The marijuana industry wants the same protection as drug cartels. They want to move their business into the dark recesses that the drug world is famous for while asking for state-sponsored protection from public knowledge.
When I-502 was voted into law, Washington citizens stipulated the pot businesses must provide information to obtain licenses from the state Liquor and Cannabis Board. Now the marijuana industry, three years later, is trying to change the law before the citizens truly know how this industry is affecting our state’s youth and young adults.
Sens. Ann Rivers, R-La Center, and Marko Liias, D-Lynnwood, introduced Senate Bill 6207 that would exempt financial, commercial operations and security-related information from public-disclosure requirements. Among the restricted information would be details of marijuana product ownership, locations, contact information and shipments of product.
Doesn’t that sound like the black market that I-502 promised to eradicate? Our laws are losing their integrity — special interests (the marijuana industry) write the bill, find elected officials to push the changes through the government, slip new laws favorable to their business before the citizens know what happened. Are Rivers and Liias more interested in the integrity of our laws or in creating loopholes that benefit the legalized drug dealers?
