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Stringer / REUTERS
Frankie's Sports Bar and Grill recently started allowing people to smoke marijuana in the Olympia, Wash., bar, taking advantage of some haziness in the law.
Thanks to a successful ballot initiative last month, Washington state residents can legally smoke marijuana in the privacy of their living rooms as of Thursday.
When that gets old, bar owner Frank Schnarr suggests, area stoners have another option: grab a booth at Frankie's Sports Bar & Grill in Olympia and toke up there.
Schnarr, 62, says he is not acting out of a love of cannabis - he says he hasn't smoked the stuff since he was a soldier stationed in Southeast Asia in the 1970s. Rather, he's looking for new sources of income.
"I stay up at night," he said. "I'm about to lose my business. So I've got to figure out some way to get people in here."
Schnarr, who waged an ultimately successful battle with local and state officials over Washington's 2006 smoking ban, appears to be the first restaurant or bar owner in the state to test the recently expanded limits on recreational marijuana use.
So, is he breaking the law?
Federal, state and local officials appear unsure. Or if they are, they're not saying.
"Marijuana remains illegal under federal law," said Emily Langlie, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Seattle. "I can't tell you whether what he's doing is legal or not."
Americans to feds: Keep your hands off our pot
Says Tom Morrill, Olympia's city attorney: "We're looking into it. There are a lot of changes in state law right now. That's all I can say."
Mikhail Carpenter, spokesman for the state's Liquor Control Board, newly empowered to make rules for and oversee the state's planned regime for the cultivation, processing and sale of marijuana, is similarly noncommittal.
"The board is weighing its options with regard to Frankie's," he said. "It's not perfectly crystal clear as to who this falls to."
Carpenter said he knows of no other bar or restaurant in the state that allows marijuana smoking.
The legal gray area that Schnarr is exploiting exists in part thanks to his earlier fight over the smoking ban.
In order to flout it, Schnarr renamed his establishment's smoking-friendly second floor as "Friends of Frankie's," a private room limited to those who pay a $10 annual membership fee.
Nick Adams / REUTERS
A medical marijuana patient smokes inside the Frankie Sports Bar and Grill.
A full range of alcoholic beverages are for sale and the room is staffed by comely bartenders and cocktail waitresses. They are volunteers entitled to reimbursement for travel expenses and childcare but otherwise making their living off tips.
"Frank's ahead of the curve on (allowing marijuana use)," says Shawn Newman, Schnarr's attorney. "A lot of other taverns, bars and restaurants would like to do this, but they didn't have enough chutzpah to fight the smoking ban so they're locked into non-smoking operations."
Schnarr says "Friends of Frankie's" has over 10,000 members, with upwards of 40 joining in the two days since he announced that marijuana would be welcome.
To help appeal to his new target market, Schnarr has introduced a $4.20 appetizer menu — included are breaded shrimp, breaded cheese sticks and breaded mushrooms — and he is toying with the possibility of opening a medical marijuana dispensary on a nearby property.
But he isn't looking to attract Olympia's sizable transient crowd, or stoned college students.
"I'll have security in here, and if I see a bunch of guys just trying to get ripped, they're gone," he said.
Early last Friday evening, a few dozen customers played pool, drank beer, smoked cigarettes and loosened up for an impending shuffleboard tournament.
Only a small group at the back of the bar appeared to be smoking pot, a glass jar of the stuff sitting on the table between them.
Chris Sapp, 28, a long-haired diesel mechanic and longtime Frankie's member, said being able to smoke pot at the bar makes him feel like he's in Amsterdam.
"If I wasn't a friend of Frankie's already I'd be one now because you can come here and smoke and feel free," he said after taking a pull from a small pipe. "That's how it should be. We shouldn't have to hide weed."
Across the room, another patron commended Schnarr for welcoming pot use but begged off giving his name. As a volunteer firefighter, he said, he wasn't supposed to be in contact with marijuana smoke.
"I cannot be in this room," he lamented. "It's not like I'm sitting here smoking a joint or anything. My problem is that I'd love to, but I can't.
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Leave a Comment:
Good for this bar owner. He's taking advantage of a new potential revenue stream, and now his customers have a choice between getting drunk & violent, or stoned & relaxed. I expect more bars in WA will follow his lead, and alcohol related crime to decline as a result.
Agreed!!! He is trying to boost revenue and he surely will by taking advantage of this!!!! It is sad to see his business is hurting...hopefully all turns out well and he brings in the money needed!
It's a bar. You don't think the patrons will be drinking while they are there. I can't imagine a person drunk + stoned will be much different than a person who's just drunk.
If they section it off the way that some shops in Amsterdam do it might not be so bad for the people who don't want to partake in the action or have the smoke around them. The Bulldog in Amsterdam has a downstairs area, with multiple rooms and tables which is for smoking only, they don't sell alcohol down there either. They do however sell snacks and drinks such as juice, soda, water, etc. The upstairs of the establishment is your normal every day bar which sells alcohol and food, but also has glass encased rooms which are called "smoking rooms" you're not allowed to anywhere else in the upstairs bar except the smoking rooms. It helps cut down on smoke infiltrating the rest of the bar and allows the patrons who don't want to smoke or be around it the liberty of not, unless they go into the smoking rooms or the downstairs area. I think it's a fantastic idea and hopefully more bars and areas within WA consider ideas such as this.
"Marijuana remains illegal under federal law," said Emily Langlie, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Seattle. "I can't tell you whether what he's doing is legal or not."
Now that is a lawyer speaking. It's against the law but I don't know if it is legal or not? You mean the same way you whores treat immigration law? Take any law you want - if enough people choose do disobey it, they will stop enforcing it. Something to think about.
Why not? Smoking Pot is Legal in Washington State and a Bar is not in "Public".
And before the Federal DEA / CIA / DHS Fascists get started they'd better believe "They are and will be the Losers" in this fight!
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2012/12/10/Majority-want-feds-out-of-state-pot-laws/UPI-23231355161479/
By a 'Super" Majority even so the more you squirm the worse it will get!
America, just say NO as in NO MORE SLAVERY.....http://www.learnliberty.org/videos/us-prison-population-largest-world
While we are at it.....Impeach Obama in 2012 and Imprison Clinton for Criminal Conspiracy to Cover Up the Murder of an American Ambassador, Intentionally Lying to the American People Secret CIA Prisons and Supporting Al Qaeda in Benghazi-Gate and now in Syria!
None are so hopelessly enslaved, as those who falsely believe they are free. The truth has been kept from the depth of their minds by masters who rule them with lies. They feed them on falsehoods till wrong looks like right in their eyes.~Johann von Goethe
First words that crossed my mind when I read the headlines for this article.
So long as he has a segregated area to comply with the anti smoking laws it should not be an issue. It would alos be helpful if there were a way to segfregate the smoking area so those who have jobs requiring the ability to pass a drug test would not be put into jeopardy due to second hand smoke.
Where can I get my Frankie's t-shirt?
I've gone to dozens of bars and clubs that "pretended" not to notice that people were smoking pot. Has anyone ever heard of "Lupo's Heartbreak hotel" or "The Living room". Great clubs, Great Music, And a staff that had no sense of smell.
The last 3 presidents have smoked weed....If a women has the choice to have a abortion and thats legal, we should have the choice to smoke weed.
Back when I lived in Washington, my fellow Washington Blues Society members and I would toke up outside of every Blues "joint" on the Western side of the State - except at the Oxford in Snohomish.
I've always thought bars should have those little beds stacked up the walls, like in Japan, so the drunks wouldn't have to drive after drinking.
Why bars don't have more smoking rooms has long been a question of mine...can you imagine a Casino that wouldn't allow smoking, they wouldn't last a month.
Worst thing to happen to bars is the Internet - I think its been over 10 years since I went to a bar. If it wasn't for the buffets at the local casinos, I wouldn't go to them either.
Being anywhere they smoke the stuff will get your car searched because of the smell that lingers. I no longer smoke it as it was just when I was young that I indulged but I have no reason to think any adult who wants to should be denied also believe the non smoking laws suck since they can have place where they can only allow people who smoke or do not care in. Want to lose all your freedoms let them start taking them away!
Hey J.P...on my way to hit the pipe now, legally! That'll never happen in Jan Brewer's Arizona...neener neener neener!
That guy's tavern is less than five miles from me, but unless he installs an elevator I'll never be able to partake there. Wheelchairs and stairs don't mix...
Cigarette smoking is not illegal, however you can't smoke cigarettes in bars any more.
People who have to smoke a noxious weed in order to "feel good" must be living some pretty pathetic lives.
@spider. no that is not true. it's used for pain. I rather smoke than take a prescription medicine I can't afford.
spider - people who troll the internet looking for people to make judgements about live pretty pathetic lives too.
spider-737231...Like you have any room to talk about noxious or pretty pathetic lives? Now its NBC no less.......
Americans to feds: Keep your hands off our pot....http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/10/15822453-americans-to-feds-keep-your-hands-off-our-pot?threadId=3626818&commentId=72502969#c72502969
So since 64% of Americans (at the minimum) say you are wrong I guess that makes you pathetic?
The scientific spirit is of more value than its products, and irrationally held truths may be more harmful than reasoned errors. Thomas Huxley
Yes good for this guy and finding away to adapt his business to survive (something that some businesses seem to forget you need to do from time to time or expect the gov to help them at every down turn).
Also good job Washington and Colorado state. It is time (way past time) to end this stupid war on drugs, well at least weed (I still have reservations about the "hard" stuff but also see we do need more ways to help those that are addicted). Stop stuffing the prisons full of low level non violent offenders, save that money and cost, cut the legs off the cartels, more savings and benefit for all of us, save time spent chasing pot and pot smokers, more $$ savings again, and most of all tax it and make even more money. Real no brainer here. Doesn't even include finally legalizing industrial hemp and its benefits.
I don't smoke nor do I advocate it however I do feel if someone wants to smoke then that is their choice, as long as it is not affecting others who don't want to breath it in or be near it (includes entryways and the like also not throwing butts on the ground! Stop being lazy). And when it comes to pot the reality is clear and apparently we didn't learn from prohibition. I will also add that in regards to tobacco or marijuana that there should be rules about purity and not being allowed to add any secondary chemicals or anything to make it more addictive. Just the leaves and paper (or pipe ect.)
I think if bars did actually try to separate areas and have separate ventilation and not an imaginary line then there could be more flex in the no smoking laws (may need to include provisions for employees of some type opting in or something).
In the end this will be a better thing and I hope that we can start now addressing things like those that have to work in the environment or in regards to drug testing, driving while high, ect. I don't hold and hope for this as its clear most of the government agencies have no clue what to do now (shocker huh?) but maybe we can actually prepare for the inevitable that is coming once this nonsense ban is lifted everywhere.
There is already a precedent set he can fall back on if the legality of his establishment is questioned. Prostitution is illegal under Federal law, but in Nevada, it is legal and there are businesses of prostitution. I believe states and people have a right to govern themselves without our Federal government butting in.
I do not drink or do drugs. Drinking is legal and I still do not drink nor will I do drugs. I would not go to Frankie's bar but only because I have no reason to. Pot is legal there in his state. He has dedicated a smokers section to paying members only so really, I hope he is successful and the feds leave him and everyone else like him alone to prosper.
what a joke we are even having this conversation. its WAAAAAYYYYYYY past time this atrocious prohibition ended.
i know of at least four or five people who have drank themselves to death or died of drugs or in car wrecks involving alcohol inclding my little brother, and my uncle who drank himself to death.
i dont know a single person who died from weed because you cant. anything else is a lie.
you drink, smoke cigarettes, are on prescription pain meds or anti-depressants? then shut up about people who smoke pot.
If this had happened 40 years ago, I would be moving to Washington state. But alas, I have far exceeded the age where smoking a dube and listening to Iron butterfly appeals to me. But it's nice to know that if i become terminally ill, that there is some physical relief available. My mother passed 15 years ago from pancreatic cancer, without the weed it was impossible for her to even eat basic food. The weed increased her appetite and gave her relief from some of the pain. It's about time we moved into the 21st century. I guess enough old people have passed and now younger people can make the rules.
Spider, you better say the same thing about people who have to drink alcohol for the same reasons, or I'll have to confirm your membership in they hypocrite party.
Hey DG; save some for me, I'll be up there in February..take a few hits for me.
Smoke 'em if you got 'em potheads...lol. I can't wait for it to be fully decriminalized so the money and resourses we waste fighting a drug that is less dangerous than tobacco AND alcohol can be redirected to something useful.
Not a pothead, but I've been around it and it is nothing compared to what people are getting into for kicks these days.
Don't give me the gateway drug crap either....tobacco and alcohol are the gateway drugs! Just a thought, drug dealers don't id, business establishments do...they wont be selling pot to your kids...they will find homeless people and pathetic uncles to bribe for that.
The USA has so many industries built around fighting pot - this is going to be fun seeing how they adjust to rational thinking.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54xWo7ITFbg
Complete documentary...
Pot smoking and alcohol may not mix, but Frankie better keep his fryer hot, cause his patrons will be getting the munchies
There is a simple unsung reason that pot has been illegal. it is the same reason that Henry Ford led the charge for prohibition of alcohol. Getting high on anything, before or during work, reduces productivity. You smoke some weed on Tuesday night, get to bed late and don't feel like working but you do it anyway. you are not going to make as many widgets as you usually do. Also, people who drink or smoke pot on a regular basis will take a few more sick days per year then those who don't. So your thinking one or two sick days is not a big deal? Lets say your pay is $150 dollars a day, plus health care and other expenses. But in order to make 150, you must produce hundreds more in production. So if your boss makes 1,000 a day on your labor, and you take two days off, and half of the other 50,000 employees do also.figure out how much you boss is going to lose. My figures are not accurate, but I think they make the point.
George - not sure if this is an unsung reason or just a propagated myth regarding cannibas usage. You may have some points there with regard to alcohol-consumption but smoking weed on Tuesday night will more than likely result in you getting to bed earlier - not later - AND you'll get a damn good night of sleep. Also, smoking pot will more than likely result in you taking less sick days per year - it's pretty much impossible to have a pot-induced hangover and this particular recreational drug also comes with myriad medicinal qualities. If this is an unsung reason, it's a bogus one that should be stopped in its tracks.
George,
that is somewhat inaccurate, in todays medical marijuana there are a lot of differences, not like the old days when you got bags of Columbian whatever color etc, the sativa is what we call wakey weed and indica is sleepy weed, I do my best house cleaning and chores after a few tokes of a good sativa. I am much more productive then and actually do have a very hard time sitting still. Also, not sure how to describe it, I am more focused, I tend to multi task less, when I clean house normally, I start 10 different projects and it seems none of them get done, with MMJ I have to concentrate on the task at hand, then move to the next, so much more gets done that way, and I do seem to pay closer attention to what I am doing. If you do it properly, sativa during productive times whatever that is for you and indica for sleep time. I rest so much better, my mind cannot race and keep me awake all night. I do wholeheartedly agree with your comments pertaining to those that over "medicate", that can be true with all medications though.
LMFAO @ DG; I should have know you had "Reefer Madness" up your sleeve...time for JP to get a bucket of water on the head.
Frankie may do okay if he just doesn't get greedy which it seems he has. The law is willing to look the other way until you blow smoke in their face.
Unless they like a shotgun....
indigo he has no idea what you mean by "shotgun". he probably thinks that someone is gonna get shot in the face with 00 buckshot.
Closing Time must be an especially fun time on the local roads...with drunk AND high drivers trying to make it home.
Just like all bars at closing time, this one will be responsible for making sure all of the patrons that are too intoxicated (regardless of the intoxicant) to drive make it home safely.
The drunks are far worse. The potheads are driving 10 mph under every freaking speed limit posting and straight as an arrow in the right hand lane....their rigid command of the vehicle actually gives them away really....I'd drive on a highway with a hundred stoned people before I would 1 single drunk!
Not any different that closing time anywhere else. Most people drink less while smoking. If I went there I certainly would. I'd smoke some weed and drink pepsi. On occasion I'd do both but with in my limits. Sounds like he is doing it correctly.
Area L E O's will be in que on either side of this local attraction.
Myself, if I drank alcohol (I don't any more) then smoked pot I got violently sick (ask J.P. Patches Pal!), but if I smoked first and then drank I fell asleep. Many were the times I puked my guts out, but if I smoked too much pot I'd get really spaced out, often to the point of forgetting where I was (even if I was at home), but I wouldn't puke. My body processes pot better than it does alcohol, so I'm very happy that I can now fire up the pipe at home with no paranoia...as if I was paranoid in the past.
Not me! Back in the day, in the late '70s-early '80s I used to get in my new Z28 Camaro every Saturday morning, get good and stoned, and hop on the freeway to Aerosmith's Train Kept A Rollin', blast south to the next freeway and head east to the next one, north to the floating bridge, then west toward home. It took about an hour, music blaring all the way.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEncwYZeMgQ&feature=related
I miss those days...
That's because alcohol is a toxin. To be precise, it is the excrement of yeast that has eaten sugar.
Ever hear of "alcohol poisoning"? I'm sure you have.
Now, have you ever heard of "marijuana poisoning"? Me either, especially since it is not physically, humanly possible to OD on marijuana.
and remember that the brain actually has thc receptors built into it.
As long as the tokers are segregated so that people don't have to be exposed to second hand smoke, I don't see a problem.
lol. It is the smell that is rough on us non-users. It is tolerable though. Not any worse than sour alcohol or stale tobacco smoke...actually preferable to me.
Plus this smoke dissipates, you won't stick to your clothes and you won't smell it the next morning!
The smell bothers you Troy? I kinda like it. Maybe it's a positive association thing though...
Don't get me wrong, it is better than tobacco or some funk alcohol. I don't get alcohol honestly. You are literally drinking rancid fruit juice or whatever the hell someone decides to throw in there...the thought of drinking something that requires decayed plant matter to produce alone makes me sick. At least the pot is natural...and I don't involuntarily loose my lunch when I smell it.....and of course you like the smell scuba....never met a pothead that didn't!
Just a thought; The only thing you guys have to worry about is if the legal stuff will be more expensive...lol.
They should just create smokers bars with no alcohol.
Its always impressive for a historian like me, to be witness to the downfall of a civilization, under the guise of 'progressive freedom'. I wonder if those descendants, centuries from now, will look upon the American Empire and shake their heads in bewilderment, or if they'll just dismiss it as a symptom of a greater problem. I wonder of my future colleagues will debate our stupidities and compare them to the hedonistic nature of the Roman Empire, and ask if that's what happens to those few nations that can make such title?
Give me a break Malfean.
You have been witnessing the downfall of a civilization your whole life if you are an American. The blame is elsewhere...
Just a thought; Big Pharmacy is both directly and indirectly responsible for more drug addicts, deaths and crime in this country than the little dangerous weed that is all but impossible to control and tax.
Mal: I wonder if, as a historian, you actually believe that the use of intoxicants began with the Americans and if you understand what really causes the downfall of a civilization. Hint: it isn't marijuana.
And Troy--what are your specifics on the "downfall of a civilization"? Or is it just habitual to be a cynic without any real backup information?
xlent....habitual...but mostly I forgot to add the "sarcasm" disclaimer so I don't get that very response...lol.
I was simply responding to Malfean's "Its always impressive for a historian like me, to be witness to the downfall of a civilization," Just being a wisea$$ really...you're getting all serious on me...
Malfean - you're an idiot. It was legal until 1933. Were we at risk of having our "Empire" fall then? And what was the reasoning behind the Aztecs, Incas or Mayan's empires falling? Was that due to Roman like self indulgences or were they from external factors such as the overwhelming greed of European explorers? Tell me there history buff, did the Roman empire fall during their times of great freedoms and indulgences, or was it after the conversion of the empire to Christianity...please enlighten me. And the first push to criminalize cannabis was a propaganda smear which insinuated that it was a sexual stimulant that forced African-American men onto white women. In fact a prominent Texas legislator convinced his fellow statesmen to make it illegal because it "made all the Mexicans crazy"....I love how a so called "historian" is so selective in the history that they use for arguments.
You're witnessing the downfall of a civilization because people are starting to realize its wrong to put people in cages because of a plant? Maybe what we're really witnessing is the downfall of fascism.
Idiots never learn -- that's why they have to get high, and go out and hurt others! Is that what we now call freedom?
@JAM the skeptic:
you really have no clue what you're talking about.
let me ask you this...are you comfortable having alcohol completely legal?
because fact is, alcohol is far more dangerous than marijuana.
marijuana can be used for a NUMEROUS list of things. what is alcohol used for besides killing people by alcohol poisoning or by someone intoxicated and driving and not knowing their limit and killing others out there?
the only reason why you're downing marijuana is because its like a stranger to you. you obviously dont know enough about it or its benefits. keep this in mind dumbass, THE PEOPLE VOTED FOR THIS FOR A REASON!! don't like it? too bad. but marijuana is much much much safer than alcohol will ever be, whether you want to believe it or not.
@Amanda Preach on I could have not said it better, I never seen marijuana break up a family, but I have seen drinking and driving destroy families I know 4 children right now that do not have there father and he was just working and a drunk driver ran right through the construction sight killed 2 people that were simple at work doing there job. I support this patronage and although it is illegal in federal law not illegal state due to the fact that every state in the United States governs there own policies and enforces there own laws.
come on JAM....make out with "the stranger"...it's way better, safer and honestly it's probably cheaper than "good" alcohol...whatever the hell good alcohol is.
I think some of the downfall is dependent on everyone that finds something wrong with everyone else. A country based on freedom and their are more anti groups out there finding fault with everything we do. It's legal now If you want to toke go for it and if you don't then good for you don't.
lol, some historian YOU are! people have been getting intoxicated on marijauna and everything else for thousands of years. you know nothing of history obviously with a statement like that!
marijuana was perefectly legal until the forties when it was used to racially profile blacks. the reasons its been kept illegal since range from all sorts of corruption to big pharma, tobaco industry, textile industry, law enforcement, and the jail industry not wanting competition. all a bunch of BS and long since overdue. and i hope you get to watch as its "illegality" is struck down NATIONWIDE. now go take your pfizer meds, oxycontin and viagara and feel superior some more.
ps, conservatives never let FACTS bother them.
it is a FACT that the most adictions and drug overdoses and DEATHS in the USA these days are from LEGAL PRESCRIPTION DRUGS.
but you wont hear MALFEAN whine about those, cause those are the ones HE prefers and takes.
If you've actually witnessed the downfall of civilizations, it's past time for you to lay down, die and become oil.
Something tells me that your a Newt Gengrinch kind of historian. One who writes about something they never experienced and then relate their view as history. Sorry unless you are working for rand-Mcnally or a museum then i think your full of it. Maybe go drink a beer and tell everyone how the downfall of society is because someones getting high. I always thought civilization was doomed by plagues, war, or famines. I never heard of a civilization losing it over catching a buzz. civilization was founded on buzzes don't you know that. Mr. Historian please go read a history book. and get a dictionary and look up intoxication. When you take your painkillers guess what. Your intoxicated. People have been getting high since civilization began. So spare me the pseudo-historian crap.
ok mister historian who said this?
I may not like what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it?
And what was the constitution wrote on?
How many founding fathers grew hemp. aka pot?
And when was marijuana made illegal and why?
The sooner the farce that is the Federal "War on Drugs" ends, the better! Spend the billions instead on treatment, not private prisons and SWAT teams. Stop making cannabis users into criminals, and taking their homes and cars whenever a pot seed or joint or a few plants are found and restore our 4th and 5th amendment Constitutional rights! Americans have spoken, voted and a majority want this Prohibition to end!
Probably wouldn't be many fights.
...the last slice of pizza could become a dangerous problem...
Oh Hell,,,,,,,Why not,, Who cares,,Don't give a damn anymore!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1111
You sound like you just smoked one Linda....see...it is a tension reliever...lol.
Probably would not go. I kind of like the idea that the only place to do this with complete legal freedom is Amsterdam. I love the city and want to go back and reserve that special occasion for my next as yet unplanned trip. Primarily, I've quit using, save the once every 10 years trip to The Netherlands. The paranoia gets to me a little more intensely the older I get.
The Netherlands have outlawed the smoke shops for tourists. You can't go and smoke up there anymore if you aren't a citizen. It really sucks. They may repeal it, but it stands as of now.
You would probably be less paranoid if you weren't doing something illegal so if it is legalized it could be a whole different experience for you.
Bill -just so they know most of the coffee shop owners in 'Amsterdam don't follow the law and it wont be in effect until the new year. but already most of the shop owners and the mayor of Amsterdam has said that they will not enforce the law. They are going to repeal it. The shops make too much money to listen to that law. If the banned pot who would go to Amsterdam?? to look at tulips and frigging windmills? or to admire the most advanced storm surge protection in the world????? No one would. They make alot of money off of stoners. Now Washington and Colorado are getting wise to the green that the green can generate. and by that I mean revenue.
No matter what. I guarantee you that driving under the influence of Pot is so much way better then driving under the influence of alcohol. Pot does nothing, but make you calm and so very relaxed. And feel much happier. Alcohol and bring out the ugly in you. One day the government will realize this.
The government did in the twenties remember?.
And those same people who are on this thread spouting that pot is gonna kill kids are probably on their last beer out of that case in the fridge and need to hit up the store just around the corner and they have ten minutes to get there... What better way to get there quick than to drive. While the drunk is speeding and swerving to get to the store for another drink, the stoner who ran out of papers is just out of papers. ever make a bong from an apple???
Frankie says relax !
HA! he quoted the 80's. Love the post. +1
Now that the people of WA and CO have told the corporate whore mafia in DC what they can do with their cannabis laws, the full scale assault has begun upon the good people of these states. The feds and their lapdog media are launching daily barrages about the fabled evils of a miracle plant. Reading this government stamped propaganda, hopes to conjure up images of massive car crashes, lakes of red blood, and mangled bodies left in the wake of stoners on their way home from Frankie's Bar. Never-mind the reality that vehicular car crashes caused by cannabis use are nearly nonexistent - facts and truth have no place in tyrannical military empires that exist via endless wars and genocide.
Make no mistake, what the people of WA and CO have done is considered open revolt by the mega corporations, the medical cabal, the banking syndicate, and the politician whores they own. The assault upon the people will be relentless and brutal. The people must stand their ground and not rest upon a single rare victory.
Governments have no business prohibiting, regulating, or TAXING anything provided by Mother Nature. Governments would have you believe that they are the divine grantor of basic human freedoms - they are not.
you are 100% right
First thread I've ever been on to where evryone participating is in agreement, with the exception of Malfean, who is using the biggest, most elaborate words he can to sound smart, or to try to confuse us stoners. Imagine if people could agree like this on other, more important topics... And as far as safety on our highways is concerned, relax. Nothing out there will ever be more dangerous than alcohol regarding highway fatalities. Marijuana use general makes people so paranoid, traffic singnals and laws are followed perfectly. Even though you are fairly certain the headlights behind you are not that of a police car, it still could be. Speed limit or LESS, complete stops, you never try to pass anybody, seatbelts, of course!
Like Amsterdam? Whomever dreamt up this headline has never been to Amsterdam or the Netherlands. You can't just fire it up at a bar there, you have to go to "coffee shops."
The Dolphin served both beer and weed.
What about the people driving home from this bar? How many kids will they kill -- more of the new American Dream!
Sure when I leave my bar I'm always confronted by a bunch of toddlers at 2 am wanting a ride home.
Far less than alcohol, child predators, prescription pill poppers, text messagers, etc. And they have made no steps to change those items because the goverment makes fortunes off them, (not the child predators.) Faulty products, (lead based Chinese toys you probably buy at Walmart,) family pets, fires, shaking, etc. And also, Jam, if the bar closes at 2 am, why are your children on the road....
Great. Now we not only have to worry about drunk drivers, we have to worry about stoned ones as well. You and I know that people are going to be driving over the limit but that they can't be charged until they hurt, seriously maim, or heaven forbid, kill someone.
Wonderful example of "Hey, it's all about me. I don't care about anyone else. If it makes me happy, then screw the rest of you.
Cory1980 - I'm not worried about my children driving at 2:00am. I'm worried that we now have one more "preventable" idiot driving on the road. And don't trot out the old saw that people who drive stoned are safer than people who drive drunk. They are ALL dangerous.
Frustrated
Anytime someone gets behind the wheel, they are a potential danger to others and themselves. But we have to look at the reality of the situation. Bars are popular because it is a social drug, meaning that only George Thorogood likes to drink alone. Thing is, most people I know that smoke would rather not drive a car, so they end up staying home playing Madden, watching Cartoon Network, and raiding the fridge. And I am talking about adults. I am not saying smoking and driving is a good idea, but it is a different drug, which will have different results. You want to make the highways safer, petition a device that blocks a cell phone from being text- capable, or make alcohol a home-only drug. Or ban prescription pills.
stoners don't just start driving when the bars close. they've been driving all day and all night and you probably didn't even notice.
Jam,
So how is this any different that the hundreds of thousands of drunks that leave bars every morning at 2am?
I can already envision the media frenzy when a stoned driver maims or kills someone - and it is bound to happen. But that is no reason to keep MJ illegal. So, while I support the legalization of pot, I say throw the book at a stoned driver that kills someone, just like you would to a drunk driver. Is your problem solved now?
Look, if you are stupid enough to risk ruining your life by driving stoned, chances are that you were stupid before you lit that joint. And, as I've seen it posted here repeatedly, you can't fix stupid.
Frustrated,
You have been surrounded by stoned drivers for a long time now and just haven't realized it. They are usually the ones driving just a wee bit too slow.
To reiterate what mindyabusiness has said, people who smoke marijuana don't just drive at night when the bar closes. Everyone has probably pulled up next to someone at a red light or even passed someone on the road who was stoned at that very moment and they didn't even notice. There are people who drive under the influence of marijuana all the time and others don't even notice. As others have said before, people under the influence of marijuana normally are more cautious drivers because of a sense of calmness (and awareness for other cars on the road, normally because they're paranoid about cops) that comes over them. Most people who smoke that I know like to smoke before long trips in the car because they don't really like driving and it makes the ride more enjoyable for them. They can put on some music and the drive seems to go quicker than if they were sober.
Did you all miss the part where the proposition in Washington actually included a blood alcohol level for THC as part of the law, just to define what driving under the influence is.
Also as someone pointed out what little kids are out at 2 AM?
2 words for ya. Designated Driver.
I don't drive if I have been drinking OR smoking the herb.
cab drivers in washington and colorado will be the richest in the country. just you watch.
I would wager far fewer than the alcohol imbibing visitors to the lower level will. Unlike drunks, it's far easier to convince a stoned person to turn over their keys, hop in a cab, or wait for a straight and sober person to show up - because unlike the effects of alcohol, marijuana users seldom become argumentative and bilegerent (can't spell it, don't care), or violent.
And rarely do they become so self-delusioned about their condition. I've lost count of how many times I've heard someone slur "InotDRUNKi'MfinEtODrive...", but never heard someone smoke marijuana and say "No way, man, I'm not stoned at all" - in fact, I've always heard the exact opposite.
And I have little doubt if you were to ask the road police:
Which would you rather deal with, someone who clearly drunk or someone who has obviously been smoking marijuana, alcohol would lose almost unanimously.
Or if you were to ask those same officers:
Which is more intimidating, an obvious drunk or someone obviously high on marijuana? Alcohol would lose again.
I would so rather sit in a bar with a bunch of stoners around me than drunks. Stoners love. Drunks fight. Maybe the stoners can level out the mood when drunks start to act like idiots :)
and @JAM the skeptic: it's a bar. ppl high can drive way better than ppl drunk. so your comment makes no sense.
plus f--k drunk people....they sway, slur and spit and piss everywhere, including on themselves and they can't even play a guitar...you can do that stoned so don't tell me it is worse.
I would think that POT would break up any and all fighting in the bars....a better pacifier than the cops.
I want to open a smoke bar that doubles as a doughnut shop. Just seems natural.........
Frankie is as nuts as his customers, ONE FLEW OVER THE COO-COO'S NEST!!!!!
You poop in envelopes and mail them to your landlord don't you.