Growing crowd at I-502 party

The crowd is growing at Hotel Andra, a boutique Belltown hotel that’s the scene of the I-502, pro-marijuana legalization party.

Travel writer Rick Steves entered the room around 6:45 p.m. to hugs, and someone’s been handing out red roses from Morocco.

In the corner by the bar, Matt McCally and Jim Doherty talked about the initiative. They’re both members of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), and McCally wore a blue button that read “Help Cops Fight Crime.”

Doherty was a former prosecutor, and McCally worked as a probation officer in King County courts.

But both men say there isn’t much call for them to speak, because there is no organized opposition to the initiative.

Still, McCally has a well-rehearsed quote: “The past many years they’ve been building more prisons than institutions of higher learning,” he said. “When you use government to control people’s appetites, you’re going to end up putting a lot of people in jail.”

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Politics Northwest is the go-to blog for politics in our region. The blog explores national, state and local political news and issues. Reporters from Washington, D.C., to Seattle City Hall to the state capital in Olympia contribute. Editors are Richard Wagoner and Beth Kaiman.

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