BREMERTON - Seeking a new career following economic hard times, Christy Stanley is hoping to set up shop in what one man referred to at a forum Thursday night as "The Green Market." Around 200 residents, including Stanley, converged on the Kitsap Conference Center, many to voice their concerns and opinions on the state's fledgling effort to regulate the sale of marijuana following its legalization. Stanley, a Kingston mother of four, once worked in construction and cleaning. But those jobs were decimated by the housing market collapse a few years ago and she's looked for something else to pay the bills. She sees a future in not only cannabis but hemp, another product of the marijuana plant. [continues 887 words]
GORST -- Perhaps it was just curiosity. Or a misunderstanding. Maybe even hopefulness. But a few visitors to Herbal Healing Safe Access, a medical marijuana cooperative, have inquired about getting pot without having the state credentials necessary. They've been turned away. "No we can't do that," says Michael Paxhia, who runs the operation. "You have to have (medical) authorization." Welcome to the murky existence of the state's marijuana access points and collectives, made murkier by Initiative 502, which will make it legal Dec. 6 for any state resident to possess up to an ounce of pot. [continues 528 words]
The ballots arrived last week and in addition to electing those who will represent us there are a number of ballot measures which must be decided. The following are my recommendations on those measures. Is it in the public's best interest to increase marijuana usage? That's the question I asked myself when deciding how to vote on Initiative 502, which would decriminalize limited use of the drug. Would there be support for making cigarette smoking legal if possession of cigarettes were illegal today? Knowing what we know about the health hazards related to smoking, I doubt it. Yet the most common way marijuana is used, like cigarettes, is through smoking and inhaling the substance. [continues 698 words]
As the previous U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Washington, part of my job was to enforce our nation's prohibition on marijuana. I carried out my sworn duty without hesitation. But I saw then, and can say now, that marijuana prohibition has been a miserable failure. Despite the fact that we arrest more marijuana users now than ever before, usage has not gone down. Nor have we had any impact on marijuana's availability. In fact, marijuana is cheaper and more available now than it was 20 years ago. And all the profits are funneled to criminal organizations. [continues 321 words]
PORT ORCHARD -- A bad wreck four years ago left Raymond Alloway with chronic pain in his back, neck and legs and triggered migraine headaches. A year after the accident, he discovered marijuana as medicine and got authorized to use cannabis to relieve pain and headaches. Alloway, though, chose to go beyond helping himself: he and a friend decided to dive into the still-murky, unregulated world of medical marijuana to help other patients get their medicine. They got their nonprofit business license from the state in April and they operate West Sound Quality Co-Op on Mile Hill Drive. [continues 1056 words]
SILVERDALE -- "Cannabis," someone once told Ezra Eickmeyer, "is a gateway drug to natural medicine." The 36-year-old lobbyist-turned-entrepreneur has been a big believer in natural remedies for ailments much of his life, and he was only bolstered in those beliefs after trying cannabis as a teenager. He sees the plant as having healing properties as opposed to certain pharmaceutical drugs that merely suppress symptoms. But marijuana is only one of the methods of treatment available to patients who qualify at his newly opened Blue Horizon Medical clinic on Levin Road. [continues 472 words]
PORT ORCHARD -- The city of Port Orchard on Tuesday will seek to extend its moratoria on dispensaries and gardens, city attorney Greg Jacoby said Monday. The City Council will hold two public hearings -- one on dispensaries, one on gardens -- before voting on the extensions. The meeting is at 7 p.m. in City Hall. The council in February enacted a six-month emergency moratorium on medical marijuana dispensaries as the Legislature debated medical marijuana legislation. The final bill did not legalize dispensaries, but did legalize medical marijuana gardens. It became effective in July. [continues 119 words]
POULSBO -- Collective medical marijuana gardens will not be allowed in Poulsbo until the city updates its zoning code to account for the potential impacts of such gardens and where they might best fit into the community. The City Council voted unanimously Wednesday night to place a six-month moratorium on the establishment of these gardens within city limits, following behind Bremerton and Port Orchard, which passed similar moratoriums last month. The purpose of the moratorium is not to prohibit the gardens but instead to make sure the city has regulations in place to address the gardens if they ever pop up in city limits. [continues 453 words]
Among the people deserving sympathy these days are the lawmakers tangled in the issue of marijuana law, medical or otherwise. On one hand we have the federal policy, which considers marijuana a controlled substance and doesn't distinguish between it and other controlled substances like heroin and cocaine. On the other hand we had in our state Legislature a bill to establish and regulate marijuana dispensaries. Not wanting to challenge the feds, the governor vetoed it, so those pushing for legitimate use of medical marijuana are now looking at a provision for collective gardens. [continues 664 words]
PORT ORCHARD -- Former Port Orchard City Councilman Tom Stansbery traveled to Seattle during his final illness to obtain the medical cannabis that relieved his pain and discomfort, his widow Christine Stansbery told the City Council on Tuesday. Mrs. Stansbery testified during a public hearing at which the council considered whether to extend the moratorium on medical marijuana dispensaries it imposed in February, when the Legislature was debating a law revising the rules. The council ultimately voted 6-1 Tuesday to extend the moratorium for six months, despite the objections of Stansbery and others. [continues 475 words]
