Tagged: Marijuana legalization

In just a few days, smoking marijuana won’t be much different from drinking a glass of wine, as far as state law is concerned. But in what may be the place most associated with pot-smoking – the dorm room – it will still be banned.

OLYMPIA, Wash. – State officials tasked with developing a legal marijuana industry in Washington state have a problem: There's no similar system anywhere in the world that they can look to for guidance.

Young voters helped pass laws legalizing marijuana in Washington and Colorado, but many still won't be allowed to light up.

Most universities have codes of conduct banning marijuana use, and they get millions of dollars in funding from the federal government, which still considers pot illegal.

With the money comes a requirement for a drug-free campus, and the threat of expulsion for students using pot in the dorms.

"Everything we've seen is that nothing changes for us," said Darin Watkins, a spokesman for Washington State University in Pullman.

The United Nations drug watchdog agency wants U.S. officials to challenge new marijuana legalization laws in Washington and Colorado. U.N. Narcotics Control Board head Raymond Yans says the approvals send "a wrong message to the rest of the nation and abroad."

At the same time, a group of retired cops, judges and prosecutors is asking U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to support the new laws making it legal for adults 21 and over to possess small amounts of marijuana.

Now that Washington voters have put the State Liquor Control Board in charge of coming up with the rules and process for licensing the growing and selling of marijuana, we're wondering what the agency's new name should be.

Now that marijuana’s about to be legal, you might be wondering more about the details, how this will actually play out across Washington state.

KPLU reporters have created a special audio report by expanding our original series of stories, which takes you on a wide-ranging tour of how legalized marijuana will impact society, from routine traffic stops to intimate family discussions, from pot farms to public consumption.

Four fuzzy images are coming into focus: