[Jonah Spangenthal-Lee’s guide to legal marijuana use in Seattle, posted on the Seattle Police Department’s website](http://spdblotter.seattle.gov/2012/11/09/marijwhatnow-a-guide-to-legal-marijuana-use-in-seattle/) is fantastic, including a `TL;DR` version:
>Please note that the initiative says it “is unlawful to open a package containing marijuana…in view of the general public,” so there’s that. Also, you probably shouldn’t bring pot with you to the federal courthouse (or any other federal property).
It’s been pretty interesting in Washington since the initiative legalizing marijuana was passed. King and Pierce county prosecutors applied the law retro-actively and dropped hundreds of pending marijuana cases. The local news has been reporting on such conundrums as:
– Should parents smoke weed in front of their kids?
– How do you teach kids drugs are bad, when drugs are legal?
– Legalizing marijuana will add $68 million to the anti-drug campaigns for children, will that help?
– What happens if you are caught with marijuana in another state, but were bringing it to Washington to smoke it?
I mean, it really has been bang your head against the wall stupid around here.
When you stop to think about it, legalizing marijuana really isn’t that big of a deal ((As in, people were already using it, this doesn’t change much.)) , but it does change the marijuana market here in Washington. No longer is it a black market, now it will be a gray market drug as people will soon realize it’s not that easy to purchase (there are no stores yet, but I have been contacted to put some in buildings I manage) legally.
The far more interesting question is for employers and employees — as most companies have anti-drug policies. So just as you can’t be drunk on the job, you also can’t be stoned on the job. Yet with alcohol, it’s a simple test to determine if you are drunk right now — weed stays in your system much longer. So now the question is, when you are hurt on the job and you get drug tested: does marijuana count?
Of course this is all moot if the Federal government decides to enforce federal laws banning it.