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The House committee overseeing the state’s marijuana law today heard feedback about a bill that would change state regulations.

Rep. Christopher Hurst, D-Enumclaw, introduced House Bill 2000 to modify Initiative 502, a voter-passed measure allowing the sale and possession of marijuana for adults. He said he introduced the bill to preempt the “myriad of problems” the Washington State Liquor Control Board will face while implementing the initiative, especially given the lack of marijuana regulation the state has long had.

“We really have done nothing to regulate marijuana in Washington state,” Hurst said. “I could walk to downtown Olympia and find someone to sell him marijuana within five minutes.”

HB 2000 would change where businesses could legally sell marijuana. Under I-502, marijuana can’t be sold within 1000 feet of certain public facilities, including schools, parks, playgrounds and transit centers. HB 2000 would cut that distance to 500 feet, except near schools.

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As reported in Publicola and the Stranger, Alison Holcomb, drug policy director for the ACLU of Washington, may be running for the Seattle City Council or the mayor’s office.

A sponsor of Initiative 502, which enacted the state’s new legal marijuana law, Holcomb said today she is “having conversations with people whose advice I respect on political matters and taking in as much information as I can.”

She said she hopes to make a decision soon and hasn’t decided which office she might pursue. Holcomb’s name surfaced in a poll that added her name to lists of candidates running for mayor and council.

Holcomb said she doesn’t know who conducted the poll, nor how she fared. “I’m guessing I’m a proxy for a progressive woman candidate,” she said. Times’ political reporter Jim Brunner wrote recently about the dearth of female candidates for mayor in Seattle.

For those curious to see Holcomb in person, she is part of a panel discussion about I-502 tonight at the Naked City Brewery in Greenwood, along with Seattle police spokesman Sean Whitcomb and KUOW’s Ross Reynolds.

Soon after that, Holcomb — whom Seattle Weekly dubbed “Pot Mama” in a cover story last year — will be jetting off to Uruguay to talk with officials there about marijuana legalization.

Good Morning. October first.

That was then: Remember that whole bit about U.S. Rep. Todd Akin, the Missouri Senate candidate who caused a firestorm when he said that women’s bodies, in cases of “legitimate rape,” somehow reject a pregnancy. Republicans from all over the place, including Mitt Romney, told him to get out of the race — for the good of the party. Akin didn’t budge. A new prediction aired  Sunday on CNN says that Akin now might win this thing.

The Washington Post reported last week that some Republicans are coming back to support him.

Alison Holcomb
campaign manager of Initiative 502

“Pot mama.” Seattle Weekly has  a profile of Alison Holcomb, the woman leading the campaign to legalize marijuana in this state, Initiative 502.  Read for yourself, but the piece seems to normalize the idea of legalizing pot with its  portrayal of  Holcomb, who comes off as the reasonable neighbor next door.

Election month: This will be the busiest, craziest month yet of the 2012 election. There are gubernatorial debates, live chats, presidential and vice-presidential debates, and enough TV ads to overwhelm. The Seattle Times politics team is co-hosting the Oct. 16 gubernatorial debate with KING-TV. We are hosting live chats on Initiative 1240,the charter school measure, Oct. 18, Initiative 1185, the tax limitation measure, this Thursday, Oct. 4. and Initiative 502, pot legalization, on Oct. 17 at noon. We hosted a very lively gay marriage chat earlier this year. We are live chatting the presidential debates.  Busy, busy.

Do take a second to like us on Facebook.

Alison Holcomb

Join representatives from two sides of the marijuana legalization debate next Monday, Aug. 20, at noon, to talk about the pros and cons of Initiative 502, moderated by The Seattle Times political team. I-502 is on the November ballot. It would legalize, regulate and tax recreational marijuana use.

Kevin Sabet

Participants include Alison Holcomb, drug policy director for the ACLU of Washington, currently on loan to the I-502 campaign. She has served on the King County Bar Association’s Drug Policy Project, and the Seattle City Council’s Marijuana Policy Review Panel and Jail Capacity Study Advisory Group.

Also joining us is Kevin Sabet, the former senior adviser to Director Gil Kerlikowske (former chief of Seattle police) of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. Sabet is currently an assistant professor in the College of Medicine at the University of Florida and a senior consultant to the UN and grassroots organizations.

Feel free to send questions in advance to jmartin@seattletimes.com or jbalter@seattletimes.com.