Two signs seen along 35th SW in West Seattle on Tuesday are the latest proof that despite the legislative turmoil in Olympia, and local authorities’ words of warning, the medical-marijuana industry is moving ahead undaunted.
First, we’ve never seen signs like the one above, promoting medical-marijuana cards (aka licenses/prescriptions), but we spotted several along north-central 35th SW while checking on Tuesday morning traffic backups. We called and Googled the phone number, and both pointed to Pacific Medical Labs, based in Gig Harbor. We left voicemail asking for comment, but no callback.
On the south stretch of 35th, another sign – unrelated to the one above, so far as we know – for the new medical-marijuana business we first told you about in April:
(This photo and others below: By Deanie Schwarz for WSB)
Before the sign went up, the WSB contributor who broke the news of Northwest Patient Resource Center‘s move into the ex-Payday Loans spot at 35th and Roxbury had checked in with its proprietors for a followup:
By Deanie Schwarz
Reporting for West Seattle Blog
In the weeks since the State Legislature’s special session concluded without passage of new legislation to clarify medical-marijuana law, the Northwest Patient Resource Center (NWPRC) has continued forging ahead with its West Seattle plan, despite the impending law change next month, when legislation that did pass takes effect.
We toured the facility and talked there with owner John Davis and partner Anthony Lilly. about both their business and the uncertainty of the regulatory situation.
They are awaiting the installation of their “point of sale” system, and expect to open within a few weeks. But then what, given the legislative/legal climate? They explain what they call a different model:
For starters – King County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg has said that the previous “gray area” is now gone and the care-provider model many dispensaries are currently using will be illegal. Seattle City Attorney Peter Holmes has said the “legal landscape for medical marijuana is more confused…forcing local governments to go it alone,” while saying he will work with agencies and the Mayor and Council “to allow authorized patients access to their medical cannabis without compromising safety. “
“There is vagary in the law,” John Davis says, “and a lot of people set up dispensaries using what is called the caregiver provision. I have never used the caregiver provision and that is what Dan Satterberg … is talking about. For example, currently, you come to the counter and I am your caregiver for however long it takes to do this transaction. I would be legal to the current law. The new law says you can only do that for one person every 15 days. What Satterberg is saying is to those who are set up like caregivers, they will be clearly illegal because transactions of providing will be allowed only once every 15 days.
“NWPRC is what is called a patient-to-patient cooperative. We are all patients. There is no one who works here who is not. So there are no caregivers. It is one of the only really black and white areas of the law. I am a patient; I may possess. He’s a patient, he may possess. And he may trade with me or he may compensate me.”
Davis has built two previous dispensaries in Georgetown and Rainier Valley and has a deep construction background. He told WSB he learned a lot of lessons in those projects. The first, and most expensive, is to invest in multiple security systems which will, according to Davis, make this the most secure medical marijuana facility in Western Washington. Though he did the work himself, the costs exceed $50,000 for the bulletproof windows and walls, a bank-standard safe, an extensive series of exterior and interior cameras, and a secured passageway known as a “man trap.”
“I have learned that one of the things the police like to see in medical marijuana facilities is good security. All of this security is, in part, because I know it will make the police comfortable. They don’t want to be put into a situation on a call where guns are going to be used in attempted robberies. They can look at us and know these guys are ok on their own.“
When asked if the assorted dispensaries around the city or region have, absent state guidelines, ever attempted to affiliate and establish a “professional group” or, some kind of “standards and best practices,“ he replied, “I actually have a slightly different take on it, because I am chairman of the board of Seattle Events, a nonprofit corporation which primarily produces Seattle Hempfest and events related to cannabis activism. I try to get community people to agree on standards and everyone has different expectations and those people, for the smallest of reasons, will decide they don’t like this very narrow piece and they are out and don’t want to be a part of it. So the only thing you can really do is hold your own organization to the highest standards. And we have some standards that are on the web for dispensaries and all people to use. It is a set of best practices that we intend to use. Now, I can’t force anyone to use my practices or use security precautions.”
Asked whether he had any direct feedback from the legislators in Olympia about bringing back legislation for the next session, Davis said that, according to his sources, the issue is not dead. Davis said that State Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles has said publicly she intends to have a “fixer” bill next session. He also said State Rep. Roger Goodman put out an alternative bill to Kohl-Welles’ bill and is certain that Goodman is going to want to keep his verbiage “which I read and answers a lot of questions. I know Jeanne is working with the best of intentions and feels badly about what went down.”
In closing, we wondered what if the facility is forced to close by law enforcement, what would they do and he replied, “Of course, we will switch our use. We have an opt-out clause in the lease for the worst-case scenario, if Pete Holmes wants to shut down all of the dispensaries; but I don’t think that is very likely. We will look at and [abide by] the laws. There are other things that can be done and other things the space can be used for. “
“The laws are dynamic and they are changing,” he continues, “ The only constant in my industry is change. Counter sales will eventually come back and patient cooperatives will come back. I think this will probably happen in the next legislative cycle. So all we would have to do, if we are shut down, is keep alive until we would be allowed to open again as a patient-to-patient center.”
(For more on Davis’s plans for the 35th/Roxbury site, here’s our April followup, two days after the first report.)
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