On Monday, 18th July in Seattle, the largest city in the state of Washington, the council voted to establish a municipal licensing and regulation system to regulate the distribution of medicinal marijuana under a new state law that came into force last week.
The voting was 8-0 in favour of the new measure and comes almost three months after Governor Christine Gregoire signed into law a new measure allowing individual city councils to regulate and license the production, processing and distribution of marijuana on a limited basis. The new law came into effect on Friday 22nd.
Mayor Mike McGinn signed the ordinance, which is at odds with a series of new restrictions and bans on medical marijuana dispensaries and cultivation facilities imposed by other municipalities around the state.
The state law was passed in response to a recent proliferation of dispensaries that were neither explicitly banned nor permitted under an initiative to legalise marijuana for medicinal purposes dating back to 1988.
The statute backed by Governor Gregoire requires storefront dispensaries and other medical pot suppliers to reorganise themselves as small, cooperative ventures serving up to 10 patients. These collective gardens are confined to growing a maximum of 45 plants but no more than 15 per person.
“We’re saying, ‘You’re already here, now we need to regulate you,” Seattle Councilwoman Sally Clark said.
About 80 medical marijuana dispensaries have sprung up in Seattle, but only about 50 of them have registered with the city, Clark said.
Although cannabis is still listed as an illegal narcotic under federal law, 15 states and several districts have statutes decriminalising marijuana as a treatment for various medical conditions, according to the National Drug Policy Alliance.
