This letter is in response to Bruce King’s comments in the Monday Herald about pot farming. (“Hearings to help set marijuana policies.”) Mr. King’s quotes in the article the Herald ran about him on Jan. 2, show he has no business opining on this subject: “I’ve never smoked pot…” and “If I choose to grow it, I will screw up my first crop, maybe my first 10 crops.”
Now this complete novice is concerned about the effects of medical marijuana on “his” potential profits. How in the world does it make sense for a man with admittedly no experience in this industry to be worried about losing money to people who actually know what they are doing? Mr. King’s participation in this debate is absurd, and it sheds light on the ridiculous approach that our state is taking with the implementation of initiative 502.
The medical marijuana industry is made up of professional pot people who have devoted their lives to this plant and its cultivation. Further, the people of the medical marijuana industry are the true pioneers of legalization. We would not be where we are without the groundwork laid by these hard working activists. The argument that it is an illicit market is mostly anecdotal, and ignores the fact that it operates under law that is on the books in Washington.
Colorado’s legalization bill closely followed their medical marijuana model, and guess what? It was fully implemented over a month ago. Colorado basically just let the pros keep doing their jobs and were able to easily enact their new laws. The idea that Washington feels it’s good policy to cut out the people that know what they are doing and have been running a successful model of this industry shows questionable judgement at best. Also, the medical marijuana community has bent over backwards in attempts to work with the state on solutions that allow both venues to operate. The state’s response has been to use one brush to paint all medical patients as criminals or fakers. I expect more from my elected officials than to throw all legitimate patients under the bus because some might not be, and it’s even more unconscionable to do so because their medicine might threaten the state’s pot profits.
Reasonable solutions that allow both markets to coexist are readily available and are currently on display in Colorado. This issue is way bigger than tax revenue forecasts and I’d like to think our state legislators are nuanced enough thinkers to see it as such. Implementing 502 at the expense of the medical marijuana community is literally placing profits over people, and giving the industry to complete (and admitted) novices like Bruce King places clownish idiocy over common sense.
Jackson Totty
Everett
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