Pubdate: Thu, 17 Oct 2013
Source: Seattle Times (WA)
Copyright: 2013 The Seattle Times Company
Contact:  http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/409
Author: Bob Young
Page: 1

STATE POT OFFICIALS CAN EXHALE AS RULES GET THE OK

Arduous Process Ends, but More Work Ahead

Next Up, Licensing; Stores Expected to Open by May

OLYMPIA - With little fanfare in a drab conference room, the state 
Liquor Control Board adopted rules for a legal marijuana system after 
10 months of research, revisions, wrangling with the federal 
government and wrestling with who-would've-imagined questions.

In a unanimous vote Wednesday, state officials charted the course for 
an experiment that seeks to undercut illegal dealers and launched the 
next leg of the journey: licensing a recreational pot industry 
serving customers with 334 retail stores.

Adults will be able to walk into stores between 8 a.m. and midnight 
beginning next year to buy small amounts of marijuana products, 
including buds and brownies produced with state-certified safe levels 
of pesticides and other chemicals.

"The Washington state Liquor Control Board just built the template 
for responsible legalization of marijuana," said Alison Holcomb, 
chief author of the legal-pot law. Holcomb is traveling to England, 
Poland and the Netherlands in coming weeks to discuss Washington's 
law and rules, and is part of a new panel studying the idea in California.

Liquor-board members predicted a bumpy ride for the next year or so, 
with further tweaking of the rules likely.

"We might not have it exactly right today," said board member Chris 
Marr of the 43 pages of rules. "But we're in an excellent position to 
open stores in the middle of next year."

State officials expect stores to open as early as May. Farms would 
start growing several months earlier.

In those stores, marked by a single sign that can't be much bigger 
than 3 feet by 3 feet under the rules, consumers won't be able to 
sample products. They will be able, however, to smell samples through 
screened containers that do not allow them to touch pot.

Childproof packaging will be required for edible products. All 
packages will contain warning labels saying marijuana has 
intoxicating effects and may be habit-forming. Labels will warn 
consumers of health risks, particularly the risks for pregnant women.

They also will show potency, as measured in percentage of THC, the 
key psychoactive chemical in pot.

In what state officials hope will be a competitive edge for the 
recreational system, retail stores will stock only products 
determined to have safe levels of pesticides, bacteria, moisture and metals.

Randy Simmons, the state marijuana project director, said he's heard 
of growers who have added sand to pot to give it additional weight, 
who have painted pot to make it more desirably purple, and who have 
spiked buds with hash oil to make them more potent.

Labels will disclose all pesticides used in the growing of the 
product. Consumers can ask retailers for full test results of 
chemicals and foreign matter found in products.

State-regulated pot can't be labeled organic, Simmons said, because 
the federal government bestows that standard and it still considers 
marijuana a dangerous drug. But the state is using federal standards 
for organic products as a model for its rules, he said.

Prices in stores will be determined by the market, not state 
officials. But state consultants have written about scenarios in 
which prices could range between $6 and $17 per gram depending on 
wholesale farm prices and markups.

Consumers will be able to buy pot grown under the sun in outdoor 
farms, as well as weed grown indoors, which uses more electricity and 
has a larger carbon footprint.

The rules give an advantage to indoor growers, Simmons acknowledged. 
That's because rules limit all farms to a maximum of 30,000 square 
feet and indoor farms can produce four harvests a year compared with 
two for outdoor growers in Washington state.

Jeremy Moberg, an Okanogan County activist, and Holcomb, 
criminal-justice director for the ACLU of Washington, both argued for 
a more equitable system. They proposed limiting indoor farms to half 
the size of outdoor farms as one way to level the playing field.

But Simmons said the state wants to make sure it meets the estimated 
demand for 80 metric tons of pot next year. It might not if it cut 
the size of indoor farms, he said, and if it doubled the size of 
outdoor farms it might antagonize federal watchdogs.

Simmons believes demand will increase in time, and when the state 
expands its supply that will provide an opportunity for outdoor 
growers to make up ground.

State officials believe the 334 pot stores, which are allocated 
similarly to the state's defunct liquor stores, will be enough. But 
Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes has asked the state to consider 
allocating more stores to the city than the 21 it has planned.

If there are more qualified applicants in a city than stores 
allotted, the state will use a lottery system to pick winners, 
literally by drawing names, Simmons said.

The state can't use a merit system to award licenses, Simmons said. 
Unlike contracts, which can rely on merit, state licenses are 
threshold-based, he said; if applicants meet the standards they 
qualify for licenses.

There appear to be more than enough entrepreneurs eager to meet the 
state's requirements for growers, processors and retailers.

The Liquor Control Board is holding licensing seminars in seven 
cities this month to inform and advise entrepreneurs about the rules 
and application process.

Seminars in five cities already are fully booked. In all, of the 
2,440 seats available at all seven seminars, 1,991 were taken by Wednesday.

The state on Nov. 18 will open a 30-day window for accepting 
applications for growing, processing and retail licenses, and expects 
to start issuing them, after background checks, in December at the earliest.

Some cities remain resistant to pot commerce and have adopted 
moratoriums and other restrictions that would effectively keep pot 
merchants away.

But others such as Seattle, Bainbridge Island and Bellevue are moving 
ahead with zoning and other regulations for permitting pot commerce.

Several lawyers who advise pot entrepreneurs said cities seem to be 
warming to pot commerce now that the state has adopted rules and the 
federal Department of Justice has said it won't try to stop 
Washington's legal system - approved by voters last November - 
provided it is tightly regulated.

"It's not happening quickly, but I do have a sense there's been a bit 
of a shift," said Candice Bock of the Association of Washington Cities.

Officials in some of the reluctant cities have said they're worried 
about the impact of legal pot commerce on community character. But 
the Liquor Control Board's Marr said that excluding legitimate pot 
businesses only promotes the illicit pot market that already exists 
within those communities.

To keep store ownership from concentrating in the hands of a few, the 
rules do not allow a person or company to own more than three retail 
stores in the state.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom