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:
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: Read More
(WSB video: Walking along the line of luminarias at 2010 West Seattle Relay for Life)
One week from tonight, it’s the summer’s only all-night fundraiser in West Seattle – Relay for Life. Though some teams have been planning and raising money for months, it’s also not too late to form one and sign up now to be part of the cancer-fighting walkathon at West Seattle Stadium. WSB is proud to be among the West Seattle Relay for Life co-sponsors this year; here’s the latest update from Rebecca Polivy:
The West Seattle Relay for Life is right around the corner! Join us by creating a team or just coming out and seeing what it is all about. Festivities kick off at 6 pm on Friday June 10th with fun for the whole family – walk the track for American Cancer Society or just come to check out an awesome performance by the Seattle Civic Dance Theater, practice your marshmallow launching skills, or compete in the first annual Minute-to-Win-it competition!
We are also looking for lots of day-of volunteers – if you could come and help us out any time between 1pm on June 10th through noon on Saturday we would love to have you. E-mail Rebecca (bec@busstop.org) to learn more about how you can help! Between setting up, helping set up for the luminaria ceremony, or manning our information tent – we could use volunteers of all ages!
We caught up with World MS Day Seattle organizer William Khazaal and family as they arrived at Spring Hillin The Junction a short time ago. You still have the rest of the night to get out and dine/nosh at dozens of participating restaurants/lounges to raise money to help kids with multiple sclerosis, including more than 30 in West Seattle (Spring Hill, of course, among tem). The map page (with the sites listed on its left side) is here. Here’s the backstory on what the event is all about.
Tomorrow, you have 70 options for dining or shopping to be part of the multiple-sclerosis-fighting fundraiser put together by West Seattleite William Khazaal. As first reported here earlier this month, William was inspired by West Seattle for Japan, the multi-business fundraiser organized by West 5‘s Dave Montoure to help quake/tsunami victims. William is an MS patient himself, as well as a dad and a graduate student; he explained in our original story that multiple sclerosis remains an incurable mystery that hits harder in the Northwest than other regions, so we all have a stake in raising money to help researchers figure it out. The full list of participants is in the “info” area of the World MS Day Seattle page on Facebook, and it’s truly citywide, with about half the participants in West Seattle and half elsewhere (mostly restaurants, but a few retailers too – even a car dealer!); we’ll also list the West Seattle participants here tomorrow, with links.
1:25 AM WEDNESDAY: There’s now a map of participants citywide, which means a list on its left sidebar – find it here.
The near-perfect weather is expected to continue for tomorrow’s Bike to Work Day around the area. One of the 41 “commuter stations” set up for the occasion 6-9 am will, as usual, be at the west end of West Seattle’s “low bridge,” according to the map set up by the Cascade Bicycle Club Education Foundation. Its official announcement of the event also includes word of two regional events: a morning rally 7:30-8:30 am outside City Hall, 600 4th Avenue downtown, and an “after-party” in Ballard, along 22nd NW between Market Street and Ballard Avenue (part of Seattle Summer Streets, which closes Alki from 56th-63rd SW on Sunday, 11 am-5 pm, after the 9 am-11 am closure from 63rd to Don Armeni for the West Seattle 5K).
TOMORROW NIGHT: From 5 till midnight tomorrow (Tuesday), dine at Endolyne Joe’s and half the proceeds go to the Fauntleroy Fall Festival (set this year for October 16th). You’ll also be able to enter drawings for gift baskets to raise extra money – two tickets for $5. The FFF has been a fun free event every year (here’s our coverage from last year) thanks to fundraisers like this one. (Endolyne Joe’s is at 9261 45th SW – menu’s online here.)
WORLD MS DAY SEATTLE UPDATE:We reported last Tuesday on the citywide event West Seattleite William Khazaal is organizing for a week from this Wednesday, a chance to dine out and shop to help raise money for kids with multiple sclerosis, a disease William himself is battling. Tonight a quick update – more than 50 businesses are now signed up (30 from West Seattle or White Center); you can see the latest list on Facebook. And there’s still room for more! Got a business? Be part of it by e-mailing william@mschildrensbook.com.
Story and photos by Stephanie Chacharon
Reporting for West Seattle Blog
As guests streamed through the doors of Showbox SODO last night, a school bus full of cheering, waving models — all breast-cancer survivors — pulled up to the venue. STYLE ’11, the 9th annual fashion -how benefit for Northwest Hope & Healing, had just begun.
