The Bellingham Herald

BY JORDAN SCHRADER

December 2nd, 2015
jschrader@thenewstribune.com

State government has in recent weeks stamped 142 retail cannabis licenses with a medical
endorsement that will let them cater to patients come July 1.
The value of an endorsement for the roughly 65 percent of pot shops that have received
one won’t be fully known, though, until more rules are set for Washington’s newly
consolidated medical and recreational cannabis system.

“If it did come to fruition, we could significantly expand our business,” said Jim Sulton,
owner of one of the stores with an endorsement, A Bud and Leaf in Olympia.
Today, he said, he’s limited by restrictions surrounding Washington’s 2012 legalization of
recreational cannabis. “We can’t say this will cure this or this will help alleviate that,” he
said.

The state has so far given seven pot retailers in Whatcom County the OK to sell medical
cannabis, with Trove Cannabis in Bellingham as the most recent store receiving approval.
That’s out of 26 applications.

The slew of endorsements is a sign that patients wanting to medicate with cannabis are
likely to have options no matter where they live in the state, regardless of what happens as
the state begins deciding which unlicensed dispensaries to legitimize.

Medical-cannabis shops must shut down or obtain state licenses by July 1.
Existing medical-cannabis shops in Whatcom County have yet to receive state licenses,
although some have applied.

In the first round of selections in 2014, a lottery was used to rank applicants for
recreational cannabis licenses. Lucky ones, like A Bud and Leaf, scored a low number.
This time around, the Legislature told state regulators to choose applicants for new licenses
based on their histories.

The Liquor and Cannabis Board has divided the more than 1,100 applications it has
received into groups based on priority.

Owning or working at an unlicensed outlet is a plus in the application process, as long as
that business had been around for a few years and had paid taxes. Applicants only reached
the top tier, however, if they had also applied during the first round of licensing.

Thirty-three applications from 26 applicants met that test as of mid-November. The agency
is processing those top-priority applications first, putting entrepreneurs who have struggled
for years with cloudy and changing legal status one step closer to state sanction.

Eighteen applicants in King County and just 15 in the rest of Washington have first dibs on
consideration.

“All I’ve ever wanted is to be recognized as a legitimate business,” said Louis Archuleta,
owner of the Herbal Gardens, which opened in 2011.

Archuleta said Tacoma originally gave him a business license, then ordered him to shut
down, but more recently allowed him to operate.

He said he was left to wonder: “Is tomorrow the day they drag me, my wife and my child
out in the street and take me to jail for something they gave me a license for?”
Today, he says he’s thankful to local and state officials. “I’m thankful that we are in the
position that we are. It’s a position I believe that we’ve earned.”

Federal law says cannabis is illegal, but Washington voters approved medical cannabis in
1998. The law didn’t allow for retail sales, but hundreds of stores have sprung up
nonetheless.

After voters approved retail sales of recreational cannabis three years ago, calls for the
Legislature to regulate medical cannabis sales intensified. Lawmakers decided this year to
reconcile recreational and medical cannabis businesses into one regulated system.

Until the Legislature acted, governments were reluctant to take the initiative in overseeing
medical-cannabis stores, said Christy Stanley, owner of Green Tiki.

It’s “kind of like the polar bear swim,” Stanley said, “where everybody’s standing on the
edge of the icy water in their underwear. … They (were) just waiting for someone to make
the first move and jump in.”

The cannabis board is waiting for a consultant’s analysis of how much cannabis
Washington consumes before deciding how many stores to license. The deadline for the
final report has been pushed back, and it’s now due Dec. 15.

Jordan Schrader: 360-786-1826, @Jordan_Schrader — Read Article