dannno
08-19-2011, 03:58 PM
Hempfest is this weekend and there are two competing ballot measures for decriminalization that will be collecting signatures.
NAW = Legalizes store-front sales, taxes, bans personal growing
YEP = Decriminalizes possession and growing
Article: "The Stoner Standoff"
The group is called New Approach Washington—known for short as NAW.
So what's the problem?
"I think NAW is a piece of shit," says Douglas Hiatt, who ran the campaign for another initiative, Sensible Washington, which raised relatively little money and failed to gather enough signatures two years in a row. He believes federal drug laws would nullify most of the NAW measure, and a provision that establishes an automatic penalty for driving under the influence of pot would turn medical marijuana patients who drive into criminals.
"I think it's divided the community pretty severely," Hiatt says about the hundreds of volunteers he's worked with and Seattle's robust medical marijuana industry. He calls the NAW measure "an expensive publicity stunt."
So on July 27, a new group filed a petition to legalize marijuana, based on the text of Sensible Washington's twice-failed measure. This statewide initiative would simply remove all state penalties for marijuana. That approach, says spokesman Don Skakie, would let you "grow it for yourself" without paying taxes on the pot.
The name of that new group? Yes End Penalties—or YEP!
That's right: It's YEP versus NAW.
"It's positive versus negative, as far as I'm concerned," Skakie says. He acknowledges that the backers of his measure, which he estimates needs 300,000 signatures, "don't have funding." :(
http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/stoner-standoff/Content?oid=9540215
NAW = Legalizes store-front sales, taxes, bans personal growing
YEP = Decriminalizes possession and growing
Article: "The Stoner Standoff"
The group is called New Approach Washington—known for short as NAW.
So what's the problem?
"I think NAW is a piece of shit," says Douglas Hiatt, who ran the campaign for another initiative, Sensible Washington, which raised relatively little money and failed to gather enough signatures two years in a row. He believes federal drug laws would nullify most of the NAW measure, and a provision that establishes an automatic penalty for driving under the influence of pot would turn medical marijuana patients who drive into criminals.
"I think it's divided the community pretty severely," Hiatt says about the hundreds of volunteers he's worked with and Seattle's robust medical marijuana industry. He calls the NAW measure "an expensive publicity stunt."
So on July 27, a new group filed a petition to legalize marijuana, based on the text of Sensible Washington's twice-failed measure. This statewide initiative would simply remove all state penalties for marijuana. That approach, says spokesman Don Skakie, would let you "grow it for yourself" without paying taxes on the pot.
The name of that new group? Yes End Penalties—or YEP!
That's right: It's YEP versus NAW.
"It's positive versus negative, as far as I'm concerned," Skakie says. He acknowledges that the backers of his measure, which he estimates needs 300,000 signatures, "don't have funding." :(
http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/stoner-standoff/Content?oid=9540215