Should state liquor stores sell cannabis?

Watching State Rep. Mary Lou Dickerson, D-Seattle, on TV touting her plan to sell marijuana in state liquor stores, the question came to mind: Has somebody been smoking something?

Washington voters came very close to abolishing the state's liquor monopoly last November. Now, a legislator wants the state of Washington to market and tax a substance the possession of which, for any use, is illegal under federal law.

"I'm dead serious," Dickerson told KING-5 news.

Maybe she's head serious. Shut your eyes for a moment and envision the quibbles, controversies and contradictions of having a Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Control Board.

As with single malt Scotch connoisseurs, the WSLCCB would field complaints that stocks at state stores are inadequate, lacking exotic and potent strains of Maui Wowie or Jamaican ganja.

Editors at The Stranger would lament limited hours, and closure of WSLCCB stores during snowstorms. Federal agents at the U.S.-Canada border would labor to intercept "B.C. Bud" headed southbound to be sold by the state of Washington.

Would the state monopoly punish people planting seeds from its product, the marijuana equivalent of making moonshine?

At the next ballot initiative, privatization opponents could field TV spots showing a carload of teenagers buying a cannabis at a convenience store, and firing up a bong as they drive off.

Joel Connelly has been a staff columnist for more than 30 years. He comments regularly on politics and public policy. Joel Connelly has been a staff columnist for more than 30 years. He comments regularly on politics and public policy.

Seriously, drug policy in the United States is a mess, and Washington is just one place trying to grapple with a failed national policy.

We are one of thirteen states that have legalized medical marijuana. Yet, under federal law, people are still subject to arrest for its possession and cultivation.

The "Thirty Years War" in Europe is studied in history books. The "War on Drugs" in the United States dates back 40 years to the Nixon Administration.

It has consumed billions of dollars, yet the number of people who've sampled cannabis approaches 100 million -- and includes present and former presidents of the United States. The number of teenagers lighting up is again on the upswing.

Attorney General Eric Holder has acquiesced to a kind of tolerance policy, not interfering with states choosing to cultivate their own drug policy.

Still, people are being hurt. About 800,000 people get busted each year for marijuana violations, mainly state laws. A close friend of mine wrecked chances for a permanent National Park Service career by confessing on a questionnaire that he'd recently taken a toke at a party.

Washington is now grappling with how to make the legal tangle less hurtful. The Dickerson proposal is one of three on the table.

The second, by Dickerson's 36th District seatmate Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Wells, would establish a registry of medical marijuana consumers. Police would be required to check the registry before busting suspects. Only evidence of a crime -- under state law -- would allow the arrest of a suspect or search of property.

Growers, processors and dispensers would be licensed: The dispensers would pay business taxes. But suppliers could not advertise, despite the fun prospect of watching Tommy Chong as pitchman.

The third proposal, an initiative fielded Wednesday by Sensible Washington, would flat-out legalize marijuana. Unlike last year's initiative, the State Legislature could adopt civil regulations on sales and use, and possibly tax the product.

Each proposal has problems.

Would the feds, with a new enforcement regime in Washington, D.C., demand that the state fork over its lists of growers and processors? Would outright legalization convey societal approval of a substance abused by under-age consumers?

Agitation at the state level for various strains of reform is constructive.

Ultimately, however, change must come to the "other" Washington, with a long-verdue, grudging admission that the "War on Drugs" wasted resources, was fought on the wrong fronts, and caused great collateral damage -- to peoples' lives.