In brief: Washington takes step to ban marijuana use at bars
OLYMPIA – Washington’s Liquor Control Board wants to make sure people aren’t using marijuana in bars and nightclubs.
The board on Wednesday filed a draft rule that would explicitly ban any business with a liquor license from allowing marijuana use on site. Among the board’s concerns is that people who use marijuana in combination with alcohol could pose an extra danger on the roads if they drive.
It’s already illegal under Washington’s recreational marijuana law to use pot in public, and that includes restaurants, bars and clubs. But at least a couple of establishments have tried using loopholes to allow customers to use marijuana, such as by having “private clubs” within the businesses.
Carbon monoxide leads to hospital visits
SEATTLE – A Seattle Fire Department spokeswoman said seven people apparently affected by high carbon monoxide levels at a north Seattle condo building were sent to a hospital, including two men found unconscious.
Lt. Sue Stangl said the seven included a Seattle police officer who helped in the Wednesday evening rescue.
All were sent to Virginia Mason Medical Center, which has a hyperbaric chamber for oxygen therapy. Stangl said only the two men considered critical at the scene showed evidence of significant impairment.
Stangl said a man and woman returning to their condo smelled auto exhaust and knocked on the door of a nearby unit. They finally got into the unit, found two men unconscious and called 911.
City returns dead pot plants to patients
LYNNWOOD, Wash. – The city of Lynnwood has returned 202 dead marijuana plants and 6 pounds of drying pot that was seized from a group of medical marijuana patients more than a year ago.
Seattle lawyer Aaron Pelley said Lynnwood police seized the marijuana, as well as lights and other growing equipment, during a raid in May 2012. He said the patients were following the state’s medical marijuana law, and no criminal charges were filed.
Pelley and two other attorneys wrote a letter to the city, demanding city officials return the items or pay nearly $1 million, the estimated value of the property. The mayor signed off on the return of the pot, and Pelley picked it up Tuesday. He said the pot is no longer good for smoking, but might be used to make cannabis oil or marijuana-infused products.
Dozens of orcas seen in Puget Sound
SEATTLE – Whale spotters say dozens of killer whales are still in Puget Sound, where they have been seen by ferry passengers as well as people on shore.
Howard Garrett of the Orca Network at Freeland said 30 to 35 were spotted again Wednesday from the ferry on the Edmonds-Kingston route. The killer whales had been spotted in the same area at sunset Tuesday after swimming past Seattle.
The Orca Network reports members of the J and K pods have been in Puget Sound since Sunday.