WALL STREET JOURNAL — Washington state released draft rules Thursday for how it will regulate its marijuana industry as the state readies for legal recreational pot sales to begin in early 2014.
The rules, which seek to determine how pot can be grown, processed and sold, are being watched as the state becomes the second to venture into the uncharted territory of regulating sales of a long-illegal substance that is still banned under federal law.
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“There’s a palpable sense that what’s going on is historic and we want to get it right,” said Mikhail Carpenter, a spokesman for the Washington State Liquor Control Board, which is devising the rules under a measure voters approved last November. “What we have put out today is our initial model for a tightly controlled, regulated marijuana market.”
Washington’s draft rules, which must go through a monthlong public-comment period, call for growers, processors and retailers to apply for state licenses. The rules require pot growing to be inside greenhouses or other structures because of safety concerns. People convicted of minor pot crimes wouldn’t necessarily be barred from getting licenses—an issue that was raised at the well-attended town halls held over the past eight months, said Mr. Carpenter.
Read more at The Wall Street Journal.