Inside, the SoDo space was elegantly decorated, dimly lit and accented with pink. Guests greeted friends while waiting in line for a drink. The catwalk was illuminated with bold pink lighting, framed by candlelit VIP tables. The screen behind the runway flashed candid images of smiling women and past fashion show shots intermixed with sponsors’ logos. The women’s larger-than-life faces were proof that bald is beautiful, just as beautiful as a stage filled with more than three dozen breast cancer survivors.
The annual benefit is the brainchild of Carmilia’s Linda Sabee (shown above with NWHH executive director Shari Sewell) and Ola Salon & Spa. Sabee told us the original intent was just to have some fun, and then it quickly evolved into a fundraiser for Northwest Hope & Healing. For the first few years the event was held at Ola, but once it began to grow they moved the event to Showbox SODO. The event is a chance to honor and celebrate breast cancer survivors and fashion in the Seattle area.
(Story continues, with more photos, ahead)Read More
(Photo courtesy William Khazaal, pictured with son Gabriel) By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
Inspired by the success of West Seattle for Japan, the multi-business quake-relief benefit organized by West 5‘s Dave Montoure, another communitywide fundraising effort is in the works, and seeking more participants.
It’s World MS Day Seattle on May 25th, and while is meant to be citywide, it is West Seattle-born, and so far, most of the participants are from WS and White Center.
World MS Day Seattle is the brainchild of a West Seattleite, 36-year-old William Khazaal. If his name sounds familiar – maybe that’s because his family runs the popular Alki restaurant Phoenecia.
For William, it’s not just an idea – it’s for the fight of his life, as well as millions of others.
Right about the same time his dad died, William not only was studying at the University of Washington business school, and subsequently using his skills to help his mom and sisters reopen Phoenecia in early 2010, he was dealing with having been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. And all along the way, he was also busy as father of two sons, his now-almost-6-year-old, Gabriel, pictured with him atop this story, and Blakely, who is approaching 3.)
With all that, he barely had time to stop and think about what the diagnosis meant.
Another business expanding to West Seattle from the north end has just announced its opening date. We first told you three months ago that Breathe Hot Yoga was coming to Link (WSB sponsor; 38th and Alaska in The Triangle); this morning Breathe announced it’s opening this Thursday (May 12), with free classes at 4 pm, 5:15 pm and 6:30 pm that day (the first two taught by proprietor Amber Borgomainerio), and the regular class schedule starting this Friday.
A medical-marijuana dispensary is reported to be back on the table for moving into 5214 Delridge Way (map), less than two months after a fleetingly-reported possibility led to an intense neighborhood discussion, including a briefing before the Delridge District Council. That possibility seemed to fade, as reported here back in mid-March, when police said they had received word that the property owner was “leaning away” from renting to a medical-marijuana operation. Now, according to a report that North Delridge Neighborhood Council chair Karrie Kohlhaas has shared with the group’s mailing list, the plan is back. Kohlhaas writes that the co-owners of Washington Alternative Medicine requested a meeting with their group’s board last Friday to inform NDNC they’re negotiating to lease 5214 Delridge Way, which prior to a recent round of renovations had a troubled history, as home to Delridge Vacuum and TV, whose license was revoked by the city two years ago.
Prior to Kohlhaas’s report, we had already heard the new Delridge-dispensary report from a source who asked not to be identified, so we had been trying to reach WAM ownership to find out more. An associate of the owners eventually called our reporter back to ask that questions be e-mailed, and we are still awaiting a reply. If a facility does open at this site on Delridge, it would be the fourth known current/upcoming medical-marijuana enterprise in West Seattle (after GAME Collective on California SW midway between Alaska and Morgan Junctions, and Pharmaseed on Alki, now in operation, with Northwest Patient Resource Center coming to 35th/Roxbury), in addition to two new ones in the heart of the White Center business district just south of West Seattle, the GAME Collective “lounge” and Herban Legends.
This all comes as the status of the burgeoning medical-marijuana industry remains somewhat clouded, since Governor Gregoire vetoed much of a bill that both houses of the State Legislature passed in hopes of regulating it. There’s talk now of an alternate bill before the Legislature’s current special session ends; in the meantime, dispensaries remain illegal under state law (as reiterated on this state website), even though medical marijuana itself was legalized by voter initiative in 1997, but local authorities have not yet indicated how they’ll be handled if no state regulation is forthcoming.
Big news from longtime WSB sponsorM3 Bodyworks – another major insurance plan is now accepted at their massage clinic. From M3’s Michael Mandell:
M3 Bodyworks Massage Clinic is pleased to announce:
We are now accepting Regence Blue Shield Insurance!
Regence is a major insurance plan in Washington, and we are very excited about this news. If Regence is your insurance plan, we look forward to the opportunity to serve you after many years of waiting to join the network. Being on this network will also allow us to bill your insurance if you are on Uniform Medical Plan, which switched to Regence at the beginning of this year.
If you are wondering if your insurance plan covers massage, check with your carrier.
M3 Bodyworks currently accepts the following insurance:
Aetna
Cigna
Premera Blue Cross
Lifewise Health Plan
Regence Blue Shield
So, welcome Regence customers! You can still book your appointments online at M3bodyworks.com.*
M3 Bodyworks Massage Clinic
5236 California Ave SW, Suite D
Seattle, WA 98136
206.331.3999 – Phone
206-388-3226 – Fax
Hours: 10 am-10 pm, 7 days a week
*Please note that only a few practitioners are accepting Regence at this time. Please pick “Regence” as your insurance type, and you will be assigned to a contracted provider. We expect all practitioners to be credentialed in the near future.
*Not all insurance plans cover massage therapy. Many require a doctor’s prescription. Please check with your carrier to see if you are covered for massage therapy.
Got late word from Puget Sound Blood Center that their Bloodmobile is in The Junction right now – till 3 pm. 42nd/Alaska, if you are able to stop by and give.
That video made for Northwest Hope and Healing by West Seattle’s Captive Eye Media gives you a taste of the fashion, fun, and inspiration at NWHH’s annual “Style ’11” benefit fashion show to raise money for its mission: Helping breast-cancer patients – not with the treatment itself, but with the sudden turmoil and upheaval it causes in patients’ lives; that kind of help provides “hope and healing” too. “Style ’11” is now less than a week away – happening next Thursday night, May 12th, at Showbox SODO. Lots of West Seattle involvement again this year – including West Seattle Runner (WSB sponsor), Carmilia’s, Coastal, Ola, and Sweetie. Tickets will cost you less online than at the door; get yours by going here.
(WSB photo from luminaria ceremony during 2009 Relay for Life – West Seattle)
Five weeks may sound like a long time, but for an event like Relay for Life-West Seattle, which involves assembling a team and making plans for the all-night walk, it’s not much – Rebecca sends this update:
…Tiime to get your team signed up today!!!
We are so close to surpassing all our goals and we need your help. We already have 19 teams signed up from all over West Seattle– schools, churches, businesses – this community wide event will be a great way to meet others in your local area. Help us reach our goal of 25 teams and raising more than $75,000 for the American Cancer Society.
Mark your calendar for June 10th at West Seattle Stadium.
Even if you can’t spend the night with us, plan to come by for some great community fun, fundraising, and local bands! Or donate to this great cause, here! Questions? Please ask Rebecca today – bec@busstop.org
Relay for Life is both a festive and contemplative event over the course of the evening and morning that it runs, and at times moving for spectators as well as participants. WSB is proud to have joined the sponsor lineup for this year’s Relay – if you’re interested in sponsorship, Rebecca would be able to handle those inquiries too.
There’s no surer sign of a baby boom in West Seattle than a business boom in services for mothers with babies. Here’s the newest sign: Nurturing Expressions has just opened a store in The Junction. But owner Tracy Corey is no newcomer – she’s been running Nurturing Expressions since 2004, and is a board-certified lactation consultant (as well as a 20-year-veteran registered nurse). The store’s “we’re open!” announcement, however, says it’s not just a store for moms who choose to breastfeed their children: “Whether mothers choose to breastfeed, pump, bottle feed or do a combination, their team of consultants will support mothers and their babies through all stages of feeding.” For nursing moms, they have classes (here’s the current schedule), support groups, and merchandise, including breast pumps and nursing bras. And at the store, they have a private breastfeeding room where moms can get coaching and support. The store’s in Junction Tower – the same building as longtime WSB sponsor Westside Dermatology – 4746 44th SW (on the second floor). You’ll also find Corey and her coaching online – not just on the Nursing Expressions website, but also on Twitter as @theboobiecoach. (Photo courtesy Nurturing Expressions)
(Collection boxes at the Admiral Way Viewpoint dropoff station) Story and photos by Katie Meyer
Reporting for West Seattle Blog
Two West Seattle drop-off locations were part of National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day today, a chance to get unused/unneeded/expired drugs out of your home for safe disposal, no questions asked.
First up, the Admiral Way Viewpoint, where Washington Poison Center staffer Jan Binks said that, pending final numbers, it appears that they were collecting more unused prescriptions than last year. Staff from the Seattle field division of the Drug Enforcement Agency were on hand to collect the bottles, bags and blister packs from the steady stream of cars that rolled through the ‘drive-through’ station. Also on hand,Mr. Yuk:
Drivers honked and waved at the mascot as they drove by, and goggled at the bright blue HumVee from the Drug Enforcement Agency – a vehicle formerly owned by a drug dealer who saw it seized before he “went away for a loooong time.”
(Updated 4:50 pm with addition of Mayor McGinn’s statement) Governor Gregoirehas vetoed parts of SB 5073, the medical-marijuana regulation/licensing bill, and reaction is starting to roll in. Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes‘ statement says in part, “A rational regulatory framework, which the Legislature’s bill would have brought us, is even more necessary with the proliferation of dispensaries we’ve seen in recent years. Because of the governor’s actions today, these dispensaries will remain mired in a legal gray area …” Two dispensaries are promoting their operations in West Seattle right now, with a third on the way, and two medical-marijuana operations are opening in White Center. Read on for Holmes’ statement; we’ll add any more information/reaction that comes in:Read More
If you’re still a little hinky about clearing out your medicine cabinet via National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day dropoff spots this Saturday, maybe this will help: Jodie Underwood from the Drug Enforcement Agency‘s Seattle office says their Admiral Way Viewpoint location will be a drive-through! Right there at the viewpoint on the northeast side of the top-of-Admiral-Way curve, you can drive through – 10 am-2 pm Saturday (April 30) – drop off the meds, drive away. You don’t even have to give them your prescription container (though if you do, you can block out the info with a marker ahead of time) – you can just empty it into their receptacle. Underwood stresses that this is a no-questions-asked event – they just want to get unneeded drugs away from places where they might be a danger or temptation to someone (there are also environmental hazards, since some think it’s OK to flush them or dump them down some other drain). Underwood also tells us the DEA’s Admiral Way site will have a mascot – good ol’ Mr. Yuk. That’s one of two drop-off locations in West Seattle on Saturday; Seattle Police will also have one, same hours, at the Southwest Precinct (Delridge/Webster).
Historic Highland Park Improvement Club already is home to dancing, yoga, cooking classes, wine tasting, movie nights, community meetings, parties, and now … a weekly community acupuncture clinic. Walk in between 11 am and 3 pm Tuesdays, and you will see those six chairs, enabling practitioner Christopher Huson, L.Ac. (right), to treat up to six people an hour. Last week was a test run; today was the first official day, so we stopped in for photos. Fees: “$15 to $35 sliding scale, you decide, no proof of income necessary.” Not much red tape, either – upon arrival, you fill out a short form, then pay, and book your next appointment if you’d like one, so that you don’t get jarred out of your relaxed mood once you’re done (Huson says most patients fall asleep during the treatment, so let him know how long you have to stay, so he can wake you up to go).
P.S. To see what else is up at HPIC (12th/Holden), check out their latest newsletter (and note the classic movie they’re showing this Friday!)
Interested in seeing (and shopping at!) a permanent produce stand in Delridge? Here’s a simple way to help Delridge Produce Cooperative reach that goal. DPC’s Galena White shares the news about bags they’re selling to raise money:
Delridge Produce Cooperative has recently incorporated, and we’re closer to opening a permanent produce stand in the Delridge Neighborhood. We are a community-owned organization, without large private investors. In order to sell inexpensive, locally-grown, pesticide-free produce, we have to raise money!
Our ‘Grow’ bags were so popular at our ‘Mobile Market’ that we decided to offer them for sale. Each bag holds more than a regular plastic grocery bag, is reusable and washable, and stuffs into one of its own corners to form a cute little strawberry. We’re all volunteers, so 100% of the proceeds from these $6 bags go toward Delridge Produce Cooperative’s effort to open a produce stand on Delridge. Please visit one of the locations listed below and look for one of our baskets to help us bring healthy food to our neighborhood!
Proletariat Pizza
Again and A Gain Consignment
Phở Aroma
Blue Mist Hair Salon
Super 24
Delridge Deli Mart
Pearls
Yarrow Spa
No rain so far – fine time to head to the beach (sun or no sun), and while you’re there, stop by Alki Arts (2820 Alki SW) and sign up for the bone-marrow registry (while also checking out the art that’s on display and on sale!). Nothing painful – just the one-in-a-million chance that maybe someday you would have the chance to save somebody’s life, maybe that of Christy Bemis, whose story is at the end of our report about Marnie Devlin (at left in top photo), who came up with the marrow-drive idea to celebrate her 25th birthday, and got community sponsors to donate prizes and treats (Alki Arts donated use of its space, too).
(EDITOR’S NOTE: After the main story, we have a side note from someone whose life might be saved by a donor found this way. This isn’t someone Marnie pointed out, but someone who was sharing news about it on Facebook. Please be sure to read past the jump for her story.)
By Keri DeTore
Reporting for West Seattle Blog
As she nears her 25th birthday, Marnie Devlin has been thinking about ways to make a difference. “My friends seem to have these ‘quarter-life’ crises where they wonder about their (life) directions, and I’ve always laughed and thought they were being silly. But now (turning 25) I think maybe I should do something I can point to as an accomplishment.”
Coming from a family of blood donors, and being an EMT, Marnie is well aware of the need for bone marrow donors, and the importance of getting people signed up with the National Marrow Donor Program. She says, “I realized it how easy it is and I thought if my friends knew how easy it is, most of them would sign up. My original idea was to get 25 people signed up for my 25th birthday. I posted my idea on Facebook and Twitter, where the (Puget Sound) Blood Center saw it and wanted to help.”
Thanks to the collaboration with the Puget Sound Blood Center and a number of local businesses, Marnie is hosting a full-on marrow donor registration event this Sunday (April 3rd) at Alki Arts (2820 Alki Avenue SW.) Owner Diane Venti is donating the space and from 2-6 pm, Marnie will be serving champagne and goodies baked by her family while PSBC registers potential marrow donors for the Be The Match program.
Marnie explains that because people think the registration procedure involves something painful and invasive, they won’t do it. Turns out, that’s wrong.
The need for a state law to regulate medical-marijuana dispensaries is “a public safety issue, not a civil-liberties issue.”
That’s what Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes told WSB this afternoon, as we sought a followup conversation regarding three recent events: First, the Delridge Neighborhoods District Council discussed dispensaries last week, after a fleeting report that one might move into a Delridge Way storefront; then, a West Seattle dispensary was targeted by armed robbers last Saturday night; and third, a committee chaired by West Seattle State Rep. Eileen Cody is considering the bill, SB 5073, that would create the regulation Seattle and other city leaders are hoping for. (The online legislative record doesn’t reflect this so far, but Holmes said his understanding was that the committee voted narrowly in favor of the bill today, with amendments he was waiting to hear about.)
We contacted Holmes because a policy expert from his office, John Schochet, had spoken at last week’s district-council meeting, declaring that dispensaries are “technically not legal” and saying that if the state doesn’t take action, Seattle will have to do something.
What would that something be? we asked Holmes today. The only thing he could be clear on is that inaction wouldn’t be an option – though it’s what’s being (not) done right now.
“We need to do something. Right now these are felony operations,” Holmes said, and “allowing them to continue proliferating” – he estimates there are 30 in Seattle – is not in anyone’s best interest.
Yet moving to shut them all down isn’t in anyone’s best interest either, he contends, since that would take a massive amount of law-enforcement time and jail space.
Tomorrow, you have 70 options for dining or shopping to be part of the multiple-sclerosis-fighting fundraiser put together by West Seattleite William Khazaal. As 
That possibility seemed to fade, as 
There’s no surer sign of a baby boom in West Seattle than a business boom in services for mothers with babies. Here’s the newest sign: 
and now … a weekly community acupuncture clinic. Walk in between 11 am and 3 pm Tuesdays, and you will see those six chairs, enabling practitioner Christopher Huson, L.Ac. (right), to treat up to six people an hour. Last week was a test run; today was the first official day, so we stopped in for photos. Fees: “$15 to $35 sliding scale, you decide, no proof of income necessary.” Not much red tape, either – upon arrival, you fill out a short form, then pay, and book your next appointment if you’d like one, so that you don’t get jarred out of your relaxed mood once you’re done (Huson says most patients fall asleep during the treatment, so let him know how long you have to stay, so he can wake you up to go). 
As she nears her 25th birthday, Marnie Devlin has been thinking about ways to make a difference. “My friends seem to have these ‘quarter-life’ crises where they wonder about their (life) directions, and I’ve always laughed and thought they were being silly. But now (turning 25) I think maybe I should do something I can point to as an accomplishment.”
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