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In 2012, Washington and Colorado voters made history when they approved measures to legalize recreational marijuana. Washington Initiative 502 “authorizes the state liquor board to regulate and tax marijuana for persons twenty-one years of age or older.”Since the vote in Washington, the Liquor Board has written a complex set of rules for the state’s new, legal recreational cannabis marketplace. The agency has also set limits on the amount of marijuana that can be grown. And the Board has begun to license growers, processors and retailers.For now, the Obama administration has signaled it will not interfere with Washington and Colorado’s legal pot experiment, unless there is evidence that legal pot is “leaking” to other states or children are getting access to the legal product. The feds are also watching to see if criminal organizations exploit the legal market.The first marijuana retail stores in Washington opened in July 2014.Recreational marijuana is also set to become legal in Oregon on July 1, 2015 after voters approved Measure 91 in November 2014.

Marijuana Advocates Push Legalization Measure In Salem

Petr Brož
/
Wikimedia

  SALEM, Ore. – Marijuana advocates are taking their message to the Oregon capitol. A legislative panel will consider a measure Tuesday that would legalize and tax the drug. It comes as Washington state is in the process of crafting rules about how to regulate pot after voters there approved legalization.

Still, Anthony Johnson knows he's asking a lot.

"I understand that this is a heavy lift for the legislature to pass this bill this year," he says.

But Johnson, who heads a political action committee called New Approach Oregon, figures lawmakers will at least consider recreational marijuana now that it's legal in Washington.

"Our neighbors to the north are going to start collecting taxes from Oregon residents who are purchasing marijuana."

Oregon voters rejected a legalization ballot measure last fall. But Johnson says this bill is more restrictive. It would allow more direct state control over the production and distribution of the drug.

Meanwhile in Idaho, the legislature has declared its opposition to all uses of pot.

On the Web:

HB 3371: Marijuana regulation - Oregon Legislature