Free Talk Live

SEATTLE — Washington voters legalized recreational pot use on Tuesday, setting up a showdown with a federal government that backs the drug's prohibition.

Initiative 502 would create a system of state-licensed marijuana growers, processors and retail stores, where adults over 21 can buy up to an ounce. It also establishes a standard blood test limit for driving under the influence.

The state of Washington is the latest state to cave to the federal government and the DEA regime as their governor is set to veto a purposed medical marijuana bill on Friday, for fear that the federal government might go after state employees.

On Thursday, Washington became the first state to officially legalize marijuana, soon to be followed by Colorado as their new laws legalizing the drug for recreational use go into effect. A survey out Friday shows what Americans want the federal government to do about the states whose drug laws clash with national laws: Leave them alone. Fifty-one percent of Americans in the new HuffPost/YouGov poll said that in the two states that have legalized marijuana use for adults, the federal government should exempt any adults following state laws from federal drug law enforcement.

New legislation in Washington state went into effect this week that legalizes for the first time in ages the possession of marijuana. Federal law still says otherwise, though, setting up the Justice Department to make some serious determinations. Even as smoking up became protected by state law in Washington starting Thursday, coast-to-coast prohibition as provided by a long-standing federal ruling remains on the books. For marijuana advocates in the Pacific Northwest, the lifting of the ban is a pretty big victory.

Our "Dear Leader" (The United Nations), along with several former U.S. DEA agents, is urging the Obama Administration to overturn Washington State's recent law (which decriminalizes personal use of marijuana).

The U.N. says THEY have the authority do to so because the new pot law breaks international treaty agreements.

WASHINGTON -- Shoppers can often save big buying online instead of at the local mall. But a chunk of the savings comes at the expense of state and local governments, in the form of sales taxes that are not paid on many Web purchases.

The losses add up for cash-starved state and local governments across the country.

“I’m not kidding around when I’m doing this. I’m dead serious. We need to stop handling Marijuana the way we have been,” says the Seattle Democrat.

She dropped House Bill 1550 on Tuesday, which she says will allow for the sale of marijuana in state-run liquor stores.

A new bill working through Washington state’s legislature would allow local sheriffs to enter homes of gun owners to ensure their weapons are properly stored.

The bill, pushed by Democrats, allows police to search where and how assault weapons are stored — as well as how safely they are stored, according to its text, listed in the state’s online legislative directory as SB 5737-2013-14.

A Washington County man who was asleep in the back of a cab claims he was shocked with a Taser because he "shushed" a state trooper when the man tried to wake him.
Phillip S. Chappel, 29, of Washington, filed a federal lawsuit Thursday against the state police, as well as Trooper Jeffrey Osrodowski, claiming the officer had no reason to take aggressive action against him.