marijuana
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WA Officials: Challenges Still Exist on Marijuana
Posted by CN Staff on January 29, 2013 at 17:06:40 PT
By Rachel La Corte, Associated Press
Source: Associated Press
Olympia, Wash. -- Officials tasked with creating a regulated marijuana system in Washington state said Tuesday they are moving forward with a timeline of issuing producer licenses by August, but said that several challenges and uncertainties still exist surrounding the new law.Pat Kohler, director of the state Liquor Control Board, told lawmakers on the House Government Accountability & Oversight Committee that those concerns include continued uncertainty about what the federal government will ultimatley do about Washington and Colorado's voter-approved marijuana legalization laws.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and Attorney General Bob Ferguson met with U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder last week, but were offered no further clarity on how the federal government will respond to last fall's votes in both states that set up legal markets for marijuana.The two states voted to legalize recreational marijuana use by adults over 21 and to create state-licensed systems of growers, processors and retail stores that sell heavily taxed pot. The creation of those regulatory schemes poses a possible conflict with federal law, which outlaws marijuana, and the Justice Department hasn't said whether it will sue to block the state laws.Inslee is expected in the coming days to send Holder a memo outlining key regulatory and enforcement issues that the state will be looking at.Kohler said another concern has to do with banking and how, if at all, they'll be able to get federally-insured banks to do the banking for taxes and other revenue related to marijuana."I think it would be a public safety issue for it to be a cash operation," Kohler told lawmakers, and said the Liquor Control Board is working with the state Department of Financial Institutions to discuss alternatives.Rep. Steve Kirby, D-Tacoma, a member of the committee who also serves as chairman of the House Business & Financial Services Committee, said that banks and credit unions aren't interested."They just won't go there," he said.He raised the issue of the idea of a state bank, a measure that previously has not gained traction in the Legislature."That just might be a way to have a regulated system for handling the finances in this large industry," he suggested.Kohler said that several other concerns have been raised during the first two of six public forums on the issue that have been held to date, including concerns about the proposed taxation structure driving the price so high that it creates a black market, as well as how to deal with past criminal histories of potential licensees.Rep. Chris Hurst, a Democrat from Enumclaw who is chairman of the committee, said he believed anyone who dealt in the recreational marijuana market, not medical marijuana, before the new law took effect should be considered a criminal and looked upon as such."They have been breaking state and federal drug laws, they have not been paying taxes, they're engaged in money laundering," he said. "What would cause you to think they would obey the law in the future?"The agency is charged with regulating marijuana under Washington's measure. It will hold four more public forums through the end of February, and a draft of proposed rules for producer licenses is expected to be filed by mid-April. Under their timeline, the board said that producer licenses would be effective in August, and processor and retailer licenses would become effective on Dec. 1.Source: Associated Press (Wire)Author: Rachel La Corte, Associated PressPublished: January 29, 2013Copyright: 2013 The Associated PressCannabisNews -- Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml
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Comment #9 posted by kaptinemo on January 30, 2013 at 19:15:22 PT:
Sam, I was hoping that someone else would notice.
I picked up on that when I read it, and thought: "Here's a denizen of the very same crooked system that flourishes so well under prohibition, describing, no, 'projecting' his Political Class's perfidies on the small time operator, while Wachovia Bank had laundered 370+ BILLION dollars for the narcos and HSBC probably much more, and he's completely oblivious to the irony and the hypocrisy of that."A long time ago, I heard from my (sadly late) Irish mum that "A thief will always suspect you of theft, and a liar will suspect you of lying." That's the prohibs. They project their sins on others in hope to deflect suspicion about their own motives and methods. They could get away with it so long as their benighted, 'Greatest Generation' base would swallow anything the Gub'mint said uncritically, and blindly vote for the liars and cheats who cynically used them for their own ends.But that base is dying off, and what's replacing it has 'blood in its' eyes' for having been subjected to a lifelong propaganda campaign comprised of some of the most intellectually insulting drivel imaginable, as if kids were mindless, programmable robots. The kids knew, as they always know, in every generation, that they were being lied to, and resented it. Those kids that were forced to sheep-bleat "Just Say No!" 20-30 years ago to get the old goofs off their backs, later toked up behind the schoolhouse and both laughed at said goof's gullibility and grumbled about the intellectually insulting part, have grown up. They are rejecting the 'war' that was ostensibly fought in their name, wanting nothing to do with it.Now is the time of their revenge.On Election Day, the Pawns who've been forced into being unwilling participants and cynically used in this wholly unnecessary 'war', turned around and with their votes kicked the DrugWar Kings in the family jewels. And they're gonna do it again, and again, and again, until this madness ends.They are the ones who pulled the levers and pushed the buttons in polling booths in WA and CO, and made history...and fired a shot across the bow of the USS DrugWar. If the pols don't listen, the next round will hit amidships. I can hardly wait...
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Comment #8 posted by Sam Adams on January 30, 2013 at 18:11:49 PT
breaking laws
Kapt, I had the same thought when I read this....he could be talking about HSBC! >>>"They have been breaking state and federal drug laws, they have not been paying taxes, they're engaged in money laundering," he said.
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Comment #7 posted by fight_4_freedom on January 30, 2013 at 12:33:04 PT
Michigan Ruling
http://www.wilx.com/home/headlines/Michigan-Court-No-Crime-in-Sharing-Medical-Marijuana-189038121.html The Michigan appeals court says there's nothing illegal about a medical marijuana user providing a small amount of pot to another registered user at no cost.Good ruling!
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Comment #6 posted by The GCW on January 30, 2013 at 06:15:17 PT
Banking: like the alcohol industry will come.
Cannabis prohibition and extermination is a problem as a whole at every facet.Re-legalizing the plant brings some of those problems to Our attention.Banking is just one of the problems and it will get straightened out sooner or later.We are moving forward and government may slow things down but government can not stop the movement's positive direction.
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Comment #5 posted by fight_4_freedom on January 29, 2013 at 23:23:54 PT
Hash Bash 2013 10,000 strong!
https://www.facebook.com/events/518233644860325/?ref=ts&fref=ts
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Comment #4 posted by Had Enough on January 29, 2013 at 22:12:53 PT
Re: comment 3
Thanks Kaptin’…There is a very good and important read in that link…That needs mainstream airtime…but…it will probably never happen…Rupert and Ted will make sure of that…This is the same link…http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/outrageous-hsbc-settlement-proves-the-drug-war-is-a-joke-20121213
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Comment #3 posted by kaptinemo on January 29, 2013 at 19:42:45 PT:
The banksters brought down the world economy
But they stayed afloat while they sank the rest of us. How? With laundered drug money. And when caught, they're fined a piddling amount, a few weeks profit, and recently the (ha-ha) 'Justice' Department signaled that they will not arrest the banksters as they're too important to jail. Might hurt the economy, don't you know? (Yes, they really said that: http://tinyurl.com/atlbj4v )But the Feds are all worked up about comparatively microscopic amounts from legal cannabis sales, and won't let banks handle it because it is a 'criminal enterprise'? What do you think the banksters did? Hypocrisy, thy name is Sam, as in Uncle.
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Comment #2 posted by Had Enough on January 29, 2013 at 19:28:55 PT
Just more stuff…again…
“”Kohler said another concern has to do with banking and how, if at all, they'll be able to get federally-insured banks to do the banking for taxes and other revenue related to marijuana. "I think it would be a public safety issue for it to be a cash operation," Kohler told lawmakers, and said the Liquor Control Board is working with the state Department of Financial Institutions to discuss alternatives. Rep. Steve Kirby, D-Tacoma, a member of the committee who also serves as chairman of the House Business & Financial Services Committee, said that banks and credit unions aren't interested.
"They just won't go there," he said.””And this…“”Rep. Chris Hurst, a Democrat from Enumclaw who is chairman of the committee, said he believed anyone who dealt in the recreational marijuana market, not medical marijuana, before the new law took effect should be considered a criminal and looked upon as such.
"They have been breaking state and federal drug laws, they have not been paying taxes, they're engaged in money laundering," he said. "What would cause you to think they would obey the law in the future?"”************So the banks will not do business with the industry…a section of the authorities are interested in collecting the taxes…but are going to hold the process up by playing the ‘BankCard’.Boy oh boy!!!…this stuff just keeps on rolling out…I hope the good people Washington help find Rep Chris Hurst a new career by voting him out of office at the next chance they get…
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Comment #1 posted by HempWorld on January 29, 2013 at 19:04:31 PT
I am soooo scared...
I keep thinking... what are the feds going to do?Hogwash!Are they going to tell us the democracy does not apply on this issue?How dare they? People, and especially AP and Reuters need to get real on this issue!
Let's stick with democracy!
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