BREMERTON -- Legislation passed revising Washington state's medical marijuana laws this year turned the focus from dispensaries to collective gardens. But Kitsap County's cities have been slow to shift gears. Legislators last spring debated a revision of Washington State's medical marijuana law dealing with cannabis dispensaries. Proponents of the bill (ESSB 5073) sought regulation of dispensaries to clarify their legitimacy. After Gov. Chris Gregoire vetoed the bill, however, the only substantive new option for authorized patients was a provision for collective gardens.But Kitsap County officials have not moved as swiftly on regulations of gardens as their peers around the Puget Sound region did. And local opinions are all over the board. [continues 1189 words]
BREMERTON -- With names like "Bud Candy," "Big Bud" and "Nirvana Bloom," fertilizers in Kitsap Garden & Lighting's inventory suggest they're for growing marijuana. Not according to owner Miles Nemec, who said the products, made by B.C.-based Advanced Nutrients, are formulated for a variety of plants. Nemec takes the message a step further with a hard-to-miss sign at the front counter of his Bremerton hydroponic supply store. It says his products "are not intended for use in manufacturing, processing or distribution of controlled substances, including cannabis," even by card-carrying medical marijuana users. [continues 689 words]
OLYMPIA - Gov. Chris Gregoire vetoed the bulk of a medical marijuana bill Friday. But she and the bill's sponsor - Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, D-Seattle - are willing to revive a segment addressing registering authorized users in the current special session. And Gregoire indicated she has no problem with the possibility of a state referendum that could address parts of what she vetoed. Gregoire vetoed most of the bill because U.S. attorneys Jenny Durkan in Seattle and Mike Ormsby in Spokane told her that state health and agriculture department employees involved in the licensing and monitoring of medical marijuana dispensaries could be arrested under federal anti-marijuana laws. [continues 573 words]
Inside a small clinic in Bellevue, Klaas Hesselink hunches over a cannabis bud, examining it like a gem cutter eyeing a polished stone. "This is a fairly standard profile," the Bainbridge Island resident tells James Lathrop, a longtime nurse practitioner who runs the clinic, where patients seek a practitioner's authorization for a medical marijuana card. A plate of colored dots exposes the potencies of some of the compounds in the strain of marijuana, known by the cannabis dispensary that provided it as "granddaddy purple." [continues 1024 words]
Despite encouragement to open up the city to medical marijuana businesses, the Port Orchard City Council decided last week to keep the door closed -- for a while, anyway. Last month, the council voted to impose a six-month moratorium on referral or dispensary medical marijuana businesses. At a public hearing last Tuesday, council members took no action on the ordinance, tacitly allowing the moratorium to remain in effect until it expires in late August. An attorney representing Tacoma Greenthumb and Greenthumb Medical, a medical marijuana dispensary and referral center, respectively, said those firms want to open a joint operation on Bay Street in downtown Port Orchard. Barring that, he said the business owner wants to open the referral center downtown, and the actual dispensary on outside city limits on Mile Hill Drive. [continues 235 words]
PORT ORCHARD -- Testimony in favor of medical marijuana dispensaries did not sway the Port Orchard City Council's position that such businesses shouldn't be allowed inside city limits, at least for now. The council on Feb. 23 imposed a moratorium on medical marijuana businesses. Council members want to see what happens with a bill being considered by the state Legislature that would clarify medical marijuana laws. They also want time to discuss where the city should allow dispensaries to locate if the bill passes. [continues 661 words]
POULSBO -- The Poulsbo City Council approved a six-month moratorium prohibiting the establishment of medicinal marijuana dispensaries within city limits Wednesday night. The emergency ordinance was passed as medical marijuana dispensaries pop up in other cities. Legislators in Olympia are also considering at least one bill that would legalize and license medical marijuana or cannabis dispensaries. The bills under consideration would also allow cities to enact zoning, licensing and taxation regulations for these types of businesses. Poulsbo's moratorium also prohibits the establishment of facilities that produce or process medical marijuana. [continues 238 words]
OLYMPIA -- Marijuana should be decriminalized and regulated to end the unnecessary violence spawned by the drug trade in the U.S. and Mexico, a former U.S. attorney from Seattle says. John McKay was part of a panel of officials invited by Rep. Mary Lou Dickerson, D-Seattle, to speak at a news conference Wednesday aimed at drumming up support for her marijuana legalization bill. McKay directed federal prosecutions in Western Washington from 2001 to 2006, when the Bush administration fired him. [continues 569 words]
PORT ORCHARD -- The Port Orchard City Council on Tuesday passed an "emergency" moratorium on medical marijuana dispensaries, effective immediately. The ordinance, which will be in effect for six months, will allow the council time to see what happens with legislation on dispensaries that is pending in Olympia, council members said. The moratorium also will allow them to consider zoning rules for dispensaries should they become legal. "I definitely think we should do this, because this issue is not going to go away," Councilwoman Carolyn Powers said. [continues 380 words]
TACOMA -- Pierce County prosecutors this week dropped drug charges against an Olalla man who is the co-owner of a Tacoma medical marijuana dispensary that was raided by a local drug task force last year. Guy L. Casey and Michael J. Schaef, the proprietors of Club 420 cooperative on Oregon Avenue in Tacoma, had been charged with drug violations following a May raid by the West Sound Narcotics Enforcement Team on three locations, including the dispensary and Casey's home on Olympic Avenue in Olalla. [continues 193 words]
