poledriver
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Jul 21, 2005
- Messages
- 11,543
Marijuana USA: Would you really want 50p cannabis lollies on sale in YOUR corner shop? Read this shocking report from drug-legal Seattle - and you decide
Continued -
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ocking-report-drug-legal-Seattle--decide.html
Twinkling Christmas lights adorn a large tree in the main square, carols ring out from packed stores as families bustle about doing their shopping.
It could be any town in America except for one pungent difference – the sickly sweet and unmistakable aroma of marijuana hanging heavy in the air as crowds congregate to openly smoke fat joints with hardly a policeman in sight.
This was the scene on Friday in downtown Seattle in the shadow of the city’s famous Space Needle tower after Washington state became the first place in America to legalise marijuana.
Today, Seattle is revelling in its new title as the cannabis capital of the US. Legalisation of the drug has been described as one of the most politically significant moves since the end of Prohibition in 1933. And it has ramifications around the world.
Tomorrow, a British Government report will call for a Royal Commission on drugs to ‘look at’ decriminalising cannabis in Britain. High-profile advocates of legalisation include Richard Branson and Paul McCartney.
In America, many believe the legalisation of pot in Washington and Colorado – where the law changes on January 5 – is likely to be followed by copycat laws in other states.
‘This is comparable to the first bricks being taken out of the Berlin Wall,’ electrician Eric Bertoglio told me as he puffed away in a haze of smoke.
‘Where Washington and Colorado go so will follow California, New York and Texas. And what happens in America always crosses the Atlantic eventually.’
Yet the new law has left Washington in a state of legal limbo. While it is now legal for anyone over 21 to possess an ounce of the drug, it is still illegal under federal law to buy, sell or grow it. Plus, the new law only allows for pot to be smoked in the privacy of one’s own home – a rule being openly flaunted.
Police are turning a blind eye until the legal glitches can be ironed out. One young policewoman rolled her eyes and said: ‘Hey, we’re as confused as anyone. At the moment we’ve been told not to arrest anyone until the laws are clarified.’
The official Seattle police website declares rather bizarrely: ‘The department’s going to give you a generous grace period to help you adjust to this brave, new and maybe kinda stoned world we live in.
The police department believes that, under state law, you may responsibly get baked, order some pizzas and enjoy a Lord Of The Rings marathon in the privacy of your own home.’
Continued -
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ocking-report-drug-legal-Seattle--decide.html

