[420 Girl]

Washington - One partial solution to the state’s budget woes could be the legalization of marijuana, according to Poulsbo Democrat Sherry Appleton.

The 23rd District representative was one of six House members, all Democrats, to sign their names to a bill on Monday that would call for pot to be legal and for the state to sell it and collect taxes on it at state liquor stores.

“This would be a way of not only saving money by not having to prosecute people who use small amounts of pot,” she said. “Millions of people smoke pot and were not deriving any taxation from it.”

While the House might hold a hearing about pot legalization or decriminalization, no one should expect to be able to buy marijuana over the state liquor store counter anytime soon.

“I don’t have any illusions that this is going to pass this year, but we’ve never had the conversation in a hearing or otherwise,” Appleton said.

A conversation appears to be all she expects. Appleton said House Speaker Frank Chopp has said he would allow a discussion of marijuana laws this session.

Kitsap County Sheriff Steve Boyer said a conversation is fine. He said it would premature of him to weigh in on the bill, but that he does have “a lot of reservations.”

“What really concerns me is big, bold experiments like this need to be thought out a bit,” Boyer said.

The sheriff said law enforcement officials have tools to measure alcohol usage when someone is driving, but the same tools are not in place for marijuana and other drugs. He said he would not say a lot of people would be driving impaired on pot, but “logic tells me you’re going to have an increase.”

Appleton describes marijuana as the state’s biggest cash crop. If a 2006 study by marijuana legalization advocate John Gettman is correct, it’s one of the state’s biggest agricultural products. He estimates that state growers sold more than $1 billion of pot that year and $1.1 billion in apples. Wheat came in a distant third at about $500 million.

Washington was the fifth-largest producer of pot in the United States that year, behind California, Tennessee, Kentucky and Hawaii. California’s production was valued at $13.8 billion, according to Gettman.

In his 2006 study, Gettman said he came up with his estimates by examining the federal government’s seizure of plants in various states.

“I believe that we have done a terrible job on the war on drugs. The truth is there are many citizens who do smoke marijuana,” Appleton said.

Californians are exploring legalization either through legislation or voter initiative, but any legalization effort would run afoul of the federal government’s stance on recreational use.

Appleton said she does not smoke marijuana herself. Still, having witnessed her husband die from cancer, the issue is somewhat personal to her.

“Pot was probably something that could have made him pain-free. So it is personal to me in the sense that I think we spend too much time putting people in jail for doing something millions of people do and get away with,” she said.

The bill number is HB 2401.

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