Marijuana possession became legal in Washington state Thursday, as did same-sex marriage.
Voters
in Washington and Colorado last month made those the first states to
decriminalize and regulate the recreational use of marijuana.
Washington's law, which took effect at 12:01 a.m. PST, allows adults to
have up to an ounce of pot, but bans public use of marijuana, which is
punishable by a fine, just like drinking in public.
Nevertheless,
some people planned to gather early Thursday to smoke in public beneath
Seattle's Space Needle. Others planned a midnight party outside the
Seattle headquarters of Hempfest, the 21-year-old festival that attracts
tens of thousands of pot fans every summer.
CBS Seattle
affiliate KIRO-TV showed people smoking pot on city streets, and
same-sex couples waiting in line for and getting marriage licenses, many
toasting with champagne.
"This
is a big day because all our lives, we've been living under the iron
curtain of prohibition," said Hempfest director Vivian McPeak. "The
whole world sees that prohibition just took a body blow."
In
another sweeping change for Washington, Gov. Chris Gregoire on
Wednesday signed into law a measure legalizing same-sex marriage. The
state joins several others that allow gay and lesbian couples to wed.
That
law also takes effect Thursday, when gay and lesbian couples can start
picking up their wedding certificates and licenses at county auditors'
offices. The offices in King County, the state's largest and home to
Seattle, and Thurston County, home to the state capital of Olympia,
opened the earliest they could, at 12:01 a.m. Thursday, to start issuing
marriage licenses.
Because the state has a three-day waiting period, the earliest that weddings can take place is Sunday.
The
Seattle Police Department provided this public marijuana use
enforcement guidance to its officers via email Wednesday night: "Until
further notice, officers shall not take any enforcement action, other
than to issue a verbal warning, for a violation of Initiative 502."
Thanks
to a 2003 law, marijuana enforcement remains the department's lowest
priority. Even before I-502 passed on Election Day, Nov. 6, police
rarely busted people at Hempfest, despite widespread pot use, and the
city attorney here doesn't prosecute people for having small amounts of
marijuana.
Officers will be advising people to take their
weed inside, police spokesman Jonah Spangenthal-Lee wrote on the SPD
Blotter. "The police department believes that, under state law, you may
responsibly get baked, order some pizzas and enjoy a 'Lord of the Rings'
marathon in the privacy of your own home, if you want to."
Washington's
new law decriminalizes possession of up to an ounce for those over 21,
but for now, selling marijuana remains illegal. I-502 gives the state a
year to come up with a system of state-licensed growers, processors and
retail stores, with the marijuana taxed 25 percent at each stage.
Analysts have estimated that a legal pot market could bring Washington
hundreds of millions of dollars a year in new tax revenue for schools,
health care and basic government functions.
But marijuana
remains illegal under federal law. That means federal agents can still
arrest people for it, and it's banned from federal properties, including
military bases and national parks.
The Justice
Department has not said whether it will sue to try to block the
regulatory schemes in Washington and Colorado from taking effect.
"The
department's responsibility to enforce the Controlled Substances Act
remains unchanged," said a statement issued Wednesday by the Seattle
U.S. attorney's office. "Neither states nor the executive branch can
nullify a statute passed by Congress" -- a non-issue, since the measures
passed in Washington and Colorado don't "nullify" federal law, which
federal agents remain free to enforce.
The legal question
is whether the establishment of a regulated marijuana market would
"frustrate the purpose" of the federal pot prohibition, and many
constitutional law scholars say it very likely would.
That
leaves the political question of whether the administration wants to
try to block the regulatory system, even though it would remain legal to
possess up to an ounce of marijuana.
Colorado's measure,
as far as decriminalizing possession goes, is set to take effect by
Jan. 5. That state's regulatory scheme is due to be up and running by
October 2013.
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