Snap Judgment
Should Seattleites Be Allowed to Grow Their Own Marijuana?
Washington’s weed industry is growing like one, but the state bans some users from cultivating it at home. By December, the Liquor and Cannabis Board will recommend whether to change the law.

Image: Shutterstock by Jan Havlicek
“When home grows are allowed it makes enforcement by anyone extremely difficult… Keep it how it is. Let the state control it.”
—Mitch Barker, executive director of the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs
“I think, most importantly, because we are in a world where we’re trying to keep our legalization system in place under a Jeff Sessions Justice Department, that now is not the time to move forward with home grows.”
—John Schochet, deputy city attorney of Seattle
“We are in support of home grows, and the reason for it kind of gets down to what we believe [they] can do for the industry: …help grow a more sophisticated market space.”
—Lara Kaminsky, executive director of the Cannabis Alliance
“The [board] should just tell the Legislature, ‘Yeah, it’s feasible,’ and then let the Legislature worry about it…. It’s kind of insane that a regulatory agency constructed to regulate businesses is somehow tasked with regulating responsible adults in their own home.”
—Kevin Oliver, executive director of Washington National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws