Other LanguagesSEATTLE — The Attorney General’s Office filed a response brief yesterday in the Washington State Supreme Court defending the will of the voters in enacting Initiative 502.
OLYMPIA — The Washington State Archives has announced a series of open government training workshops throughout Washington in March in support of a state law that was introduced by the Washington State Attorney General’s Office and passed in 2014.
SEATTLE — Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s agency-request bill to raise the state’s legal smoking age to 21 passed a key legislative hurdle today. The House Health Care & Wellness Committee approved the bill in a bipartisan 12 to 3 vote.
OLYMPIA — Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson today urged legislative action on bills to regulate vapor products and to raise the legal age for tobacco products to 21, citing new reports underscoring the danger of tobacco and other nicotine products.
OLYMPIA — Washington has long been at the forefront of the fight to protect youth from the dangers of smoking. Continuing that leadership role, Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson today announced a bill that would make the state the first to raise the legal age for purchasing and possessing tobacco and vapor products to 21. The harmful consequences of tobacco are clear. Smoking kills 8,300 Washingtonians every year, and $2.8 billion in health care costs are directly attributed to tobacco use in the state. Washington state taxpayers pay nearly $400 million in taxes to cover state government expenditures caused by smoking. According to a recent report by the U.S. Surgeon General, over 100,000 of today’s Washington youth are projected to die prematurely due to the effects of smoking.
TACOMA — For the fifth time, a superior court judge today agreed with an opinion issued by the Attorney General’s Office earlier this year, concluding that nothing in Initiative 502 overrides local governments’ authority to regulate or ban marijuana businesses. This allows I-502 to continue to be implemented. Every court to consider this issue has now agreed with the Attorney General’s opinion.
SEATTLE — Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson today offered the following statement in response to the announcement that Oklahoma and Nebraska have sued Colorado in the United States Supreme Court over marijuana legalization. Nebraska and Oklahoma allege that Colorado’s Amendment 64 and its implementing legislation regarding recreational marijuana is unconstitutional and preempted by federal law.
KELSO — A fourth superior court judge today agreed with an opinion issued by the Attorney General’s Office earlier this year, concluding that nothing in Initiative 502 overrides local governments’ authority to regulate or ban marijuana businesses. This allows I-502 to continue to be implemented. Every court to consider this issue has now agreed with the Attorney General’s opinion.
KENNEWICK — A third superior court judge today agreed with an opinion issued by the Attorney General’s Office this year, concluding that nothing in Initiative 502 overrides local governments’ authority to regulate or ban marijuana businesses. Every court to consider this issue has now agreed with the Attorney General’s opinion.
OLYMPIA – Gov. Jay Inslee today announced that he is appointing Gretchen Leanderson to Pierce County Superior Court. Leanderson has served in the Washington State Office of the Attorney General since 1988 where she is currently the Division Chief of the AG’s Tacoma Division.