The Suburban Times

A community bulletin board for Western Pierce County.

Letter: A response to I-502 compliant production and processing

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By Janie Wallace, Woodbrook

First to give you some information that  should alleviate some of your fears. Even though a lakewood address got published, I do NOT intend to produce or process legal cannabis in Lakewood of which Tillicum is a part. Specifically I do not intend to produce or process in Tillicum.  There is no commercial/agriculture zoning. Zoning would take agonizing work to change.  The Brookwood area is zoned equestrian use, not agriculture. On our farm in the Brookwood area we grow way too many organic vegetables, horse food and of course horses to eat it.  All legal.  And speaking of legal we do NOT grow ‘legal in Washington medical marijuana’ (MMJ) because kids and horses go together and kids and cannabis do not.

We are community members, we are parents, and we are farmers, “Growers of Fine Vegetables and Heritage Fruits.”  We have earned college degrees and advanced degrees in Communications, Business, Philosophy,  International Studies, English Literature, Art and Agriculture.  We have worked closely with WSU and the WSU Extension over the last thirty years.  We are Master Livestock and Master Gardener graduates. We are the quintessential organic zealots.  But most importantly we can pass the rigorous background check and scrutiny required by the State to grow legally.

Growing cannabis is similar to growing tomatoes indoors. The process includes light, heat, water, control of the environment. The business of growing cannabis is altogether different.  It has until now been in the hands of both types of criminals.  Those who have criminal records and those who don’t.  Those who could and did stay under the radar and those who didn’t.  The voters of Colorado and now the voters of Washington have legalized cannabis in those states.  Alaska votes next year.  The federal laws have not changed. The point of having a state government is to govern the needs and desires of the people in that state.  Logically the water laws of New Mexico and Washington are different.  The number of school days, the minimum wage, arterial speeds, things that govern our everyday life differ from state to state and the vote is the guide of those laws.

So we the people now have a law.  What are we going to do about it?  I intend to grow ‘legal in Washington cannabis’ in an area that WANTS and INVITES my presence.  Commercial realtors will ferret out I502 happy landlords.  I502 compliant licensees will find them.  Cities have already published maps to show where they are zoned for commercial agriculture.  If I’m a city and get some taxes from a ‘Legal in Washington Cannabis’ operation I’m happy.  If I’m a producer of a commercial agricultural crop do I want to grow for the restaurant trade at maybe $10,000 per season of lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers or do I want to grow for the Washington State Liquor Control Board for a yet to be determined number of zeros after that number? Capitol Press estimates six million dollars per acre.  As a business person I’m going to get the permit.  Pay the non refundable fee and the licensing fees.  Follow the letter of the law and then expect the Law Enforcement Agencies and the cities to invite and then embrace my presence and my revenue.  Protect me my family my home and my business.  Provide me with safe roads, safe parks and safe places to shop and recreate.

Why? Because The voters asked the state to come up with a plan to take the drugs out of the hands of criminals and out of the hands of children.  I’m a voter.  I want the controlled substance controlled.  I want the rule followers to take the lead.  I want the rules even though they aren’t perfect to be followed.  I want the people who are over 21 and want to procure their drug of choice to have legal access so they aren’t buying it from the children.  But hey, personally I think caffeine, sugar and food dyes are drugs, and don’t even get me started on pesticides.  (If you think children buy from adults you need to look around one more time at who has the best computer and cell phone.  Remember who had all the pagers ten years ago so they could keep track of where the party was – they had to make pager bans in the high schools.  It wasn’t the working single mother. It was the 18 year old new to the workforce who couldn’t find a legal job.)  There are plenty of studies about who and what are the drugs of choice and weather they should be and what impact they will have on the roads.  There is a fair share of disinformation on the internet as well but here are some news and research sites you may have missed: 420 magazine, CBC News (canadian), Why keep it out of the hands of kids? For a simple answer, look at kidshealth.org and compare tobacco, sugar caffeine and food additives.

To regulate an adult legal drug you need to define the legal path so you have can define the illegal path.  Like with alcohol, and cigarettes there is abuse of the system.  A system is only as good as the people who run it.  Since we voted to create the system you can help to refine it, help to regulate it, help to keep the laws working for the people who vote. That means if you voted against it and it passed anyway you enforce the parts you can agree with and don’t interfere with the parts you can’t, until you can change it. If you want a voice inside the system to keep the constraints intact work inside the system.

So if you are an upstanding citizen, have an exemplary business ethic and know a serious gardener who can maintain 2000 square feet or more of indoor growing space I would prefer you join me in attaining a license to grow, process or retail ‘legal in Washington’ cannabis’ FOR the voters of the State of Washington, so that the laws are followed, and enforced from within the system.

