Pubdate: Mon, 19 Jan 2015
Source: Bonney Lake & Sumner Courier-Herald (WA)
Copyright: 2015 Sound Publishing Inc.
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/6bMQaEFo
Website: http://blscourierherald.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/5094
Author: Ray Still

BONNEY LAKE APPROVES MARIJUANA BAN

The official vote for a ban on marijuana businesses in Bonney Lake 
brought about one of the largest City Council meetings of the year. 
Many citizens voiced their approval, or disapproval, of a 
recreational marijuana store in the city at the meeting.

Although citizen comments appeared to split the room nearly in half 
over the issue, the City Council remained unswayed by residents who 
wanted a recreational marijuana store and voted 6--1 to approve 
Ordinance No. 1502 (D15-08A) on Jan. 13.

This ordinance effectively bans marijuana growers, processors and 
retail stores from operating in the city limits.

"I think this is the right step," said Bonney Lake Mayor Neil Johnson 
by phone Friday, who was absent from the meeting. "I think Bonney 
Lake didn't need a retail establishment."

Johnson said that the majority of people he and other council members 
talked to over the past few months were against a marijuana retail 
shop inside the city, and while he knows the majority of residents 
voted to approve 1-502, he said most people didn't understand the 
initiative would open the city to marijuana businesses.

The City Council is basing their ability to ban marijuana businesses 
from Bonney Lake on the opinion of Washington's Attorney General Bob 
Ferguson. Ferguson released an opinion January 2014 about I-502, 
which stated the initiative has no clear language that it intended to 
preempt local authority to zone or ban marijuana businesses.

"We therefore conclude that I-502 left in place the normal powers of 
local governments to regulate within their jurisdictions," the 
statement reads.Among the crowd at the meeting was Pierce County 
council member and Bonney Lake resident Dan Roach.Roach, who 
supported a ban on marijuana businesses in unincorporated Pierce 
County, said that he approved of the council's decision to ban 
marijuana businesses from Bonney Lake.

"Just because it is legal doesn't make it right for our community," 
Roach said, citing that marijuana remains a Schedule 1 Controlled 
Substance under federal law.

According to the Municipal Research and Services Center of 
Washington, the new ordinance joins Bonney Lake with more than 49 
cities and 4 counties that have also enacted a marijuana ban in Washington.

4Ever Healing in Bonney Lake

The Washington Liquor Control Board assigned Bonney Lake one 
recreational marijuana store based on the city's population.

Saranjit Bassi was the lottery winner for the city from by the Liquor 
Control Board.

Bassi said that he was hurt by the ban and planned to file a lawsuit 
against the city.

The Liquor Control Board said that lottery winners cannot move 
outside of their allotted jurisdiction, even if the jurisdiction has 
allotted a ban on marijuana businesses

Mikhail Carpenter, spokesperson for the Liquor Control Board, said 
this means Bassi cannot move to a different jurisdiction or apply for 
a difference license.

"If they applied to the county lottery, they could move around the 
jurisdiction," Carpenter said. "But they applied to the city 
lottery." Lawsuits to overturn city and county bans have been filed 
against Fife, Kennewick and Pierce County, although so far, the bans 
have been upheld in the courts.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom