FIGHT TO LEGALIZE MARIJUANA CONTINUES

Don Skakie Talked About Sensible Washington's Plans to Get Pot
Legalization on the Ballot.

Students met with a representative of Sensible Washington Monday in
Todd Hall 202 to discuss the future of the fight to decriminalize
marijuana in Washington.

Don Skakie of Sensible Washington told students why I-1068, which
would have decriminalized marijuana, failed to make it on the 2010 ballot.

"We are going to have no problem getting this thing on the ballot
(for 2011)," Skakie said. "It's not going to be about getting high
this year." Moving forward, the message will be, "It's not cannabis
that hurts your kids, it's getting arrested that hurts your kids," he said.

Instead of networking the campaign with 286 businesses, Skakie said
he would like to network with more than 1,000. He also said Sensible
Washington is getting stickers, pins and other marketing materials.

Skakie said legal consequences for using marijuana, which he
considers a positive alternative to alcohol, need to go. He said
thousands of people are incarcerated each year in Washington for
marijuana-related charges. This costs taxpayers hundreds of millions
of dollars, Skakie said.

Support for I-1068 had a humble beginning, he noted.

"We started out with five people and a great idea: stop arresting
people for cannabis," Skakie said.

From there, Sensible Washington expanded a grassroots movement to
acquire enough signatures for the initiative to make it on the ballot.

Despite coming up short, Skakie said polls show there is enough
public support to pass the initiative next time. He also said
Sensible Washington identified mistakes in the campaign to legalize
marijuana in California this year.

"Well, they were too ambitious," Skakie said. "They wanted
legalization, taxation and regulation." In contrast, the Washington
initiative would solely decriminalize marijuana, he said. It would
leave regulation and taxation up to the government to flesh out.

However, it would not set a deadline for regulations to be set in
place, he said. It would also not initially establish any regulations
for use near schools.

Tyler Markwart, senior philosophy major and president of the WSU
chapter of Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP), said that could
be a problem.

"If there's no regulation, you're going to have a lot of people that
distribute near pre-schools and elementary schools," Markwart said.

Skakie said localities will make sure that does not happen.

As it stands, the initiative would decriminalize marijuana for people
18 and older.

"You're an adult at 18," Skakie said. "You can go down and buy a gun,
you can go down and buy bullets, but I don't know why we're worried
about cannabis." Markwart said the age is a problem.

"I think the biggest thing is at 18 years old, you're still a senior
in high school," he said.

Markwart said this allows easier access to marijuana among high
school students younger than 18, and there would be a better chance
of getting the initiative on the ballot if the age was 19 or 21. He
said this was one of the reasons the initiative failed to land a spot
on the ballot this year.

Many of the students in attendance were from the WSU chapters of
SSDP, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws
(NORML) and Sensible Washington. Skakie said he wanted to reach out
to them and harness support for the campaign. He said he appreciated
their efforts to gain support for I-1068.

Junior agricultural economics major Brady Irwin said he appreciated
Skakie's message.

"I thought he brought up a lot of good points," Irwin said.
"Personally, I would like to see some more regulation attached."
Irwin said his main concerns are keeping good people out of jail and
making sure those who get in trouble for marijuana use do not lose
access to financial aid.

Overall, he said the movement to decriminalize marijuana represents
legitimate change for Washington.