Wash. Senate approves fix to state marijuana law

In this photo taken Thursday, April 4, 2013, one- to two-week-old marijuana starts sit under lights at a growing facility in Seattle. Spreadsheets, statistics and bean-counting are Mike Steenhout's, comptroller of Washington’s Liquor Control Board, regular realm of expertise. Now, he’s a weed guy. Washington’s vote last fall to legalize marijuana for adults over 21 and set up a system of state-licensed pot growers, processors and retail stores left dozens of Liquor Control Board employees in the position of having to research and help regulate a substance that many knew little to nothing about. While the state has hired a Massachusetts firm to serve as its official marijuana consultant, the Liquor Control Board is also doing its own work--a cannabis crash-course. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) - The Senate approved a measure Saturday, that prosecutors and crime lab scientists say is needed because of concerns that a provision in Washington's new legal marijuana law jeopardizes their ability to go after any pot crimes at all.

The measure that passed unanimously defines marijuana as part of the cannabis plant containing more than 0.3 percent of delta-9 THC and THC acid. Supporters said the change was a technical fix needed to help police and prosecutors distinguish marijuana from industrial hemp, which is grown for its fiber. The House approved the bill on Friday and it now heads to the governor.

The recreational marijuana law currently defines marijuana only by its content of the intoxicating compound delta-9 THC. Scientists with the state crime lab say that often, even potent marijuana can have less than 0.3 percent of delta-9. It's only when heated or burned that THC acid turns into delta-9 THC, and they argue that marijuana should be defined by the combined amounts of both compounds.

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