Smoking Marijuana Legal in Washington State

At one minute past midnight on December 6, 2012, pro-cannabis campaigners celebrated in a haze at the foot of Seattle's Space Needle. Washington's new legalization law had just taken effect, making the state, along with Colorado, the first place in America to legalize and regulate recreational marijuana.

What did the law allow?

Initiative 502, approved by voters on November 6 alongside the presidential election, made it legal for adults 21 and over to possess up to an ounce of marijuana, up to 16 ounces of cannabis-infused edibles, or up to 72 ounces of cannabis in liquid form. Growing and processing would be licensed and regulated, sales would run through licensed shops, and the product would be taxed at 25 percent at each stage of the supply chain. Projections put the tax windfall in the hundreds of millions of dollars, earmarked for schools and health care.

Public smoking, however, remained illegal, subject to a $100 fine.

The police response

The Seattle Police Department told its 1,300 officers not to issue tickets for public use until further notice, and no officers showed up at the Space Needle celebration. On the department's blog, spokesman Jonah Spangenthal-Lee gave the new era a memorably deadpan welcome: "The department's going to give you a generous grace period to help you adjust to this brave, new, and maybe kinda stoned world we live in."

He added: "The police department believes that, under state law, you may responsibly get baked, order some pizzas and enjoy a Lord of the Rings marathon in the privacy of your own home, if you want to." The post featured Jeff Bridges as "The Dude" from The Big Lebowski, captioned: "The Dude abides, and says, 'take it inside!'"

Vivian McPeak, director of Seattle's annual Hempfest, called it "a big day because all our lives we've been living under the iron curtain of prohibition."

The federal problem

One cloud hung over the celebration: marijuana remained illegal under federal law through the Controlled Substances Act. Washington and Colorado had just created a direct conflict between state and federal authority, and nobody knew how the Obama administration's Justice Department would respond. A crackdown could have strangled the experiment in its crib; a hands-off approach would let the states become laboratories for the rest of the country.

FAQ

When did Washington legalize marijuana? Voters passed Initiative 502 on November 6, 2012; possession became legal December 6, 2012.

What were the limits? Adults 21+ could possess 1 ounce of flower, 16 ounces of edibles, or 72 ounces of liquid cannabis.

Was public smoking allowed? No. Public use carried a $100 fine, though Seattle police announced a grace period.

What about Colorado? Colorado voters passed Amendment 64 the same day, making the two states the first to legalize recreational marijuana.

The takeaway

The Space Needle celebration was the easy part. The hard part, building a legal market under the shadow of federal prohibition, would take years. But December 6, 2012 was the night the iron curtain of prohibition took, as McPeak put it, a body blow.