Pot rules: States differ on regulating marijuana use

The District of Columbia has joined an exclusive American club: Residents of the nation's capital can now legally grow and consume recreational marijuana in their homes.

While some members of Congress are threatening to intervene, as of Thursday the District has joined Colorado, Alaska and Washington state in permitting the general public to use marijuana. But while Colorado and Washington are reaping the tax benefits of a regulated industry with hundreds of retail stores, D.C. residents must either grow their own or get it for free.

That lack of stores is a major difference setting the District apart from Colorado and Washington, which have stores up and running, and Alaska, which envisions retail outlets opening by early 2016. But it is by no means the only significant difference among the states that have legalized pot for either recreational or medical reasons. And those differences, legalization advocates say, are both welcome and appropriate.

"When we said regulate marijuana like alcohol, this is what we meant," said Mason Tvert of the Marijuana Policy Project, which worked on legalization efforts in Colorado and Alaska. "Different states have chosen to regulate alcohol in different ways, and we're seeing the same thing taking place with marijuana. And that's how it should be."

Frequent travelers know the nation has retained a patchwork of alcohol-sales laws even though Prohibition ended in 1933. Try buying liquor in a Colorado grocery store sometime, or a bottle of wine in Connecticut on a Sunday – or alcohol of any kind in Searcy, Ark.

The patchwork of both alcohol and marijuana laws reflects that the United States is both an "is" and an "are," depending on the context. While the federal government sets broad national policy, individual states, counties and cities also retain significant powers. Those freedoms are reflected in places like White County in Arkansas, home of Searcy, which has remained a dry county since Prohibition, and Colorado Springs, Colorado's second-largest city, which has entirely banned recreational marijuana sales.

In fact, despite recreational marijuana legalization in multiple states, hundreds of communities have chosen to ban sales. That's because legalization in Colorado, Washington and Alaska allows consumption and sales but doesn't require it.

The sometimes-subtle differences between legalized states, D.C. and the rest of the country reflect the fact that lawmakers have not approved the recreational marijuana laws. Instead, legalization has been achieved entirely at the ballot box by advocates making end-runs around legislatures and Congress.

Under the initiative process, advocates draft laws and bring them directly to voters, instead of letting legislators hash things out behind closed doors, subject to amendments and compromise. That's what happened in many cases with medical marijuana, leading to an even more splintered system among the states.

"With the voter initiatives, we get to write the law we think will work the best and get approved," said Tom Angell of the Marijuana Majority. "But on the other hand, the legislative process allows you to identify shortcomings, to have a back and forth, to tweak things and to get it right."

The initiative process means legalization advocates write their proposed laws specifically to appeal to voters. In Colorado, for instance, the law calls for up to $40 million annually in marijuana taxes to be dedicated to school construction. But Alaska's law doesn't set out any specific destination for the taxes in a state that's already sitting on a $53 billion Permanent Fund generated by mineral royalties.

"Every program is an experiment in what will work with that state," said Karmen Hansen of the National Conference of State Legislatures. "It's really not that different than any other policy decision. It's just different because we're not used to it. It's a new topic."

Hansen said she regularly fields calls from lawmakers trying to better understand how legalization is working, from medical marijuana for kids suffering from seizures to pot-infused edibles for tourists visiting Seattle.

Angell, of the Marijuana Majority, said lawmakers and advocates are simply trying to move forward after decades of criminalization and a federal government that still keeps marijuana classified as one of the nation's most dangerous drugs.

"Different states are taking different approaches to see what works best to end prohibition," he said. "This is a very new phenomenon, and we're using these laboratories of democracy to figure out the best way to do this. That's the beauty of our system of government."