AND OTHER STUFF THAT HAPPENED IN T-TOWN THIS WEEK >>>

Around 9:30 a.m. Thursday morning I was woken by the sound of chanting protestors gathering across the street from my apartment in front of the City of Tacoma Municipal Building. "Yes we cannabis!" was the rallying call of day (a not-so-subtle nod to President Obama's election slogan, if you're new to America). Many held signs with slogans like "Marijuana is safer than alcohol," "Pain or Pot?" or my personal favorite for its frank honesty, "Need my Weed."

As you'll recall, Tacoma has been dragging its feet making a determination about what to do with the medical marijuana dispensaries, and in ruling on civil suits filed by local cannabis dispensaries, as it waits for potential policy setting legislation from the Legislature in Olympia. Thursday, Tacoma City Hearing Examiner Rodney Kerslake granted a 60-day continuance on the appeals cases of dozens local medical marijuana dispensaries facing the possible revocation of their city business licenses.

If the Legislature fails to accomplish anything during this year's session, the problem will be right back where it started.  Tacoma has been banking on Olympia clarifying our state's well-meaning but poorly written medical marijuana law since at least last October, when all medical marijuana dispensaries in the city received cease and desist letters citing licensing violations, only to have the City Council issue a last-minute stay of execution under enormous pressure from dispensary proponents and medical marijuana patients.

To read the full column by Zach Powers click here.