Jacob Bell
New Member
Patients will soon be able to call for an appointment, go to a nondescript building in Seattle's Georgetown, produce or purchase their CannaPi Card, and be able to purchase one or two grams of marijuana with a wide choice of options for ingesting it.
"We will offer a wide variety of smokeables and edibles and oils: We will have an executive chef who even does an eggs benedict," said Anthony Gibbs, an attorney working with the "CannaCrew."
The city's latest medical marijuana dispensing operation will hold its grand opening on Saturday, just a day after Obama drug czar (and former Seattle Police Chief) Gil Kerlikowske meets with the Seattle Times editorial board to challenge Fairview Fannie's call for legalized pot.
CannaPi will have a band on hand and barbecued ribs -- there will no cannabis distraction Saturday afternoon -- and hopes like any neighborhood business for friendly relations with Seattle Police Georgetown Precinct.
What sets this business apart, however, is the quasi-legal status of its chief product -- and its elaborate security.
Distribution is by appointment only: Nobody will just show up. (CannaPi's number is 763-1171.) Patients, who must be 21, will be watched by security cameras and enter through a "security vestibule." The patient will consult a receptionist through bulletproof glass, be buzzed through thick doors, talk with a consultant and obtain through a pass-through box a product that is stored in a 1,800-pound safe. Ingesting on the premises will not be allowed.
Cannabis is illegal under federal law, although more than 100 local outlets now make it available under provisions of Initiative 692, Washington's Medical Use of Marijuana Act.
The Washington State Senate has just voted to license and regulate sales and provide "arrest protection" to those with a health care professional's signed statement that they may benefit from the medical use of marijuana.
Seattle is host to Hempfest, the largest marijuana-oriented celebration in America -- and an event so peaceful that it is sought-after overtime for the cops. A 2003 initiative directed that Seattle Police make marijuana possession their lowest priority law enforcement.
Still, all this is still a crime under federal law, but . . .
The feds' policy, laid out in an October 2009 memo, has become "not to focus federal resources" on individual users "whose actions are in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing laws providing for the medical use of marijuana."
There are bigger operations on which to focus. Still, America's drug enforcement empire has spent 40 years entrenching itself since President Nixon, ignoring a federal commission, declared his "War on Drugs."
The war has not been successful: It has damaged lives and drained national resources. A conservative Harvard economist, Jeffrey Miron, calculated in a 2010 study that ending the marijuana prohibition would save the taxpayers almost $14 billion.
"The savings would be generated through a $7.7 billion reduction in the amount of money law enforcement spends prosecuting, investigating, apprehending and jailing marijuana users, and $6.2 billion via new tax receipts," investigative reporter Trish Regan writes in her book Joint Ventures: Inside America's Almost Legal Marijuana Industry.
As well, an end to prohibition would hit Mexican drug cartels in the pocketbook. According to the Office of National Drug Control Policy, sale of cannabis in the U.S. accounts for 60 percent of the cartels' income -- or about $8.6 billion as of 2006.
CannaPi will be paying its taxes, operating as a non-profit "mutual benefit corporation," and selling marijuana grown in the region. "We will be closely monitoring where we get it from and where it goes," said Johnny Mahalo of CannaPi.
And, added Gibbs, "One way to address the black market is to undercut it. Why go to a shady 'market' on the corner if you can come to this?'
The standard membership is $20 a month, or one gram for every $10 contributed. CannaPi cards will be good for discounts at other merchants. And the CannaCrew hope to start holding cooking classes and even a job fair.
The operation at 6111 12rh S. is worlds apart from Baby Boomers' memories of buying seed-filled bags after whispered conversations along "the Ave."
But there are still many, many legal hurdles before those in the marijuana growing and marketing business can fully emerge from the shadows.
News Hawk- GuitarMan313 420 MAGAZINE
Source: seattlepi.com
Author: Joel Connelly
Contact: Contact Us
Copyright: Hearst Seattle Media, LLC
Website: A friendly Seattle marijuana fortress
"We will offer a wide variety of smokeables and edibles and oils: We will have an executive chef who even does an eggs benedict," said Anthony Gibbs, an attorney working with the "CannaCrew."
The city's latest medical marijuana dispensing operation will hold its grand opening on Saturday, just a day after Obama drug czar (and former Seattle Police Chief) Gil Kerlikowske meets with the Seattle Times editorial board to challenge Fairview Fannie's call for legalized pot.
CannaPi will have a band on hand and barbecued ribs -- there will no cannabis distraction Saturday afternoon -- and hopes like any neighborhood business for friendly relations with Seattle Police Georgetown Precinct.
What sets this business apart, however, is the quasi-legal status of its chief product -- and its elaborate security.
Distribution is by appointment only: Nobody will just show up. (CannaPi's number is 763-1171.) Patients, who must be 21, will be watched by security cameras and enter through a "security vestibule." The patient will consult a receptionist through bulletproof glass, be buzzed through thick doors, talk with a consultant and obtain through a pass-through box a product that is stored in a 1,800-pound safe. Ingesting on the premises will not be allowed.
Cannabis is illegal under federal law, although more than 100 local outlets now make it available under provisions of Initiative 692, Washington's Medical Use of Marijuana Act.
The Washington State Senate has just voted to license and regulate sales and provide "arrest protection" to those with a health care professional's signed statement that they may benefit from the medical use of marijuana.
Seattle is host to Hempfest, the largest marijuana-oriented celebration in America -- and an event so peaceful that it is sought-after overtime for the cops. A 2003 initiative directed that Seattle Police make marijuana possession their lowest priority law enforcement.
Still, all this is still a crime under federal law, but . . .
The feds' policy, laid out in an October 2009 memo, has become "not to focus federal resources" on individual users "whose actions are in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing laws providing for the medical use of marijuana."
There are bigger operations on which to focus. Still, America's drug enforcement empire has spent 40 years entrenching itself since President Nixon, ignoring a federal commission, declared his "War on Drugs."
The war has not been successful: It has damaged lives and drained national resources. A conservative Harvard economist, Jeffrey Miron, calculated in a 2010 study that ending the marijuana prohibition would save the taxpayers almost $14 billion.
"The savings would be generated through a $7.7 billion reduction in the amount of money law enforcement spends prosecuting, investigating, apprehending and jailing marijuana users, and $6.2 billion via new tax receipts," investigative reporter Trish Regan writes in her book Joint Ventures: Inside America's Almost Legal Marijuana Industry.
As well, an end to prohibition would hit Mexican drug cartels in the pocketbook. According to the Office of National Drug Control Policy, sale of cannabis in the U.S. accounts for 60 percent of the cartels' income -- or about $8.6 billion as of 2006.
CannaPi will be paying its taxes, operating as a non-profit "mutual benefit corporation," and selling marijuana grown in the region. "We will be closely monitoring where we get it from and where it goes," said Johnny Mahalo of CannaPi.
And, added Gibbs, "One way to address the black market is to undercut it. Why go to a shady 'market' on the corner if you can come to this?'
The standard membership is $20 a month, or one gram for every $10 contributed. CannaPi cards will be good for discounts at other merchants. And the CannaCrew hope to start holding cooking classes and even a job fair.
The operation at 6111 12rh S. is worlds apart from Baby Boomers' memories of buying seed-filled bags after whispered conversations along "the Ave."
But there are still many, many legal hurdles before those in the marijuana growing and marketing business can fully emerge from the shadows.
News Hawk- GuitarMan313 420 MAGAZINE
Source: seattlepi.com
Author: Joel Connelly
Contact: Contact Us
Copyright: Hearst Seattle Media, LLC
Website: A friendly Seattle marijuana fortress
