DISCOVERY BAY -- The first recreational marijuana store to open on the North Olympic Peninsula sold out in its first day. Sea Change Cannabis in Discovery Bay opened at 10 a.m. Friday, more than two weeks after the state's first pot shops began sales. Its inventory was sold out by about 7:30 p.m., owner Greg Brotherton said. The store at 282332 U.S. Highway 101, the first to be licensed and open in either Clallam or Jefferson counties, had 2 1/2 pounds to sell, about 320 packets of one-eighths of an ounce each. [continues 1043 words]
SEQUIM - Providing marijuana to the medically ill continues to be a growing business on the North Olympic Peninsula. The Peninsula is home to three known medical marijuana dispensaries, all of which have opened over the past four months. The most recent to come to light is Olympic Sinsemilla, a Sequim-area nonprofit run by Justin and Bethany Rondeau. The Rondeaus started delivering marijuana to customers in December. They said they now serve about 100 people living from Forks to Port Townsend. [continues 707 words]
PORT ANGELES -- Before Richard Pharr can open the North Olympic Peninsula's first medical marijuana dispensary, he will have to make his shop accessible to wheelchairs. The building at 303 Tumwater Truck Route in Port Angeles, where Pharr wants to open the Olympian Canna dispensary, is not compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, said city of Port Angeles Planning Manager Sue Roberds last week. Roberds said the storefront would have to be made wheelchair-accessible before Pharr is granted an occupancy permit, which he needs to move into the location. [continues 258 words]
PORT ANGELES -- City Hall staff members have given the green light to a proposed medical marijuana dispensary that the owner said would service the entire North Olympic Peninsula. City of Port Angeles staff members say the dispensary -- which would be a central location for people who have been authorized by a doctor to use marijuana to ease their pain to access the drug -- will be permitted because it doesn't violate the city's municipal code and appears to comply with state law. [continues 1171 words]
In a move his attorney called precedent-setting, a medical marijuana provider who lived near Joyce will get a new trial after the state Court of Appeals overturned his conviction for growing marijuana and ordered a new trial. Earl Gordon Otis Jr., 45, was sentenced in Clallam County Superior Court on May 1, 2008, to four months in prison for growing 75 marijuana plants at his home at 3070 Eden Valley Road. No retrial date has been set. The issue the appeals court addressed in its Tuesday ruling was whether Otis could use his status as a man's medical marijuana provider as a defense argument, according to court documents. [continues 553 words]
PORT TOWNSEND - Jefferson County Public Health is making an effort to keep recreational needle users safe by supplying them clean syringes for free. To get clean syringes, the only thing required is old syringes. When exchanging the needles, public health officials make sure they also offer information on drug rehabilitation, risk reduction education, HIV and hepatitis testing, counseling and referrals for treatment programs. The program isn't new, it's just increasing in visibility. In 2000 the program exchanged 506 syringes. In 2007, it exchanged 24,585 from 65 clinics in the county. [continues 275 words]
PORT ANGELES - You don't want to be stuck by a used syringe, but you don't want to be stuck with one, either. Clallam County health officials offer this sharp solution: If you use syringes to control diabetes, allergies or other medical symptoms, deposit them in an empty 2-liter soft drink bottle. When it's full, toss it out with your other trash. Clallam County commissioners Monday considered another way to dispose of needles: Syringe exchanges that are in place in Port Angeles and next month could open in Forks. [continues 512 words]
Intravenous drug users in Clallam County prefer to shoot methamphetamine almost 2-to-1 over heroin. In Jefferson County, it's about half and half. Either way you cut it, if a person is addicted to either of the two drugs, officials with the health departments in the two counties can help them get help. But the primary mission of a needle exchange programs in either county is to prevent the spread of disease by taking used needles off the street. [continues 238 words]
PORT ANGELES -- A panel of middle-aged jurors Monday entered Port Angeles' shadow world of homelessness, methamphetamine and, ultimately, a 15-year-old girl's slaying. They listened as Clallam County Prosecutor Deb Kelly outlined the state's case against Robert Gene Covarrubias, accused of murdering Melissa Leigh Carter. Her nude body was found Dec. 26, 2004, in a vine-shrouded hollow above the Waterfront Trail, about 600 feet east of the Red Lion Hotel. Kelly and public defender Harry Gasnick made opening statements in the Clallam County Superior Court of Judge George Wood. [continues 162 words]
Clallam County Superior Court has been increasingly busy over the past decade, and 2005 is already the busiest year ever. The year still has almost a month to go, but it has seen more criminal cases coursing through the court system than in 2004, or any year before it. In 2004, prosecutors opened 564 separate criminal cases, according to data from the Clallam County Superior Court Administrator's Office. As of Thursday, 587 people have had charges brought against them, according to numbers from the Superior Court Clerk's Office. [continues 201 words]
Deloris Pooley of Toutle used to campaign against drug abuse. Now, as a medical marijuana user, she says it's wrong to punish her husband for picking up her medicine. "I've worked in law enforcement," said Pooley, who says she is a former corrections officer in Oregon. "I've been a part of D.A.R.E. I am anti-drug abuse. But all I know is, it (marijuana) gives me my life back. I can get out of bed and talk." [continues 569 words]
SEQUIM -- The last few months have not been kind to Brian Rickard, and the time he spent in the hospital for multiple surgeries in June and July may be the least of his worries. His ordeal started in late April when police raided his home north of Sequim and confiscated 62 marijuana plants, two pounds of marijuana and most of his growing equipment. It was a blow to him and a few others who rely on marijuana as medicine for various serious medical conditions. [continues 129 words]