Some of the constraints that the illegal growers have never had to respond to:

Zoning Laws
Criminal background checks
Business Licensing
State Environmental Protection Act
Water Quality
Chemical and Fertilizer regulations
Air Quality permits
Solid Waste Handling
Hazardous Waste permits
Mercury containing bulbs

These things affect all of us and all of our children and even our children’s children.  Not just the children who get involved in the drug culture.  I hope you can look at the bigger picture here and embrace and strengthen the regulations.

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Comments

  1. SPOT ON BROTHER. I SUPPORT YOU. SOUNDS LIKE YOU HAVE MORE BUSINESS BRAINS THAN THE WHOLE LOT OF ELECTED OFFICIALS THAT ARE DISREGARDING THE LAW AND IMPOSING THEIR IDEOLOGY ON CITIZENS. THEY NEED TO DO WHAT THEY WERE ELECTED TO DO WHICH IS ADMINISTRATE AND EXECUTE THE LAW.

  2. So Janie, or for that matter Kathleen, how does a ““Grower of Fine Vegetables and Heritage Fruits,” a “quintessential organic zealot,” justify growing cannabis while acknowledging it “doesn’t go together with kids” or for that matter horses?

  3. Anyone is stupid to be involved in this sort of business. One form of drug leads on to a stronger one. Your attitude is working against the decency of mankind. You are taking other peoples life in your hands by even raising this type of drug. This drug is a mind altering form of drug that causes people to do things they normally wouldn’t be doing in their right mind. How many accidents have been cause by people on this form of drugs? How many people have been killed by this drug users. I realize that not all users are effected this way, but still can be effected after a pro-long user.

    Why do you and other folks want to ruin the lives of other people by raising and selling this drug?

    • You have no idea of cannabis.
      No one has ever died from it.
      Look at the data and stop using talking points from a failed drug war.
      Use real information, not reefer madness!
      -Janie Wallace should be embraced! Good citizen, working within the constraints if the law!

    • One out of ten people are going to have a problem with substance abuse…Fact!
      Better that they use marijuana than going under the sink for chemicals or huffing paint or worse…alcohol. Nine out of ten people will still use responsibly if at all…Fact!
      Marijuana is a mild sedative with a tolerance curve and not for everyone, just as any other substance that causes a change in physiology. The rampant misinformation we were fed through the 60’s, 70’s and even today is just that…misinformation.
      Marijuana is not a “miracle drug”, nor is it the “devils smoke”.
      It has some benefits if only a relaxing escape from societal wear and tear and again…not for everyone. If you get some benefit or relief from this relatively benign herb, enjoy! If you don’t, don’t try to internalize the issue and spew ignorant rhetoric around as if it were scientific fact, just go on with your lives and worry about the important issues like income disparity and world hunger and leave the marijuana issue to those actually involved and effected. The availability of any substance has never been an issue or a factor of abuse, just your genetic inheritance.

      • Paul D.,

        Not only do you fail to cite your sources for what you declare are “facts,” but you disparage those with significant knowledge of the subject: “spew ignorant rhetoric around as if it were scientific fact,” you wrote.

        Further, you go so far as to irresponsibly suggest that those with substance abuse problems are better off using MJ than other addictive agents.

        Here’s who those ‘better-off MJ users’ – as you call them – are:

        “More than 12 percent of eighth-graders said they had used the drug in the last year, according to an annual survey released by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.”

        To what affect?

        “Recent studies suggest that pot use could be damaging young users’ still-developing brains, affecting memory, decision-making and even IQ levels.”

        “And the effects may be long-term, according to a research team at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. Negative effects were found in heavy users two years after they had stopped smoking marijuana. The earlier the subjects started using, the more abnormal the effects looked in comparison to non-users.”

        “Marijuana is every bit of a threat as the other two to young people’s health as alcohol.”

        “People who started smoking marijuana as teenagers and continued into adulthood showed an average IQ drop of 6 points between age 13 and age 38” reported US News and World Report in 2012.”

        Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, said “We should be extremely concerned that 12 percent of 13- to 14-year-olds are using marijuana.” The children whose experimentation leads to regular use are setting themselves up for declines in IQ and diminished ability for success in life.”

        Sources:

        www.thenewstribune.com/2013/12/18/2954540/feds-decry-rising-pot-use-among.html

        www.deseretnews.com/article/865592696/Legalizing-marijuana-is-bad-for-society.html

        www.thenewstribune.com/2013/12/23/2962033/rising-teen-pot-use-poses-challenge.html

  4. Thank you for the great article, it’s always good to see a valid and reasoned argument regarding the marijuana legalization issue.