WASHINGTON: The state will allow legal marijuana to be grown outside if it has adequate security, under new rules receiving preliminary approval today by a state board.

It might have an unlimited number of marijuana growers and processors, but a limited amount of stores where adults can buy the drug for recreational use. The plants and the products made from them will be tracked “from seed to sale” in secure facilities. Growers who break some regulations on sales, packaging, transportation or security could lose a fourth of their crop on the second violation in three years, half their crop on the third and lose their license on the fourth.

Legal marijuana being sold in licensed stores will have to come in child-proof packaging and be clearly marked with the level of its intoxicating substance. But it won’t carry a logo of a marijuana leaf in a green Washington map.

The State Liquor Control Board canned the proposed logo Wednesday and will work on a replacement. Board Chairman Sharon Foster said there are many other logos that used the state map or outline and “we need to  have something different.” [Read more…]