Do you remember the story of Ant and Grasshopper? The little ant toiled away all summer, preparing for winter. It packed up it's house with food and extra shelter materials. It even put away reserves into to storage, just in case winter was long, or something came up. All the while that the Ant prepared, the Grasshopper spent it's days racing around the puddles with it's friends, eating up the bounty that the summer left. Grasshopper even took the time to stop at laugh at Ant. "Look at him, he's all work and no play. Must be a dull guy." Said Grasshopper to his hopper friends, and they all laughed. Though when winter came, you can guess who was the last one laughing. Cold weather swept in unexpectedly early in the year, and blanketed the ground with fresh snow. Ant was outside shoveling off his mound one morning, when Grasshopper came groveling for food. Ant turned him away kindly, and went back to his work to maintain through the winter and get ready for work in the summer.
This child's tale reminds me of what is going on in the cannabis culture in Washington state. The dispensaries and providers are the ants that spent their summers preparing for the winter. They are solo people, or small groups of people, who do what they can to help others and help themselves get ahead and have a better quality of life while they are doing it. The dispensaries went through all the proper channels, jumped through all the fiery hoops and bribed the right people, so that they could open places that were safe for medicinal users to access their meds. Likewise, the singular providers had to struggle through their own obstacles, on top of practicing organic husbandry for their patients plants. Both dispensaries and providers face threats from the law everyday, because the law says they won't be prosecuted, it doesn't say they won't be arrested and have their meds confiscated. Nor does the state law say that it protects even the most legit provider or dispensary from DEA raids. They also face a moderate threat from the criminal element that used to control black market cannabis around here, and isn't to happy that dispensaries and providers are taking a large chunk of their business. There are risks every where for the busy green ants in Washington state, and now their risks have doubled.
The state, which is represented by the Grasshopper, has spent it's summer toiling away the budget. A few dozen flights here, a few deals there, a lot of over inflated paychecks... It went faster then they thought, and the revenue didn't come in from the water, candy and extra cigarette taxes.. (Who could've seen that coming?) So now the state is in a bind. Voters are already furious that the budget has tanked as bad as it has, and they are a bit miffed that every attempt to re-legalize cannabis has been continually combated by the state. On top of unhappy tax payers, the state isn't getting the revenue they were hoping from their previously lame attempts, they are stuck. They can't add any more taxes this year, and they know it. Even with a special session, it will kill any last bit of respect the citizens of Washington might have held for their law makers...Which would mean bye bye paycheck all together. So what is a big bad and broke grasshopper supposed to do now? They're cold and hungry, and they know it will only go on if they don't figure something out. They see the ants, whom have spent all summer getting ready for the harshness of winter, whom are happily enjoying hot cocoa in their little hills. The ants look so happy, and the grasshopper knows their must be a way to get what the ants have. Though instead of considering working hard or trading something in exchange for food, water and warmth, the grasshoppers decide to steal from the ants. The grasshoppers try to plan a few raids on the ant hills, to take what they need and then scare the rest of the ants into giving up their resources to the grasshoppers.
To be a little bit less cryptic... Washington state has recently decided that it wants to tax medical marijuana dispensaries and providers, for every exchange of cannabis that goes through their hands. Even though dispensaries and providers only accept donations from their patients and members, and have gone through all the proper channels to do so, that they still must pay a sales tax for all donations received. The state has decided that there is a magic exemption in the state law that says that marijuana must be taxed and cannot be considered a charitable act of giving and being generously compensated for that charity. Please correct me if I'm wrong here, but as far as I am aware, there are not any other charities that have to pay a retail sales tax on their gifts and services to this state..Yet cannabis has a special exemption?
Why such the bullying tactics Washington state? I am not personally a believer that the state or the fed gov should get any piece of the cannabis revenue pie. However, I am willing to accept that some sort of trade has to be put on the table, and both sides need to play nice and compromise. Which is why I sport a "regulate it & tax it" sort of attitude. If the state wants a larger chunk of the green rush, then they need to re-legalize it completely in our state, and all the people to do their thing. Businesses will crop up left and right, all the empty store fronts that are depression empty right now, will fill up with custom hackey sack stores, gourmet restaurants, new age night clubs, vocational schools, and happy people enjoying their lives. Even if no cannabis shops opened up, the economy would pick up anyways, and the state would receive a lot more tax revenue from the raising productivity level in this state. Then, as the canna-cafe's, enlightening espresso stands, creative culture clubs and learn-to-grow schools open up, the economy will hit another boom and the state will get another burst in tax revenue. Mostly from the extra businesses opening up, but also from a small and reasonable tax on cannabis that has been processed, which is pretty much the same as a general confection tax on consumable items. You see, even a small tax would make so much for a while, that it would put any other tax revenue plan to shame.
And the people are for it. The city of Seattle is home the nations largest cannabis protestival, our state has one of the lowest number of cannabis arrests or prosecutions, and most cities have either decriminalized cannabis to a certain extent, or the law enforcement just isn't as concerned with cannabis as they used to be in many cities. The cannabis use has gone up and the crime rate has gone down. The people are ready for cannabis to be legal in the state of Washington. Millions of locals have voiced their opinions in forums, on news reports, to blogs, and at protests and rallies every year.
The state knows that it's prime time to re-legalize, even many of the cities have already started to make their moves to submit legislation to re-legalize in our state. Yet the state doesn't want to go through the work to re-legalize it now, when they need the money the most. The state can't wait until November 2011. They have burnt through the money already, and just don't want to admit to it. It sucks, but the cannabis culture is already prepared to re-legalize in the coming year. So if the state doesn't want to legalize now, it won't be any different. People around here can wait for it to be fully legalized when another initiative is put on the ballet in 2011. It may seem like a long wait, but for Washingtonians, it's been a long fight and a long time coming. To wait just a little bit longer is not a problem for people that have been conditioned to be tolerant with the state. Washingtonians have learned that small steps and lots of patients get the culture a lot further in the end.
It is this reserve for patience that I am hoping the dispensaries and providers will persevere with. The state is threatening DEA raids on dispensaries, co-ops and providers, unless they agree to pay a retail sales tax on every bit of cannabis that goes through their hands. It's going to be a scary road, and sadly, a few dispensaries may get hurt by the tantrums from the state. Though if the cannabis culture can endure, it will be the state that looks bad and looses dignity. The headlines will show their misdeeds against the medical community, and it will create a great change in the minds of the cannabis community. They will see that there is a big need to make sure that the state gets the smallest amount of taxes (if any) when it comes time to legalize. They're already paid too much, and over inflated in many ways. In my opinion, the cannabis culture has already given enough through jail time and taxes to pay law enforcement and courts systems to process cannabis "criminals".
It is my advice to the state, that they should hold a special "re-legalize cannabis in Washington state" session. Instead of trying to suggest that mmj providers and dispensaries are not following the laws, and aggravating everyone. Playing nice, and doing just a little bit of work, would set the stage to get the incoming taxes that they think they need right now, and to let Washingtonians get back on their feet. The state would do well to do it this way, and take the bribe for the cannabis community, instead of trying to steal the taxes from the mmj community. Which will only result in raising prices for patients, who are already suffering and don't need any more people to kick them while they are down.
It seems to me like the state could have more ulterior motives behind the curtain. Some news reports have suggested that they state could be trying to trap the mmj community into a trap with the DEA. If dispensaries or providers were to pay the retail sales tax, wouldn't they be admitting to not having followed the laws set down by the state? Or could it be that if they get into selling retail before the laws are set straight to legalize retail sales of cannabis, would they be breaking state law again? It makes a person wonder who at the top of the state gov has decided to steal this tax money. Could it be even more sinister? That maybe the state is losing money because the black market is losing money? It would make sense, since the only two entities that are unhappy about legal ganja, is the gov and the criminals.... They are the only one's who might suffer if cannabis were legalize. Which gives more logic to the idea that the state should re-legalize now, and get easy tax revenue while the tax payers are in a giving mood.
I tell you what, I wouldn't want to see what would happen if they enforced an unjust tax on the cannabis community, especially just as the holidays are coming up. How cruel is that? Ants may be small individually, but they can be a formidable foe when they all get together to protect their hills that they spent all year preparing. In fact, the ants have already shown their mustard, as the state tried to raid through dispensaries and co-ops and said that they could not provide to more then one patient. Or as the state continues to go after patients for growing more than "the limit", which has been proved to be to ambiguous. The state continues to try and keep the cannabis community down, but we are too many. Small we may be as individuals, but large we are as a community.
If the state continues to pursue this tax theft to the cannabis community, I am betting that it will be a hell of a show. Either we get headlines that say "special session to re-legalize cannabis and collect tax revenue", or it will say "state steals from sick stoners because they wasted the budget". It will definitely be worth pulling out the popcorn. Maybe there will be more articles with headlines that say "are we paying state legislators to much in salary?".....
Either way, I am eager to see how things play out through the new year. I certainly intend to follow the story and cheer on the cannabis community through these troubling times. I believe that if the dispensaries and providers can hold out a bit longer, and not give into this crazy cash scheme from the state, that cannabis will be re-legalized even sooner than voters expect.
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