The new state of marijuana

A SPECIAL NEWS SECTION OF THE MASON COUNTY JOURNAL

Overview

A LOOK, PAST & PRESENT Washington and Colorado are the only governments in history — as far as anyone can tell — to regulate the production, processing and sale of marijuana. PAGE 4

Law enforcement

COPS FREED UP BY LAW After a year and a half, law enforcement officers are still in a holding pattern, waiting to see what trends show up in the arrest data over the next few years. Despite their impressions, arrests and prosecutions for marijuana possession have decreased in the past year. PAGE 9

Sharon Foster

Q&A, LIQUOR BOARD BOSS The Mason County Journal talks to Sharon Foster, chairwoman of the Washington state Liquor Control Board, the agency that was given the job, through Initiative 502, of writing and administering the rules for the state’s recreational marijuana businesses. PAGE 16

A personal story

YIN AND YANG OF POT A reporter’s brush with pot opens senses, creates confusion during a trip to Hawaii. Tremendous insight often accompanies tremendous paranoia. That’s the yin and yang of marijuana. PAGE 19

Page C-2 - Mason County Journal - Thursday, Aug. 28, 2014

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

4 7 9 10

Overview

A LOOK, PAST & PRESENT Washington and Colorado are the only governments in history — as far as anyone can tell — to regulate the production, processing and sale of marijuana.

Dispensaries

MEDICAL MARIJUANA Dispensary owners find themselves in murky legal waters where their business could end tomorrow with one court ruling, a shift in the political culture, or one crackdown by the U.S. Attorney’s Office. And with recreational marijuana now legal, their future remains uncertain.

Law enforcement

COPS FREED UP BY LAW After a year and a half, law enforcement officers are still in a holding pattern, waiting to see what trends show up in the arrest data over the next few years. Despite their impressions, arrests and prosecutions for marijuana possession have decreased in the past year.

Banking

NOTHING BUT CASH If you own a business related to marijuana sales or if you’re a grower or processor selling to those businesses, your anxiety and potential problems far exceed your employees’ worries because you’re dealing with far higher stacks of cash.

12 13 15 16

Legal

WHEN A GROW IS RAIDED An account of how a King County marijuana grower in his mid-20s saw his premises raided just one week before Christmas.

Producers

BIG BUSINESS It’s the biggest business opportunity since cellphones, a new crop to boost struggling farming communities and the end of a modern prohibition. That’s how Mason County’s marijuana producers and processors describe the advent of a legal commercial Cannabis industry in Washington.

Alternative medicine

PROCESSING DREAMS Deb Petersen, seeking a license in the Skokomish Valley with her business Crema de Gaia, will infuse oils, lotions and soaps with marijuana, exploiting its pain-relieving qualities.

Sharon Foster

Q&A, LIQUOR BOARD BOSS The Mason County Journal talks to Sharon Foster, chairwoman of the Washington state Liquor Control Board, which is the agency that was given the job, through Initiative 502, of writing and administering the rules for the state’s recreational marijuana businesses.

17 18 19

Retail

SPOTLIGHT ON SELLING Mikhail Carpenter, spokesperson for the state Liquor Control Board, talks about what customers should know about purchasing marijuana in Washington.

Prohibited locations

NOT LEGAL EVERYWHERE The legalization of marijuana use in Washington doesn’t mean you can fire up a joint on the Skokomish Indian reservation, on the Staircase trail or in the Dosewallips campground.

A personal story

YIN AND YANG OF POT A reporter’s brush with pot opens senses, creates confusion during a trip to Hawaii. Tremendous insight often accompanies tremendous paranoia. That’s the yin and yang of marijuana.

Special section by the Mason County Journal, 227 West Cota Street, Shelton, Washington; Mailing address: P.O. Box 430, Shelton, WA 98584 Telephone (360) 426-4412 Periodicals postage paid at Shelton, Washington Owned and published by Shelton-Mason County Journal, Inc. Tom Hyde, publisher Newsroom: Adam Rudnick, editor Natalie Johnson, reporter

Gordon Weeks, reporter Emily Hanson, sports reporter Kirk Ericson, special section editor Advertising: Dave Pierik, Sr. Acct. Executive Kathy Brooks, ad representative Lloyd Mullen, ad representative Front office: Donna Kinnaird, bookkeeper Amanda Strand, circulation Composing room: William Adams, graphics Linda Frizzell, graphics

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Congress and the tobacco industry in 1932 made marijuana illegal, then Class I, to strangle an historic beneficial and spiritual plant and substance.

Politicians and interests corporate raked in “legal” political and private jails to destroy and jail many providers of marijuana.

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Page C-4 - Mason County Journal - Thursday, Aug. 28, 2014

By Kirk Ericson

marijuana GROWS UP Washington on the leading edge of a major cultural, legal and medical shift

M

r. and Mrs. John Kraft were arrested Sept. 10, 1923, in the Idaho Hotel, a long-gone lodging establishment in Seattle that likely was a transient hotel, as they were called in those days. The Idaho Hotel was on the corner of Fifth Avenue and Jackson Street in downtown Seattle, not far from the King Street train station.

The Idaho Hotel was on the wrong side of the tracks.

