Weed Marijuana bills erode integrity of our laws

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 and are asking for state-sponsored protection from public knowledge.

When Initiative 502 was voted into law in 2012, the citizens of Washington 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 children and young adults.

There is a preponderance of new medical and psychological warnings of real harm to this vulnerable group that wasn’t available at the time the initiative was voted into law.

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) writes the bill, look for 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?

This story was originally published February 12, 2016 at 1:14 PM with the headline "Weed Marijuana bills erode integrity of our laws."