Jeanne Kohl-Welles

Seattle State Legislators on Nickelsville

Let the games begin!

Seattle Weekly's Guide to the Rules of the 2001 State Legislature.

Big Drug Law Reform Bills Get Hearings Today

The big deficit-year push to accelerate drug policy reform continues with today's Senate Judiciary Committee meeting. The committee will be hearing two bills that reformers are watching closely. One has been introduced for years and never gotten a floor vote; the other is being introduced for the ... More >>

Drug Law Reform Bills Get Their Day in Committee

The Senate Judiciary Committee looked at bills to decriminalize marijuana possession and to encourage people to call 911 in overdose situations (by protecting them from drug crime prosecution) yesterday. (For more info on the bills themselves, see yesterday's write-up.) Reception of the bills appe ... More >>

Key To Payday Bills? Make Sure Both Sides Hate It

Every year bills pop up in Olympia to rein in the payday loan industry. Most are pushed by advocates like Rep. Sherry Appleton (D-Kitsap) who wants to cap annual interest rates at 36 percent, something that, when passed in other states, has resulted in the industry picking up stakes and leaving. The ... More >>

Senators Give Income Tax the Old College Try

It's not as though state legislators haven't tried to introduce income taxes before; it's just that now we're broke, so people are paying attention. Yesterday, Senator Jeanne Kohl-Welles introduced a bill proposing a 1% income tax on top earners--individuals earning more than $500,000 a year, heads ... More >>

The Truckers' Magic Carpet

Industrial Seattle is passionate but divided on the viaduct.

Notes From Our Fans

Industrial Seattle is passionate but divided on the viaduct.

Love Letters

A seemingly innocuous proposal to cut down on junk mail has the state's rural carriers going postal.

See More Butts

Thanks to the smoking ban, city sidewalks are littered with cigarettes. Whose job is it to clean them up?

Wine vs. 'Wine'

New to the job, and the governor's got you confronting a wine industry heavyweight. What's a Liquor Board president to do?

Broke as a Smoke

Powerful state legislators explore ditching the 25-foot rule as barkeeps struggle to weather a butt-free recession. By Philip Dawdy

Time to Deal

The cozy relationship between the Liquor Control Board and the people it's supposed to be monitoring is falling apart—finally.

Aaron Dixon's Voting Record

"Maybe it's true that nobody in Congress has ever driven without insurance or gotten behind on child-support payments, but it would surprise me...."

Hot Water

A Rhode Island metal tragedy could burn Seattle nightclub owners.

Vote Surly and Soften

Events for Jan. 28-Feb. 4, 2004

Taking Another Pot Shot

Initiative 75 wont change marijuana laws, but it could change the way those laws are enforced.

Miles to go

Should Seattle give the monorail a chance?

News Clips— Supremes club cannabis

Should Seattle give the monorail a chance?

Spliffed

The Legislature's medical-marijuana law runs afoul of reality.

Moth-eaten state

The spraying for gypsy moths proceeds, damaging government en route.

Bugged in Ballard

State bureaucrats bungle the spraying for gypsy moths by downplaying the scientific evidence in their favor.

What's in a name?

State bureaucrats bungle the spraying for gypsy moths by downplaying the scientific evidence in their favor.

The PTA press

School district arm-twisting fails as the City Council nixes new headquarters.

McMore of the same

School district arm-twisting fails as the City Council nixes new headquarters.

Ask the smart pig

School district arm-twisting fails as the City Council nixes new headquarters.

Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles Kills Workers' Comp Bills

Sen. Kohl-Welles says we need more talking on workers'-comp reform.​Today was pretty much the last hope for business owners asking the legislature to make significant changes to what they say is the state's broken workers'-comp system. And it didn't go well for reform advocates. In short, bus ... More >>

Medical Marijuana Dispensaries Would Be Legal Under New Proposed Bill

​Just months after a proposed initiative legalizing marijuana failed to qualify for the fall ballot, pot is back again on the political agenda. This time, the ball is in the legislature's court. With a new session beginning January, several legislators are poised to introduce bills that would ... More >>

Tacoma Showdown Over Medical Marijuana Dispensaries Sets Stage for Legislative Brawl

​Yesterday's showdown in Tacoma over the city's medical marijuana dispensaries all but guarantees that the Legislature will finally attempt to resolve the question of whether such business are--or should be-- legal. After the city initially threatened to shut the dispensaries down, it agreed l ... More >>

Roe v TeleTech Case May Set Precedent For Whether Companies Can Fire You For Using Medical Pot

​Under Washington State law a person cannot be prosecuted for using or possessing medical marijuana with a valid prescription. There's no law, however, that says an employer can't fire someone for doing the same thing. But once the case of "Jane Roe v TeleTech" is over, that may all change.

Farmers Markets to Serve Beer & Wine, If Seattle Senator Gets Her Way

​Compared to other states, Washington is incredibly anal-retentive when it comes to the service of alcohol. Our booze-delivery system is publicly controlled, with the hard stuff sold at separate, state-run stores and cordoned-off beer gardens permeating all-ages events like Bumbershoot and con ... More >>

Medical Marijuana Bill May Face "Huff and Puff" But--Surprise--Support from Many Activists

​Ben Livingston of the Cannabis Defense Coalition expects "huff and puff" at tomorrow's legislative hearing on a sweeping bill that would legalize and regulate the production and distribution of medical marijuana. Will the bill require patients to register with the government? Will it outlaw p ... More >>

Bill Would Treat Marijuana Like Liquor, Generate $200 Million Per Year for Washington

​For the second consecutive year, state representative Mary Lou Dickerson has introduced a bill (HB 1550) that would legalize and tax marijuana. If the legislation is approved--and that's a colossal if--Washington would treat weed just like liquor, generating an estimated $200 million in tax r ... More >>

