Calm Yourself: Snoqualmie Tribe Did Not Actually Legalize Pot

Photo by amanda graham from the Seattlest Flickr pool.

The funny thing about rumors is that, much like shitty pot, they burn brightly, quickly, and leave you feeling icky and cheated after they're up in smoke. Especially if you reported on them as if they were true. Which, to be fair, is not that far-fetched.

But some media outlets did take a drag on today's stoniest rumor: that the Snoqualmie Tribe had legalized marijuana in Willie Nelson's honor. Of course, they've all retracted by now.

The tribe has since issued a statement letting everyone know that it was merely a practical joke among insiders that somehow managed to waft under the noses of the press, tempting them with a wave-making headline.

It's likely that the rumor wasn't whiffed out sooner because of the potential kernels of truth among it, particularly in light of the legalization movements' gathering momentum among politicians. Yesterday, on City Inside/Out (hosted by Ross Reynolds, who I really, really hope isn't the permanent replacement for C.R. Douglas for about a million reasons), Seattle City Councilmembers Sally Clark, Tom Rasmussen and Jean Godden all agreed that they'd be in favor of legalization and regulation of marijuana--and not just the "medical" stuff. Coupled with the City Council's recent moves to more clearly outline the laws surrounding medical marijuana dispensaries, and the rumor begins to look less like smoke signals.

Of course, plenty of folks are arguing that the idea of Native American tribes leading the movement isn't that crazy; after all, tribes are on sovereign land, and if anyone stands a chance of getting such a thing passed, it's them. And of course, if tribes were to legalize, while they may be subject to Federal laws, their own almost always prevail.

Either way, this rumor is most assuredly untrue. Sorry, Willie Nelson. Even you're not enough of a reason for legalization.

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By hanna brooks olsen in News on July 12, 2011 3:00 PM

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Jillian

On June 17, 1971, President Nixon told Congress that "if we cannot destroy the drug menace in America, then it will surely destroy us." After forty years of trying to destroy "the drug menace in America" we still *haven't* been able to destroy it and it still *hasn't* destroyed us. Four decades is long enough to realize that on this important issue, President Nixon was wrong! All actions taken as a result of his invalid and paranoid assumptions (e.g. the federal marijuana prohibition) should be ended immediately!

It makes no sense for taxpayers to fund the federal marijuana prohibition when it *doesn't* prevent people from using marijuana and it *does* make criminals incredibly wealthy and incite the Mexican drug cartels to murder thousands of people every year.

We need legal adult marijuana sales in supermarkets, gas stations and pharmacies for exactly the same reason that we need legal alcohol and tobacco sales - to keep unscrupulous black-market criminals out of our neighborhoods and away from our children. Marijuana must be made legal to sell to adults everywhere that alcohol and tobacco are sold.

"There's something extraordinarily perverse when we're so concerned about preventing addicts from having access to drugs that we destroy the lives of many times more people, either through untreated pain or other drug war damage".