I-502 got more than 54% of the vote in Pierce County. So naturally, you’d think that politicians in the county would be, if not eager, at least willing to zone marijuana businesses. You’d probably not think they would support banning any business until the Federal government decides to legalize marijuana. Maybe somewhere like Franklin County where it lost more than 61% of the vote. But not a Puget Sound county where a majority of voters supported legalization at the ballot, surely.
Well, a majority of the Pierce County Council voted to not allow any marijuana businesses. Fortunately, it was vetoed by the exec (Tacoma News Tribune link; hat tip to Sensible Washington on Facebook).
Pierce County Executive Pat McCarthy has vetoed the County Council’s ordinance that prohibits licensed marijuana businesses from operating until the U.S. Congress removes marijuana from the list of federally controlled substances.
McCarthy said the county’s ordinance conflicts with state law. She said the county must comply with state law, which permits the licensing of marijuana businesses.
[…]
An override requires five of seven council votes.
[…]*
The council adopted the ordinance Nov. 5 by a vote of 4-3.
So yay. It probably won’t be overridden.
Still, it seems strange to me that people are so hesitant to support marijuana legalization where it’s popular. I mean I get that drugs-are-bad is the default position that a lot of people have. And the Federal government is a big scary thing people can point to. But I-502 was passed with popular support and the sky hasn’t fallen. It’s time for people to stop fighting it.
* Seriously whoever edited this, these two pieces of information shouldn’t have been separated by a few unrelated paragraphs.
What this country really needs is a GOP-is-bad default position. The GOP is much worse for your health than smoking joints. And the GOP doesn’t make you feel mellow.
Liberals love anything that makes them instantly retarded.
Pierce County Council is a fairly conservative bunch. Remember there is a large military footprint in Pierce County. People like Dick Muri are on the Council, so it’s bound to have a conservative bent.
I’m glad, however, that these conservatives were thwarted in their attempt to halt a legal business from starting and growing in Piece County. Marijuana should have been made legal decades ago. The War on Drugs has been a total failure as far as marijuana is concerned, yet some people refuse to wake up and smell the coffee that marijuana is not some scourge from the Middle Ages.
The War on Drugs has been a total failure as far as marijuana is concerned …
But it’s been a great success for spending more money on police and jails, instead of schools and treatment; for keeping the heavy hand of law enforcement on communities which conservatives have traditionally suspected or repressed; and, for continuing to label inhabitants of those communities as problems. Yes, in all of these ways, The War On Drugs has been every bit the success Tricky Dicky (whose hottest joy came from criminalizing any opposition to his corrupt rule) and his law-breaking cohort ever imagined it might be.
Telling a bully that you’re taking away his clubbing hammer does not make him happy, no matter how beneficial said action is for everyone around him.