<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div>Courtesy of today's (June 10, 2015) Spokesman-Review.</div><div><br></div><div>--------------------------------------</div><div><h1 style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; clear: both; overflow: visible !important; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; line-height: 1.2; font-size: 28px; font-family: Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;">Pot peeks out of closet as revenue fills coffers</h1><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Less than a year after marijuana became available in stores, it is no exaggeration to say that it’s booming. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Each new month brings increased sales and tax revenues. Marijuana bucks have already become a key element in state budget negotiations. Hundreds of licenses have been issued to retailers, growers and processors. </span></p></div><div><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">less-tangible piece of this revolution is cultural – people are coming out of the marijuana closet, though whatever stigma is associated with pot-smoking is likely to fade more slowly than legal prohibition.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">But consider this utterly remarkable scenario in Spokane politics: We have a candidate running for City Council president who wants to put a lid on marijuana sales in Spokane. And we have a candidate who argues that legal marijuana is good for Spokane, is bringing in tax revenues and is providing jobs. The candidate acknowledges using it himself, and says he will do so again.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">And he’s the incumbent.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Which is to say nothing of the City Council member, Karen Stratton, who grows the stuff.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Council President Ben Stuckart, who is running against challenger John Ahern, says he has used marijuana since it was legalized. He made this acknowledgement first in an interview last week with the Inlander, and talked to me about it this week. Despite the fact that this comes well after we legalized pot, the admission still feels bold – or foolish. Isn’t it political suicide to make such an admission?</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“It might be,” Stuckart said. “I don’t think so, though. Plus, I’d rather just be myself.”</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Stuckart makes the case for openness about marijuana that is similar to what those of us who have long argued for legalization have said. It’s less harmful than alcohol, the kind of substance a free adult should be allowed to use. Plenty of adults do, of course, and did long before this was legal. The culture has been engaged in a kind of winking charade about weed for decades and one of the things that legalization has done in Washington is not initiate a new reality so much as pull back the curtain on a well-established one. As each month’s sales outpace the last, it’s obvious that all of these folks didn’t take up their first joint in July.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Admitting you use it now raises the question of whether you used it before. To that, Stuckart said, “I think it’s easier now to be yourself.”</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Though he’s decided he’s willing to talk about his own use, Stuckart found himself at this juncture as questions about the larger issue were raised. Though it’s not his major issue, Ahern has said that he wants to put a moratorium on sales and production of marijuana in Spokane. I could not reach him Tuesday for a comment. His anti-drug crusading has included an attempt, when he was a legislator, to change state use of the word “cannabis” to “marijuana” because he considered cannabis to be a fashionable term, possibly appealing to children.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Stuckart argues that Spokane has been in the forefront in many ways on the marijuana business, and that it’s been good for the city. Most of the statistics on the legal market so far are based on state and county numbers, but he calculated some figures for the city of Spokane.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">He said there are 41 licensed marijuana businesses in the city, including retailers, growers and processors, and that they accounted for $6.6 million in tax revenues since July 2014, including $66,000 directly into the city coffers. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Finally, there’s this: Fifty-seven percent of city residents voted for legalization.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“That’s not a small number,” Stuckart said. “That’s a large number of the public that said yes, legalize it.”</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">As we approach the one-year anniversary of recreational retail marijuana sales, it’s clear that for a lot of people, this is more than theoretical. In May, according to state figures, the legal pot market in Spokane County accounted for $6 million in revenues, including growers, processors and retailers. The county’s top retailer, Greenlight, broke $600,000 in sales for the first time. Two others topped $500,000.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Between January and April of this year, retail sales more than doubled, rising from $1.5 million to $3.2 million.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Statewide, more than $1 million in marijuana is sold each day, as of the state’s June 3 estimates. Since July 2014, sales and excise taxes have brought in more than $50 million. More than 160 retail licenses have been issued – with 11 in Spokane – along with nearly 500 licenses for producing or processing, or both.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The horse is out of the barn, at this point, and it’s got a lot of riders.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Many of us have smoked pot, and many of us have lied about it. Bill Clinton’s famous evasion – tried it, but didn’t inhale – perfectly sums up the tortured relationship between the public and private sides of marijuana, and our country’s ridiculous legal prohibition, which has been a costly, destructive failure. The states are starting to crack this open, but it’s worth noting that on the federal level, marijuana is still a “Schedule I” drug, classified with heroin and LSD.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">I give Stuckart credit for honesty. He is as far out of this particular closet as any politician I am aware of, and I’m more concerned about the distorting intoxication of big money in politics than I am his recreational habits. He emphasized that he is not some all-day stoner, but uses it occasionally, and never on city business. A joint to relax, like a drink to relax, he said. The numbers prove he is far from alone in that, but as a political person, he is outlining new territory.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“It’s OK to talk about it,” he said. “It’s gaining acceptance and normalcy.”</span></p></div><div>--------------------------------------</div><div><br></div><div><b><i><u>LEGALIZE IT! REGULATE IT! TAX IT!