Woo-Hoo! Legal Pot in Washington State Celebrated at Seattle's Space Needle

Woo-Hoo! Legal Pot in Washington State Celebrated at Seattle's Space Needle

http://www.alternet.org/drugs/woo-h....1086383.Z71FtO&rd=1&src=newsletter756427&t=3

"I'm here from Oklahoma on business," said one middle-aged man, "and something like this would fill our county jail for a while."

December 6, 2012




A crowd of approximately 150 gathered at the base of the iconic Seattle Space Needle to openly smoke marijuana at 12:00 this morning. The revelers had come to celebrate the moment marijuana possession became legal in Washington State, thanks to last month's passage of Initiative 502.

Not one police officer (in uniform) was to be seen, but news media were well represented. Cameras from KOMO & KING local news as well as national reporters from CNN, FOX, CBS and Canada's CBC were all in attendance, interviewing people and filming them lighting up joints and pipes in the chilly Seattle Center. I was there live-streaming for The Russ Belville Show and had the opportunity to talk to many of them. I also got to speak to many people in the crowd.

"I'm here from Oklahoma on business," said one middle-aged man, "and something like this would fill our county jail for a while." A set of three young women from California noted the irony that Washington has legal weed and nowhere to buy it and California has just the opposite. An older gentleman from Seattle talked about finally wearing his favorite marijuana hat in public without feeling like he was promoting crime. A group of locals who'd been waiting since 10:30pm said they braved the cold just to celebrate freedom with others. A young man with neck tattoos acting very paranoid was the only unpleasant part of the crowd, and even he was a decent freestyle rapper.

Soon a van had shown up with some speakers to pump out some music. We counted down from five minutes, from one minute, 10, 9, 8... and suddenly marijuana possession was legal. A cheer arose from the crowd, followed by a hush, followed by a very large cloud of marijuana smoke and cold breath. The first tune to play as people enjoyed their first legal toke was "Smoke 2 Joints" by Sublime. Most notably, not a bit of the sky fell, the earth continued to rotate on its axis, and Seattle went on with its business completely unconcerned with a bunch of people openly smoking pot.

Yeah, but the weird part about the Washington law is that the only way that you can legally get it, is if it is dropped from an airplane passing by. It is still illegal to grow it or to sell it.

These laws really need a bit more thought put into them. I was watching the news today and the state governments where recreational use is legal are trying to come to grips with how to enforce the laws of driving while high. With alcohol, they can measure how much of it is in your bloodstream and set a parameter of how much is too much. Being that THC is stored within the fat cells, trying to do the same with THC is impossible.

It's fun sittin' back and watching how this all plays out. It's literally all over the news today, even rivaling the time spent on covering the fiscal cliff and chemical weapons in Syria. How do the states and the feds co-exist on these laws. How do they enforce "driving while intoxicated"? Etc etc etc.

The genie is out of the proverbial bottle. Recreational use of the bud is happenin'. Now the powers that be need to figure out how to deal with it.

It is an exciting day. Perhaps the beginning of the unraveling of the insanity. Colorado seems to be alot further along on the distribution issue but we are the first in about 75 years to experience such an euphoric state (so to speak).

I LOVED watching the reports from Washington! And you guys did gay marriage, nice win for everyone!