To those who think they will solve societal problem by changing MMJ rules, or by causing the (already exorbitant) price of marijuana to escalate (through taxation):

I am one of the voters who voted to legalize medical marijuana years ago, and have been going to dispensaries for many years for my medical condition(s). I rely on MMJ dispensaries in WA state to allow me to function "normally" in my retirement.

I am also an advocate of legalizing recreational marijuana, but not at the expense of patients across the state who have come to depend on a certain level of expertise, availability, and the safe access bestowed on and expected by MMJ patients through years of successful experience of Washington State Medical Marijuana (MMJ).

Now you want to eliminate our right to grow our own medical marijuana. Now you want to create a mandatory registry of cannabis patients. Now you want to decrease the limits for MMJ possession from 24 ounces to 3 ounces. Now you want to close all existing safe access points (dispensaries). Now you want to have this one legal "recreational" law for all users, even if medical marijuana patients require special strains or preparations. Now you want to tax the "recreational" marijuana so much that in all probability, the black market will continue. Most MMJ patients will not be able to renew their medical status since you plan on making the requirements more onerous, making the availability of the MMJ status near impossible, so that your perceived profits from taxation will be maximized. You want to eliminate collective gardens. You want to add new penalties for doctors who write MMJ prescriptions, requiring them to treat MMJ as if it were opiates.

Stop it!

Hands off the MMJ laws! If you don't like the existing MMJ laws, ask The People if they want more onerous laws or less onerous laws toward marijuana. This prohibition is coming to an end. Although you can't see it, the young people of America understand that Orwellian governments are the problem, not a common weed that has caused untold millions grief, not when they used the marijuana, which is not the "demon weed" that has been propagandized for 70 some years, but a fairly innocuous plant known for it's calming effects.

You and your kind have ruled the day for far too long. You want to have everyone behave in the way that you think is best, giving no thought to common sense. Common sense tells us that marijuana should be nearly free, since it grows nearly everywhere and so easily. Yet your machinations have made it a substance which costs huge amounts of money, thereby making huge profits for the government, through either taxation or repression. We, THE VOTERS will remember who put in the onerous laws and who advocated for an enlightened definition of use by patients and non-patients alike. A few years from now, it will all be a moot point, once marijuana is changed from a "Class A narcotic" to the same level of restrictions of use and production as beets or potatoes.

Please, let The People decide. The People want both recreational marijuana AND medical marijuana. And the recreational marijuana market should utilize the expertise of generations of growers, not simply given over to a lottery or to those who can afford the best lawyers or afford to bribe some officials. How stupid can you be? You are demonstrating your ineffectiveness and inability to everyone with an ear to hear, with an eye to see.

But you won't listen. You are determined that only you on the "Liquor Control Board" of Washington State know what's best for those who pay your salaries. (We, The People). Do the right thing for once and liberalize your rules for MMJ patients. One day, when you need this product for your own health concerns, or for your parents or kids, then you may realize how stupid you have been, basing the new "recreational" use of marijuana on a retail booze model of doing business, rather than the MMJ model we have grown to expect and rely on here in Washington State for many years. Stop being part of the problem. I urge you to become the solution.