It starts out clumsy and messy but exhilarating. And then, nine months later, you’re sorting out how your life has changed.
We’re talking, of course, about Washington’s bouncing baby marijuana business. Stores have been open for nine months, and the state is still a little clueless.
One thing has been plain from the start. The taxing and regulation of marijuana is such a convoluted mess, you’d think everyone was smoking something. Depending on whether you’re a patient or merely a shopper, you can buy essentially the same product for wildly different prices and with vastly different requirements for producers.
The Legislature is trying to clear the haze. One bill in the Senate would subject the medical industry to many of the same regulations imposed on recreational businesses. Another in the House would set a single tax rate for both.
Many of you seem to support their efforts. In our latest unscientific poll at HeraldNet.com, we asked if the state should continue to regulate the medical and recreational industries differently. Forty percent of voters said to treat them the same, while 38 percent said to treat them differently.
The other 22 percent wanted to put the genie back in the bottle and make it all illegal. That may be a minority, but it’s been a vocal one in the more than 60 cities and counties that have banned or limited recreational pot businesses. Another bill making its way through the Legislature would stop that practice. Instead, those cities would need to put it to a vote.
So get ready for dozens of marijuana elections and more growing pains as we try to raise our little industry into a productive part of society.
Eventually we’ll figure it out. That’s what new parents do.
— Doug Parry, Herald Web editor: dparry@heraldnet.com; @parryracer
Our next question comes in honor of national Record Store Day. Read about Snohomish County’s last independent record store here.
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