</u></i></b><br><br><img src="cid:8B93DF41-DA73-406D-BC6D-0519CCC49A6D" alt="image1.jpeg" id="8B93DF41-DA73-406D-BC6D-0519CCC49A6D"></div><div><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);"><a href="http://www.TomandRodna.com/Photos/Northwest_Fresh.jpg">http://www.TomandRodna.com/Photos/Northwest_Fresh.jpg</a></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);"><b>"The Wildwood Flower"</b></span></div><div><a href="http://www.tomandrodna.com/Songs/Wildwood_Flower.mp3">http://www.tomandrodna.com/Songs/Wildwood_Flower.mp3</a></div><div><br></div><div>(Sing along, V-Peeps . . . )</div><div><br></div><div><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.35em 0px; border-color: rgb(153, 153, 136); text-align: center;"></p><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"The name of this song is 'The Wildwood Flower'</span></div><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Now 'The Wildwood Flower' is an old country classic</span></div><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It gained a whole new popularity</span></div><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The song isn't any more popular</span></div><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">But the flower is doin' real good</span></div><p></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.35em 0px; border-color: rgb(153, 153, 136); text-align: center;"></p><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The wildwood flower grew wild on the farm</span></div><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">And we never knowed what it was called</span></div><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Some said it was a flower and some said it was weed</span></div><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">I didn't gave it much thought...</span></div><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">One day I was out there talking to my brother</span></div><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Reached down for a weed to chew on</span></div><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Things got fuzzy and things got blurry</span></div><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">And then everything was gone</span></div><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">I Didn't know what happened</span></div><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">But I knew it beat the hell out of sniffin' burlap</span></div><p></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.35em 0px; border-color: rgb(153, 153, 136); text-align: center;"></p><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">I come to and my brother was there</span></div><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">And he said, 'What's wrong with your eyes?'</span></div><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">I said, 'I don't know, I was chewing on a weed'</span></div><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">He said, 'Let me give it a try'</span></div><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">We spent the rest of that day and most of that night</span></div><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Trying to find my brother, Bill</span></div><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Caught up with him 'bout six o'clock the next mornin'</span></div><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Naked, swinging on the <span id="IL_AD1" class="IL_AD" style="margin: 0px; border-top-color: rgb(153, 153, 136); border-right-color: rgb(153, 153, 136); border-left-color: rgb(153, 153, 136); position: static; padding: 0px 0px 1px !important; border-bottom-color: rgb(68, 68, 51) !important; border-bottom-width: 1px !important; border-bottom-style: dotted !important; background-image: none !important; background-attachment: scroll !important; cursor: pointer !important; display: inline !important; float: none !important; background-position: 0% 50% !important;">windmill</span></span></div><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">He said he flew up there</span></div><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">I had to fly up and get him down</span></div><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">He was about half crazy</span></div><p></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.35em 0px; border-color: rgb(153, 153, 136); text-align: center;"></p><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The very next day we picked a bunch of them weeds</span></div><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">And put 'em in the sun to dry</span></div><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Then we mashed 'em up and we cleaned 'em all</span></div><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">And put 'em in the corncob pipe</span></div><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Smokin' them wildwood flowers got to be a habit</span></div><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">We didn't see no harm</span></div><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">We thought it was kind of handy</span></div><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Take a trip and never leave the farm</span></div><p></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.35em 0px; border-color: rgb(153, 153, 136); text-align: center;"></p><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">A big ol' puff on the wildwood weed</span></div><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Next thing you know</span></div><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">We's just wandering behind the little animals</span></div><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">All good things gotta come to an end</span></div><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">And it's the same with the wildwood weed</span></div><p></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.35em 0px; border-color: rgb(153, 153, 136); text-align: center;"></p><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">One day this feller from Washington come by</span></div><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">And he spied us and he turned white as a sheet</span></div><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">And he dug and he burned</span></div><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">And he burned and he dug</span></div><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">And he killed all our cute little weeds</span></div><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Then he drove away</span></div><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">We just smiled and waved</span></div><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Sittin' there on that sack of seeds</span></div><p></p><p style="text-align: start; margin: 0px; padding: 0.35em 0px; border-color: rgb(153, 153, 136);"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Y'all come back now, ya hear"</span></p><br><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Seeya at the Wingding, Moscow, because . . .</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)</span></div><div><a href="http://www.moscowcares.com/" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000">http://www.MoscowCares.com</font></a></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></div><div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Tom Hansen</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Moscow, Idaho</span></div></div><div> </div></div></div></div></div></div></body></html>