Amendments Threaten to Derail Washington Medical-Marijuana Overhaul

Image source​UPDATED Thursday at 3:30 p.m. with comments from Kohl-Welles and a comprehensive list of the amendments to her bill. SB 5073, the overhaul of Washington's medical-marijuana law proposed by state Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, received a hearing today in the senate's Health and Long-Ter ... More >>

Medical Marijuana Bill, Nearly Derailed, Is Back on Track

​After a legislative committee hearing this morning, a sweeping medical marijuana bill is back on track. In a six to five vote, members of the House Health and Wellness Committee beat back a number of onerous amendments from the Senate that had threatened to derail the bill, according to Phili ... More >>

Medical Marijuana Bill Is Stripped of Patient Protections; Sponsor Jeanne Kohl-Welles Declares Herself "Unhappy"

​In approving a sweeping medical marijuana bill yesterday, state representatives thought they were voting on a medical marijuana bill that would bring a gray industry into the light and finally protect patients from arrest. What many didn't realize is that a last-minute amendment strips the bi ... More >>

Feds' Warning Letter Over Medical Marijuana Bill Plays Into Activists' Paranoia

​In a letter to the governor yesterday, Washington's U.S. Attorneys Jenny Durkan and Michael Ormsby put the state on notice. If Washington enacts a bill that purports to legalize medical marijuana dispensaries and growers, the feds will go after these entrepreneurs--and even the state workers ... More >>

Right to Be Paranoid

The controversial list that has medical-marijuana advocates terrified.

Medical-Marijuana Reform Passes State Leg., Heads to Gov. for Signature or Veto--Sen. Kohl-Welles: "We Need This Bill"

​The final version of the medical-marijuana-reform bill SB 5073 has now cleared both houses of the Washington State Legislature and is soon to be on its way to Gov. Chris Gregoire for its most important moment of truth. Meanwhile, the bill's original author Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, who, only l ... More >>

What's Next for Medical Marijuana in Washington?

Image via​Gov. Christine Gregoire effectively neutered the Medical Use of Cannabis Act on Friday -- using her partial veto powers to do away with provisions that would have established patient arrest protections and regulations for dispensaries -- but the politicians and activists pushing for ... More >>

Dan Satterberg, King County Prosecutor, Bemoans Medical Marijuana Bill Left Standing after Governor's Gutting and Calls for Local Control

​Like all impassioned activists, those in the medical marijuana camp sometimes engage in hyperbole. So it's been hard to know whether to believe those who claim that patients are now worse off than they were before a bill intending to help them was introduced in the legislature. It's not just ... More >>

Medical-Marijuana Reform Bill Re-Emerges in Washington, to the Great Applause of No One

​When the Washington State Legislature passed the medical-marijuana reform bill SB 5073, pot advocates weren't exactly flooding the streets to cheer. It had several issues that no one liked--chief among them, a patient registry list that would require anyone who wanted to enjoy the patient pro ... More >>

Proposed Pot Patient Registry, Despite Design of Computer Privacy Experts, Raises New Concerns

​For months, some medical-marijuana advocates have complained about state Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles' proposal to create a patient registry maintained by the state. What they might not have realized is that is that Kohl-Welles, who embedded the idea in her bill calling for regulation of the medic ... More >>

Jeanne Kohl-Welles: Failed Medical Pot Bill "The Greatest Disappointment of My Legislative Career"

​State Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, the driving force behind the push to overhaul Washington's murky medical pot policies, announced this morning that she has "decided not to pursue further attempts this year to strengthen our state's voter-approved medical marijuana law."

Roger Goodman, State Rep. and Congressional Candidate, Thinks He Can Win National Election on Medical-Marijuana Platform

​Last week when Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles (D-Seattle) announced that she had "decided not to pursue further attempts this year to strengthen our state's voter-approved medical marijuana law" Washington lost its principal champion of medical-cannabis reform. But now State Rep. Roger Goodman (D- ... More >>

Comment of the Week: Roger Goodman "Get a Clue"

​Earlier this week we wrote about state Rep. Roger Goodman and his plans to make medical-marijuana reform a signature issue during his campaign for Congress. This is remarkable because pot laws are generally a state-level issue and no one has successfully run for national office on a weed-refo ... More >>

"It's Really A Bummer": Kent Mayor Orders Marijuana Dispensaries To Close, Blames Gregoire Veto

Image Source​Kent Mayor Suzette Cooke is in favor of medical marijuana. In a statement issued yesterday, Cooke said she supported the state's prescription pot law when it was approved by voters in 1998, and that she sympathizes with cancer patients and others who rely on the drug for medicinal ... More >>

Dueling Pot Proposals Advance in Olympia: SB 6265 Has Public Hearing, I-502 Signatures Under Review

Image Source​The state is doubling down on plans to reform its policies on pot. A new bill that would overhaul the medical side of things received its first committee hearing yesterday, while I-502, the initiative that would legalize possession of up to an ounce of grass for recreational use, ... More >>

42 Washington Lawmakers Join Gov. Chris Gregoire In Asking DEA To Reclassify Marijuana

​A letter went out today to the federal government asking for marijuana to be reclassified as a drug so it can be prescribed by doctors and filled by pharmacists. Some 42 lawmakers in both the House and Senate -- including seven Republicans -- signed onto the letter to the Drug Enforcement Adm ... More >>

Cannabis Defense Coalition Comes Out Against New Medical Pot Bill

​A under consideration by lawmakers in Olympia would change the state's policy on medical marijuana, and cleanup some of the mess leftover from last year's partially vetoed pot legislation. So why does one of the state's leading cannabis advocacy groups oppose the proposal?