The headline will one day read “They Were against It before They Were for It.”
You read it here first.
The situation in Lakewood, and 57 other cities across the state where recreational marijuana grow and sales operations are currently prohibited, may soon change provided the revenue pot from the sales of pot is shared with cities where pot is not.
The various-colored dots on the statewide chart of where marijuana is allowed, not-allowed, somewhat allowed, even cities unsure as to whether it should be allowed or not look very much like a very sick and quarantined patient suffering from a combination of measles, small- and/or chicken pox, and some scabs scattered here and there that are as yet unidentified but will most likely render the comatose terminal.
What some might call a miraculous recovery however – no small thanks due to the doctoring recently of the state legislature – a walking, talking, marijuana freely- and free-wheeling distributing-and-consuming public may soon stagger, lurch and otherwise tune-out on weed while cities cash-in on their newfound wealth.
According to a Tacoma News Tribune article by staff writer Jordan Schrader this past April 10, “State lawmakers may give cities and counties new incentives to allow marijuana shops and grow operations.
“The state House voted Friday for a proposal that would give local governments a cut of the state’s weed revenue if they allow the state-licensed businesses voters approved in 2012.”
In a fine-sounding, little people-advocating, his fellow-politicians-chastising statement, Rep. David Sawyer, D-Lakewood, is quoted as saying “Despite a resounding decision from the people they represent, members of the Pierce County Council and Lakewood City Council chose to circumvent their voters and ban marijuana stores in their jurisdictions.”
Sawyer’s no doubt protestations to the contrary, “you can almost hear the sound of money being printed” (John Grisham’s “The Runaway Jury,” p.163).
There is, after all, a truck-load of manure, er money, to be made from marijuana.
The legislature that last session brought you House Bill 2405 that would allow the marijuana-related-and-thus-formerly-controlled-substance hemp to be fed to farm animals (it is still too early to tell whether cows getting high can circle the moon), now wants to feed you the same line.
At least the same bottom line.
Turns out what the forever-cash-strapped policy makers discovered then, they now have resurrected or at least exhumed (referencing our aforementioned terminal and deceased patient). “The legislature learned that local (and) state-based markets exist in which consumers are willing to pay a premium price for products that result from hemp-fed animals.”
If a pig-fed-with-hemp can fly – or at least improve the cash flow – can a public with unlimited access to marijuana help cities and counties – not to mention the state – bring home the bacon?
