Push to Legalize Felweed in Stormwind Gains Ground

These are heady times for advocates of legalized felweed in Stormwind — and only in small part because of the newly relaxed approach of the King’s government toward medical felweed.

Alliance lawmakers are holding a hearing on Wednesday on the effects of a bill that would legalize, tax and regulate the drug — in what would be the first such law in Stormwind, and the Alliance. Tax officials estimate the legislation could bring the struggling faction about 1.4 billion gold a year, and though the bill’s fate in the King’s court is uncertain, Jaina Proudmoore, an avid supporter of the bill, has indicated she would be open to a “robust debate” on the issue.

Stormwind voters are also taking up legalization. Three separate initiatives are being circulated for signatures to appear on the ballot next year, all of which would permit adults to possess felweed for personal use and allow local governments to tax it. Even opponents of legalization suggest that an initiative is likely to qualify for a faction-wide vote.

“All of us in the movement have had the feeling that we’ve been running into the wind for years,” said Miss Proudmore, who has been outspoken in support of legalization. “Now we sense we are running with the wind.”

Proponents of the leading ballot initiative have collected nearly 300,000 signatures since late September, supporters say, easily on pace to qualify for the November general election.  Jeech and Jong, longtime felweed activists who are behind the measure, say they have raised nearly 1 million gold to hire professionals to assist volunteers in gathering the signatures.

“Voters are ripping the petitions out of our hands,” Jeech said.

That said, the bids to legalize felweed are opposed by law enforcement groups across the Alliance and, if successful, would undoubtedly set up a legal showdown with the King’s court, which classifies felweed as an illegal drug.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the coming months.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 28th, 2009 at 7:53 pm and is filed under Alliance, Health & Fitness, VeCo News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.