We don’t know much about Mr. and Mrs. John Kraft or the details of their arrest because the Seattle Police Department has cleared out the paper records from that era. But we do know, if a Sept. 11, 1923, story from the Seattle Daily Times is correct, that they were the first people in Washington arrested under a six-month-old state law for possession of “marijuana, a Mexican narcotic herb.”

Here’s the complete story, which was tucked into a single column on page 2 of the paper under an ad for Lucky Strikes cigarettes (“It’s Toasted”): Mexican Herb Causes Grief Charged with violating the state antinarcotics law by having in their possession marijuana, a Mexican narcotic herb, Mr. and Mrs. John Kraft were arrested last night in the Idaho Hotel by Patrolmen N. P. Anderson and H. B. Williams and taken to the city jail. This is the first time since the new state law went into effect that anyone has been arrested for having the Mexican narcotic herb in his possession.

The penalty for a conviction of marijuana possession in 1923 was up to 10 years in the state penitentiary. *** What a difference a century makes.

No retail marijuana stores are open yet in Mason County, but some day residents will be able to enter one of five state-licensed stores in the county and buy up to 1 ounce of their own “Mexican herb.” Thurston County residents will be able to pick from 11 stores. Customers can buy strains of marijuana with names like OG Kush, Blue Dream or Purple Urkle. They can buy bongs, vaporizers and rolling papers.

And, as long as customers keep the amount of marijuana in their possession 1 ounce and lighter, they won’t have to worry about modern versions of Patrolmen Anderson and Williams.

Washington and Colorado are the only governments in history — as far as anyone can tell — to regulate the production, processing

and sale of marijuana. Colorado began selling recreational marijuana Jan. 1, 2014, and the first sale in Washington was July 8 at a handful of stores around the state. Of course, people in both states — and 20 other states — could kind of, sort of, legally buy marijuana for years before 2014 through medical marijuana dispensaries, but what’s happening now in Washington and Colorado with their recreational markets is without precedent.

THE SPECTER OF MEDICAL Understanding the difference between medical and recreational marijuana is important, especially in Washington. While Colorado folded its medical marijuana dispensaries somewhat seamlessly into its recreational market, Washington did not, so we now have, essentially, two big-time marijuana dealers angling for control of the same street corner.

The state fears medical marijuana will siphon off enough customers to imperil its recreational market, and dispensaries worry the recreational market will not only cost them customers, but that their customers will be forced to pay higher prices and won’t receive the therapeutic advice they believe they need.

“There’s so many patients out there right now” who need the medical marijuana dispensaries, said 64-year-old Bob Davies, manager of Mud Bay Meds, a collective on Mud Bay Road near the foot of Eld Inlet. “Their dosages are sometimes required to be a lot higher than what the state will allow under I-502 and I think that will make it very hard on the people who really need it. That’s why I think they should keep medical. If they do it by some kind of guideline and really run it as

a nonprofit, it really helps a lot of people, and it especially helps a lot of poor people.”

Right now, marijuana dispensaries in Washington can sell marijuana only to people with medical authorization cards, but dispensaries exist in a legal and regulatory limbo. The sales are neither legal nor illegal because their existence is not explicitly sanctioned under state law, but their presence is mostly tolerated, especially in King County. However, one place their existence is not especially appreciated is Washington, D.C. The U.S. Justice Department issued a memo in August 2013 that provided guidelines for Washington and Colorado to follow on recreational marijuana — if they wanted to remain in the federal government’s cone of tolerance. The key phrase being that states “will implement strong and effective regulatory and enforcement systems.”

Washington’s medical marijuana is not such a system.

Efforts to shut down medical marijuana businesses died in the final days of the Washington Legislature’s 2014 session, undone by a dispute over money. Some lawmakers wanted to direct more money from state marijuana revenues to local governments. Others did not. And medical marijuana remains alive until the Legislature takes another crack at it.

Voters in this state set us on a course with many unknowable consequences when they supported Initiative 502 in November 2012 with 56 percent of the vote.

Will marijuana use increase? Will the use of alcohol, which is considered a more reliable see page C-5

Thursday, Aug. 28, 2014 - Mason County Journal - Page C-5

Journal file photo

About 556,000 people use marijuana in Washington. continued from page C-4 indicator of criminal and violent behavior, increase or decrease? Will banks and credit unions be able to take the accounts of marijuana businesses? How much money will it deposit into state coffers? Will more youths start using marijuana? Will more people report becoming dependent on marijuana? What happens to the state’s medical marijuana dispensaries? Will the federal government, which considers marijuana an illegal drug with no medicinal value and with a high potential for abuse, allow Washington and Colorado to continue on this course in the coming years?

The issues that separate the federal government from Washington and Colorado on marijuana are as knotty as a 7-year-old’s fishing line.

“The pages of history haven’t been written on this,” U.S. Rep. Denny Heck, D-Olympia, told the Mason County Journal. He represents the 10th Congressional District, which includes Shelton, Olympia and southern parts of Tacoma. “We’re engaged in an experiment in Washington and Colorado. In standing up a legal adult recreational marijuana market in a way that’s safe for the public, there’s no guarantee of success. It will not be a straight line. There will be fits and starts. Fortunately in our state we’ve had an unbelievably dedicated Liquor Control Board that has been very focused on doing this right and always, always, always with public safety in mind.”

ABSOLUTELY UNPRECEDENTED Marijuana legalization has never been tried on this immense a scale. It’s not legal in Amsterdam — it’s only tolerated — and Uruguay, which legalized marijuana in 2013, hasn’t begun legal sales. Washington’s (and Colorado’s) population of pot users and future pot users are the test bacteria in a cultural Petri dish, and the results of this experiment will be analyzed and fought over by governments and their citizens around the world for years to come. It also

will deter or encourage other states to pursue legalization; Alaska, California and Oregon are among the next states where legalization initiatives could soon be put before voters. In a few years, it’s possible that legalized marijuana could stretch along the West Coast from Barrow in the north, hopscotch over British Columbia, and continue from Point Roberts onto San Diego.

STATE’S MARIJUANA USERS How many people use marijuana in Washington state? About 556,000.

That’s the number of people in Washington who reported using marijuana or hash (a distillate of marijuana) in the previous month, according to a survey conducted in 2010 and 2011 by the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. But, as a 2013 RAND Corporation study pointed out, “... self-report surveys typically underestimate consumption.

Further, marijuana use has generally been rising, and these figures represent use in 2010 and 2011, not 2013. Thus, the unadjusted figures from the 2010/2011 NSDUH likely understate the number of past-month users in 2013.”

That 556,000 figure led RAND, which was one of the partners in the Liquor Control Board’s marijuana fact-finding team, to realize that people in Washington consume way more marijuana than once thought. RAND doubled the estimate of the amount of marijuana needed per year to feed the recreational market in Washington. The Washington Office of Financial Management had initially estimated marijuana consumption in the state at 85 metric tons, based on the assumption that 363,000 people in the state were past-month users of marijuana. But the new figure bumped RAND’s median estimate to about 175 metric tons.

One hundred seventy-five metric tons.

That’s the approximate weight of 18 full-grown male orcas.

The state has nearly 7 million people, so we’re likely a few points shy of 10 percent of the state’s

BANNED SUBSTANCES IN THE UNITED STATES Here’s the list of controlled substances under the U.S. Controlled Substances Act, which became law in 1970. The schedule is ranked from the drugs considered most dangerous, Schedule 1, to least dangerous, Schedule V. Note that alcohol, the most abused substance in the United States, is not listed: Schedule I Schedule I drugs, substances, or chemicals are defined as drugs with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.

Schedule I drugs are the most dangerous drugs of all the drug schedules with potentially severe psychological or physical dependence.

Some examples of Schedule I drugs are: heroin, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), marijuana (cannabis), 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (ecstasy), methaqualone, and peyote Schedule II Schedule II drugs, substances, or chemicals are defined as drugs with a high potential for abuse, less abuse potential than Schedule I drugs, with use potentially leading to severe psychological or physical dependence. These drugs are also considered dangerous. Some examples of Schedule II drugs are cocaine, methamphetamine, methadone, hydromorphone (Dilaudid), meperidine (Demerol), oxycodone (OxyContin), fentanyl, Dexedrine, Adderall, and Ritalin.

Schedule III Schedule III drugs, substances, or chemicals are defined as drugs with a moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence. Schedule III drugs abuse potential is less than Schedule I and Schedule II drugs but more than Schedule IV. Some examples of Schedule III drugs are combination products with less than 15 milligrams of hydrocodone per dosage unit (Vicodin), products containing less than 90 milligrams of codeine per dosage unit (Tylenol with codeine), ketamine, anabolic steroids, testosterone.

Schedule IV Schedule IV drugs, substances, or chemicals are defined as drugs with a low potential for abuse and low risk of dependence. Some examples of Schedule IV drugs are Xanax, Soma, Darvon, Darvocet, Valium, Ativan, Talwin, Ambien.

Schedule V Schedule V drugs, substances, or chemicals are defined as drugs with lower potential for abuse than Schedule IV and consist of preparations containing limited quantities of certain narcotics. Schedule V drugs are generally used for antidiarrheal, antitussive, and analgesic purposes. Some examples of Schedule V drugs are cough preparations with less than 200 milligrams of codeine or per 100 milliliters (Robitussin AC), Lomotil, Motofen, Lyrica, Parepectolin.

population reporting using marijuana in the previous month.

Dozens of municipalities in the state have banned marijuana sales, including unincorporated Pierce County, Wenatchee, Kent and Yakima, but politicians in Mason County — after some fits and starts in July — and Thurston County have given the businesses the go-ahead. Mason and Thurston county voters endorsed I-502 by nearly identical margins — 55 percent and 56 percent, respectively. The Shelton City Commission and the Mason County Board of Commissioners both approved regulations in late 2013 governing the establishment of businesses where marijuana could be grown, processed and sold.

In Shelton, after public hearings and wrangling over zoning rules, which mainly focused on ensuring that any marijuana business didn’t fall within a 1,000-foot exclusion zone of places such as schools, parks and day care centers, the city commission approved rules that effectively limited those businesses to a chunk of land that’s a few blocks north of the Gateway Center, where Olympic Highway North meets U.S. Highway 101.

“There’s very limited opportunities to locate these facilities in Shelton,” Steve Goins, the city’s director of community and economic development, told the Journal in November 2013.

The Mason County Board of Commissioners also approved regulations governing marijuana businesses, allowing them in rural residential, rural commercial and other commercial and industrial zones. Of the Mason County applicants for retail stores who finished in the top five of the Liquor Control Board’s lottery, three of them are in Belfair.

However, the Mason County Commission backtracked after a group of neighbors on Sells Drive near Shelton complained about a marijuana production facility that had been licensed near their neighborhood. Commissioners voted 2-1 on July 1 to slap a moratorium on such enterprises in rural residential zones, but the board reversed itself three weeks later and lifted the moratorium.

STRANGE TIMES, INDEED Focusing on the necessarily mundane matters of creating a legal marijuana industry in Washington — zoning, banking, licensing, regulations — makes it easy to overlook what a remarkable position our state and its residents find themselves in the summer of 2014. Who among us could have imagined 10 years ago that we’d be living in a state where an officer could find up to 1 ounce of marijuana on someone and then hand it back to the person?

How did we travel from a time when U.S. Commissioner of Narcotics Harry Anslinger could write in a book published in 1953 that “... marihuana has no therapeutic value, and its use is therefore always an abuse and a vice ... In the earliest stages of intoxication the will power is destroyed and inhibitions and restraints are released; the moral barricades are broken down and often debauchery and sexuality results. Where mental instability is inherent, the behavior is generally violent. An egotist will enjoy delusions of grandeur, the timid individual will suffer anxiety, and the aggressive one often will resort to acts of violence and crime. Dormant tendencies are released and while the subject may know what is happening, he has become powerless to prevent it. Constant use produces incapacity for work and a disorientation of purpose. The drug has a corroding effect on the body and on the mind, weakening the entire physical system and often leading to insanity after prolonged use.”

Really?

We’ve moved from then to now because of people who don’t use marijuana.

For decades, the effort to legalize marijuana was largely driven by people who smoked marijuana.

They, understandably, didn’t like the idea of being arrested for having it. What shifted in the past 10 to 15 years was the support of people who didn’t smoke marijuana and who believed the costs to our society and to our citizens wasn’t worth it anymore.

In 1969, when Gallup first conducted a national poll that asked whether marijuana should be legalized, 12 percent of respondents said “yes.” It’s reasonable to suspect most of those who said “yes” smoked marijuana. In 2013, 58 percent of those surveyed said they favored legalizing marijuana. When you consider that less than 10 percent of the people in the U.S. reported using marijuana in the previous month, it’s obvious that nonusers were responsible for that spurt of support.

Marijuana legalization and gay marriage, which has followed a similar escalating line of support in the past 10 years, are legal in this state because of the support from people who are not pot smokers and who aren’t gay. And what’s driven that change is more people becoming aware that pot smokers, and homosexuals, are our neighbors, our relatives, our friends, and our work colleagues.

We’ve traveled so far that we now have a U.S. president telling the New Yorker magazine that “I don’t think it [marijuana] is more dangerous than alcohol.”

This is the new state of marijuana.

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Page C-6 - Mason County Journal - Thursday, Aug. 28, 2014

Journal Mason County

and Belfair Herald

(360) 426-4412 227 W. Cota St. • Shelton, WA 98584

Thursday, Aug. 28, 2014 - Mason County Journal - Page C-7

Journal photos by Tom Hyde

ABOVE: Dylan Glover works this summer at Mud Bay Meds in Olympia. The medical marijuana dispensary serves many patients in their 60s and 70s.

BELOW: A majority of Mud Bay patrons prefer eating ‘edibles’ ­— marijuana-infused candy and food — to smoking the plant itself.

Inside a dispensary Still-new medicinal marijuana trade makes its way

A

pot dealer or grower in this country in the past 100 years would have a hard time conjuring, even in the dreamiest of mental states, the kind of setup that Bob Davies has at his little shop on a parcel of land near Mud Bay. From the back of the store, the view beyond the bay and a stretch of wavy grassland reaches to a horizon outlined by the Black Hills. From the front of the store looking north across Mud Bay Road, you can take in a quiet stretch of Eld Inlet busy with birds and trees hanging over still water.

Davies, 64, has been selling medical marijuana from his Mud Bay Meds dispensary since September 2013. Throughout his business day, dozens of people — they’re called patients in this corner of the pot trade — step onto his wooden front porch and push through the front door of the one-story structure (the former locale of Shipwreck Beads). They sign in at the front desk and are taken to another room the size of an average living room.

In that room, customers can pick from marijuana and marijuana-filled products: Dried bud, lollipops, hard candy, lotions, concentrates, beverages. The dried pot is on shelves in separate containers above and behind the display counter, which itself contains concentrates, tinctures, capsules, balms. Arrayed around the rest of the room are small displays of edible items, including marijuana brownies, cookies and candy. If

By KIRK ERICSON you want, you can buy a marijuana-infused beverage.

On a wall, a calendar with a picture of ducks in flight had yet to be turned to the current month, already 15 days old. On another wall is one of those yellow-shaded nautical charts of Puget Sound.

After talking with a clerk — called a budtender — customers make their picks, hand over cash and leave with their marijuana. The whole pot transaction occurs without any of the anxiety or dread that sometimes marked such deals during much of our state’s history, and still does in most parts of this country.

The prevailing mood is confusion, especially among newer customers. As in, what should I buy?

And here’s the topper to this never-imagined state of affairs: Prominently displayed on Mud Bay Meds’ front door is an 8½-by-11 sheet of paper that carries a warning: NOTICE TO PUBLIC OFFICIALS This is a collective garden. It is a private facility open ONLY to members and prospective members.

If we did not contact you and request your presence, we formally request that you leave NOW. see MEDICAL, page C-8

Page C-8 - Mason County Journal - Thursday, Aug. 28, 2014

Interview: A husband and wife hope to find help for his medical problems

Journal photos by Tom Hyde

Bob Davies, owner of Mud Bay Meds, on the front porch of the dispensary in Olympia.

Medical: Offering a menu of marijuana continued from page C-7 You DO NOT have consent to enter or search the premises.

No person in this facility consents to questioning — they will NOT answer any questions concerning persons or activities on these premises.

If you have any questions concerning the persons or activities on these premises please contact our lawyer.

Not only does Davies sell weed from a store on a busy urban road, with the full knowledge of anyone who passes by, he can also tell police not to pester him. *** Washington voters approved, by 59 percent to 41 percent, the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes in 1998. Washington, along with Alaska and Oregon, became just the second states to legalize the use of medical marijuana. California was the first, in 1996.

After years of drifting along after passage, medical marijuana and its green-crossed dispensaries started popping up in King County around 2011 when the Legislature amended the state’s medical marijuana law to allow collective gardens. A “collective garden” was the name given to marijuana grown for a group of people who had medical marijuana authorization cards. It allowed people who couldn’t grow marijuana or who didn’t have safe access to it to join a group where growers could produce up to 45 plants for a minimum of three people and a maximum of 10 people. Then the marijuana would be spread among them — for medicinal purposes, of course.

It thus became legal to grow pot under certain restrictions, as far as the state was concerned, and store-front dispensaries stepped in to provide the marijuana directly to patients.

In most cases, dispensaries brought in marijuana from collective gardens and then sold it (dispensaries prefer the word “donate”) to authorized patients.

But no state statute expressly allows the actual sale of marijuana. In 2011, Gregoire vetoed legislation that would have regulated dispensaries.

Dispensary owners in 2014 find themselves in a legal netherworld where their business could end tomorrow with one court ruling, a shift in the political culture, one city or county

council decision, one crackdown by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Dispensary owners’ long-range plans for their businesses tend not to be too long range.

IN THE LEGISLATURE Regulating medical marijuana will be up on the Legislature’s agenda in 2015, just as it was in 2014. And many medical marijuana advocates are likely to fight the details of regulation just as strenuously in the next session as they did last session.

But as of today, thousands of people (the exact number isn’t available because they aren’t registered) use dispensaries to buy the marijuana that they say makes their medical conditions more tolerable. Thousands also buy marijuana for less-thanmedical reasons.

Roger Roffman, professor emeritus of social work at the University of Washington and a co-sponsor of the initiative that legalized marijuana in 2012, told the Journal that dispensaries serve a vital interest, “but our state has failed to adequately regulate medical marijuana. As a result, there are legitimate medical needs being served alongside exploitation by nonpatients of the opportunity to avoid conviction.”

OWNER AND BELIEVER Mud Bay Meds owner Davies is a firm believer in the medicinal power of marijuana. He is a longtime consumer, and he used marijuana to help treat his colon cancer. He said he’s now in remission.

“As soon as I found out I had cancer, I started on a heavy, hard regimen of Rick Simpson Oil, (a hemp oil that’s high in cannabidinols, a nonintoxicating element of Cannabis) and before I had my surgery, they found that there was no more new spreading,” Davies said. “I was pretty bad. I went through chemotherapy and radiation.”

When he opened the dispensary in September 2013, Davies, an Army veteran, said he expected to see a lot of younger people come through the door, especially because he was near The Evergreen State College.

“I thought being next to Evergreen I’d be getting all these teeny-boppers, and that’s not the case,” Davies said. “I would say 75 percent to 80 percent of the people are 50 years or older.”

And what do they buy?

“It varies,” he said. “It depends on what they can afford.

Like the Rick Simpson Oil is popular with cancer patients, but for somebody to buy a heavy regimen of that they can spend, oh gosh, $50 a day. However, $10 a day is a very good average for somebody who needs it for pain or stuff like that.”

About 60 percent of his sales, Davies said, are of the non-dried marijuana variety. That’s everything that isn’t smoked.

Davies said it worries him that under Initiative 502, people who work at the state-sanctioned stores are barred from giving therapeutic advice. If you enter a recreational store and ask a clerk for advice on what strain will help with an ailment, you’re likely to get a smile and a nonresponse response. It’ll be kind of like going to a wine store and having the clerk tell you she can’t tell you which wine goes best with chicken.

‘WE CAN GIVE ADVICE’ “That’s really too bad because there’s so many patients out there right now,” Davies said.

“We can give some advice and point people in the right directions and educate them on where to look so they can do some research for themselves for whatever their ailments are. Their dosages are sometimes required to be a lot higher than what the state will allow under 502 and I think that will make it very hard on the people who really need it.

That’s why I think they should keep medical stores and if they do it by some kind of guideline and really run it as a nonprofit, it will really help a lot of people, especially poor people. That’s one thing they’re not taking into consideration are the prices.”

Keeping afloat financially is tough, Davies said, and working around banking restrictions makes it tougher.

“It seems like every day we get a few bucks ahead and the jars are empty and we have to spend it on more dry goods or candy bars or lollipops,” he said.

“When I do have a cash deposit, I have to turn it over to this one person, and then they deposit it. And then they can write the checks for my bills.”

He uses a bank, but he said he’s not aware of whether the bank knows it’s dispensary money.

Probably not.

“Everything is in somebody else’s name; that’s the only way I can pay my bills,” he continued. “It kind of sucks. In our situation, nobody really owns it.”

A husband and his wife entered Mud Bay Meds during one of those South Sound days when the late-morning clouds and sun vie for control of the day.

The husband, 60, is in a wheelchair because of multiple sclerosis, which he was diagnosed with three years ago. He worked as an electrician for the Department of Transportation before his disease forced him to leave his job. Now, he spends most of his time at their home near McCleary, watching TV, while his wife works in Olympia. When she’s not working, she spends a lot of time taking care of him.

They asked to remain anonymous.

They had never been in a medical marijuana dispensary before that day, but at the urging of a relative, decided to pursue medical marijuana in hopes it would help ease his spells of anxiety and depression. He’s on an antidepressant medication, but both said the prescription medication wasn’t as effective at controlling his tremors, anxiety and depression as the marijuana brownies she would occasionally bake for him.

But the brownies had drawbacks.

“He didn’t like the sensation of being so stoned,” the wife said. Another time, she said, he got so high on one of her brownies that she called 911.

“He got so stoned,” the wife said. His eyes rolled back in his head and he was drooling. “I thought I killed him.”

An ambulance crew arrived, checked his vital signs and left him when he started feeling better — as in less high.

The wife wears the anxiety that comes with caring for an ailing spouse. She cries and laughs easily, and he looks at her affectionately at such moments. They’ve been together for 20 years.

“This is harder for her than it is for me,” her husband said.

She disagreed.

THE CHOOSING OF MEDICINE When they entered the dispensary, the husband showed his medical authorization card at the front desk, and after a few minutes of paperwork, the couple were ushered into the back room where they keep the Cannabis.

Two dispensary volunteers walked him through choosing what he wanted. They asked him what his ailments were.

They asked him what kind of relief he wanted.

“I’m not sure,” he said. “I just don’t want anything that gets me too stoned.”

The array of choices can be boggling to the dispensary novice. Patients can choose from products that include several strains of dried marijuana, concentrated oil that’s high in THC, baked goods, lollipops, tinctures and capsules. The presumed medicinal effects vary among the choices, so the helpers – called “budtenders” – get into a prolonged back-and-forth discussion with him to determine what might help him best.

After about 10 minutes, the husband, with plenty of help from his wife, settles on an oil rich in cannabidiol that can be vaporized and inhaled. Cannabidiol, commonly called CBD, is one of at least 60 cannabinoids found in the marijuana plant and is becoming increasingly popular in the medical marijuana world. Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is the most well-known cannabinoid and is the one responsible for the intoxicating effects of marijuana. Cannabidiol, on the other hand, does not have psychoactive properties, and many people who use it claim they get relief from the symptoms of neurological diseases, including multiple sclerosis. The couple also bought some Rick Simpson Oil, a marijuana oil that’s high in cannabidiol and is touted for cancer-fighting properties, some hard candy and a lollipop.

Their goods, along with a single red rose, were put into a brown paper lunch bag. Total bill: $110.

“We didn’t realize pot could be so different,” she said after leaving the back room.

LATER Two weeks after visiting the dispensary, the couple reported that the marijuana had lessened some of his symptoms.

“His legs aren’t jumping all the time and it helps with his moods,” his wife said. “He likes the vape-pen oil ... the problem is my husband hopes something’s going to cure him, but it’s not.”

“But he seems more relaxed. He seems to be getting through the day easier.”

He wasn’t as clear about whether the marijuana helped him, but he did note that some of his spastic responses had eased.

“My legs aren’t jumping when I’m in bed, and my feet don’t seem to be bothering me as much, either,” he said.

“It’s hard to tell,” whether I feel better, he said. He complained that some of what he bought made him too high, and he had trouble dispensing the Rick Simpson Oil because of his tremors. “I don’t mind the vape pen. I use that all the time because it doesn’t get me too high.

It relaxes me and I seem to be in a better mood ... I also like the hard candy.”

Will they try the dispensary again?

They both agreed: “Yes.” — Kirk Ericson

Thursday, Aug. 28, 2014 - Mason County Journal - Page C-9

Journal file photo

Mason County Sheriff’s Deputy Justin Cotte works the swing shift in 2012. Sheriff’s Office deputies are among local law enforcement adapting to the state’s new marijuana law.

Marijuana and the police Officers in Mason County have more time, less red tape

I

s marijuana an “unspeakable scourge,” a “frightful assassin of our youth,” as it was called in the 1937 movie “Reefer Madness?”

The jury may still be out for many people.

However, the legalization of recreational Cannabis so far hasn’t had much of an effect on law enforcement or criminal justice in Mason County, according to officials.

“I don’t even think we can say we’ve seen an increase in marijuana DUIs,” Mason County Prosecutor Mike Dorcy said.

After a year and a half, law enforcement officers are still in a holding pattern, waiting to see what trends show up in the arrest data over the next few years.

Marijuana’s long, strange history

Cannabis has been used for its medicinal and intoxicating effects throughout recorded human history, but its status as an illegal drug is a fairly recent phenomena.

700 BC

1500 BC Earliest written reference to marijuana in Chinese pharmacopeia

Medical use of marijuana in the Middle East recorded in the anicent Persian text, the Venidad

Persian prophet/philosopher Zoroaster

Harry J. Anslinger appointed

200 BC Medical Cannabis used in ancient Greece

“As of yet it hasn’t affected our job,” said a Mason County Sheriff’s Office sergeant involved with the Special Operations Group (SOG), which investigates drug crimes. “A lot of people are waiting to see how this plays out.”

Despite their impressions, arrests and prosecutions for marijuana possession have decreased in the past year. *** In November 2012, Washington voters approved Initiative 502, legalizing recreational marijuana use in the state. The next month, portions of the new law took effect, making it legal for people age 21 or older to possess up to 1 ounce of Cannabis.

After more than a year and a half, not much has changed for law enforcement, said interim Chief Les Watson of the Shelton Police Department.

“I didn’t anticipate there would be significant changes in our daily operations or the way we work,” he said. “We’re talking about misde-

British herbalist Nicholas Culpeper writes about medical uses for hemp

1652

Marijuana added to the “United States Pharmacopeia” CREDITS: Text by www.ProCon.org and Mason County Journal staff. Zoroaster photo, foreignpolicyjournal.com.

meanor possession.”

While it is legal for an adult 21 and older to possess 1 ounce of marijuana, it is still a misdemeanor offense to possess between 1 ounce — 28.3 grams — and 40 grams.

It is still a felony for an adult to posses more than 40 grams, or 1.4 ounces of marijuana.

In 2012, before I-502 became law, Shelton police arrested 57 adults and 35 juveniles for possession of marijuana.

In 2013, they arrested one adult and 23 juveniles.

The one adult arrest was for an 18-year-old CHOICE Alternative School student, who was caught with 0.8 grams, or 0.02 ounces, of marijuana in his car during a drug sweep with Mason County Sheriff’s deputy Sean Dodge and his narcotic sniffing K-9 partner, Kona.

The marijuana was logged into evidence and the case was forwarded to the Shelton city prosecutor. see page C-10

February: Washington becomes one of the first states to outlaw marijuana

Pure Food and Drugs Act requires labeling of medicine, including Cannabis

Napoleon’s forces bring marijuana from Egypt to France

1799

By NATALIE JOHNSON

1911

1906 1850

Sept. 10: First residents of Washington arrested for possession of marijuana under new state law.

Massachusetts becomes first state to outlaw Cannabis

January: President Woodrow Wilson signs the Harrison Act, the model for future drug regulation legislation

1915

1923

1925

Feb. 19: League of Nations signs multilateral treaty restricting Cannabis to scientific and medical use only

Page C-10 - Mason County Journal - Thursday, Aug. 28, 2014

Thursday, Aug. 28, 2014 - Mason County Journal - Page C-11

The cost of doing business: Nothing but cash IRS, paying with cash the biggest fears among marijuana growers

I

magine getting handed cash when you go to your boss twice a month to get paid.

No automatic deposit to your credit union. No paycheck for you.

You put the money in your purse or wallet and walk out the door, probably checking to ensure no one is checking you. You can’t drive that cash to your credit union or bank because those folks start asking questions when faced with excessive cash-only deposits. They might think the money has illegal roots, and then it becomes their responsibility to ask follow-up questions to discover where your money is coming from.

Now imagine paying all your bills with that cash. You go to the PUD to pay your utility bill. You go to the credit union to pay your mortgage or your landlord to pay your rent. You use cash at the grocery story, the gasoline pump, the bank to pay your credit card bill, at the school to pay your child’s lunch bill. You use cash — or a money order — for every financial transaction.

And because you’re getting paid with cash, you’re likely not getting Social Security tax withheld. You’re not getting withholding to pay your income tax. You’re not contributing to worker’s compensation. Maybe that won’t seem too awful right now, but it might become awful some day.

Now imagine the anxiety of constantly having that cash around you. You’ll worry about getting robbed.

You’ll worry about losing it.

If you own a business related to marijuana sales or if you’re a grower or processor selling to those businesses, your anxiety and potential problems far exceed your employees’ worries because you’re dealing with far higher stacks of cash.

Then there’s the IRS. You can’t declare your earned income on your tax return as coming from marijuana

because the federal government considers it an illegal enterprise. If you’re a marijuana business owner, you can’t write off your expenses. And, if you don’t declare your income, your spending trips a red flag with the IRS through excessive cash-only purchases or bank deposits. You might end up having an extremely difficult conversation with IRS agents.

Many people involved in marijuana growing do declare their income on their tax returns, but they do it in a dodgy manner that uncharitable observers might refer to as money laundering.

A 45-plant marijuana grower in Seattle, who obviously needs to remain anonymous, does declare his income, but he channels it through his completely legitimate home-based business.

Of cops, robbers and the IRS, a grower told the Mason County Journal he fears the IRS the most.

“The IRS you never want to mess with,” said the grower, who wished to remain anonymous. “I’ve always paid my taxes, but I declare it through my business. My lawyer and accountant have advised me to do this. I feel it doesn’t make any difference as long as you declare it and pay your taxes.”

However, if the IRS were to dig into his legitimate business and discover it wasn’t making the money he claimed, the IRS likely would start messing with him.

The grower said he doesn’t write off his expenses, which he estimated at $1,000 a month. “I can’t. Morally, I just can’t declare those expenses.”

Those problems have confronted people involved with medical marijuana dispensaries since those businesses blossomed in Washington during the past four or five years, and now it’s a problem for the vast majority of people involved with the state-sanctioned marijuana stores that started opening in July.

Because marijuana remains illegal on the federal level, and because banking deposit insurance is regulated by the feds, any bank or credit union that knowingly accepts money from a marijuana business could be found to have engaged in money laundering.

By Kirk Ericson

Fewer marijuana arrests statewide

Last year, 13 charges for misdemeanor possession of marijuana were referred to the Mason County Prosecutor’s Office ... In contrast, in 2012, 129 misdemeanor marijuana possession charges were referred to the office.

January 2014, the Sheriff’s Office arrested two people for marijuana.

Last year, 13 charges for misdeThe Shelton Police Department often has only two or three officers on meanor possession of marijuana were referred to the Mason County prosecuduty.

“Their time to seek out incidents of tor’s office from law enforcement.

In contrast, in 2012, 129 misdemisdemeanor possession of marijuana is not that frequent,” Watson said. meanor marijuana possession charges were referred to the office.

“These are generally incident to some history Marijuana’s long, strange “The biggest difference is we don’t other form of police work.”

Cannabis has been used for its medicinal and intoxicating effects British herbalist those to Nicholas prosecute anymore,” In other words, people fre-as anhave throughout recorded human are history,most but its status illegal drug is a Culpeper writes recent phenomena. some court time, quently fairly charged with misdemeanor Dorcy said. “It saves about medical uses for hemp docket time.” possession after officers find700the drug some BC 200 BC BC Dorcy said Mason during a1500 traffic stop orMedical an use arrest for a 1652 County has never Medical of marijuana Earliest a lot of felony possession crime such aswritten shoplifting, Watson said. prosecuted Cannabis in the Middle reference to used in He said illegal growers and The Mason Office cases.

EastSheriff’s recorded marijuana County ancient in the anicent in Chinese dealers saw a peak in marijuana arrests from Greece generally only have that much Persian text, pharmacopeia the Venidad January 2012 to January 2013, with Cannabis on hand.

Text by www.ProCon.org and “UsuallyCREDITS: that wasstaff.tied 34. The year before it had one mariMason County Journal Zoroaster to manufacPersian prophet/philosopher Zoroaster photo, foreignpolicyjournal.com. juana arrest. From January 2013 to ture or possession with intent to sell,” continued from page C-9

Harry J. Anslinger appointed commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics

“Reefer Madness” cautions against marijuana

Use of the word “marijuana” increases in the U.S.

1930

1930s

1933

American pharmaceutical firms sell extracts of marijuana as medicine

1936

Marijuana removed from the “United States Pharmacopeia”

1937

Newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst plays role in denouncing marijuana

Dorcy said.

In the immediate aftermath of the new law, officers have more time for other crimes.

“It frees us up to (investigate) the other drugs that are illegal,” said the SOG sergeant. “Right now, heroin is probably the No. 1 drug being abused in the community.”

NEGATIVE EFFECTS? Napoleon’s forces While legalizing recreational posbring marijuana session of marijuana has freed some from Egypt to time France for law enforcement officers and 1850 1799 prosecutors, could increased access to the substance also have negative efMarijuana fects? added to the “United States Mason County Sheriff Casey SalisPharmacopeia” bury thinks it can, especially with teenagers and young adults, whose

brains and bodies are still developing.

“The kid that’s lying down stoned in the back of the room is not doing a lot of learning,” he said. “The assumption is because it’s legal it’s not harmful.”

Salisbury also said he believes marijuana use will increase among teens and that marijuana-related DUIs and car accidents will increase.

February: Washington becomes one of first states to outlaw marijuana Watson said it’sthe difficult to draw Pure Food and Sept. 10: First residents of Washington Drugs Act requires conclusions from one full year of data. arrested for possession of marijuana labeling of new state law. medicine, “I including think it’s too under early to say what Cannabis kind of an effect has had on ju1911 the law 1915 1906 1925 venile access (to marijuana),”1923 Watson Massachusetts becomes first said. “Right now we don’t have enough Feb. 19: League state to outlaw Cannabis of Nations signs information to make that judgment.” multilateral treaty restricting Mason County law enforcement ofJanuary: President Cannabis to Woodrow Wilson ficers havesigns seen some negativescientific affects. and the Harrison Act, the medical use only In forearly model future drug March, a Shelton home regulation legislation was knocked off its foundation after

University of Mississippi becomes official grower of marijuana for federal government

Boggs Act establishes minimum prison sentences for simple possession

1968

May 4: American Medical Association opposes the proposed Marihuana Tax Act and supports research on medical Cannabis

Oct.: Marihuana Tax Act leads to decline in marijuana prescriptions

Controlled Substances Act classifies marijuana as a drug with “no accepted medical use”)

1951

1942

Oct. 2: Samuel Caldwell becomes the first marijuana seller convicted under the Marihuana Tax Act

Journal file photo

Using cash to pay bills, not getting withholding to pay income tax and other issues challenge marijuana growers and sellers.

CREDITS: Univ. of Mississippi, National Geographic Web site; Nixon/Presley, National Archives and Records Administration.

May 1: President Richard Nixon (pictured with Elvis Presley) schooses to ignore the recommendation of the Shafer Commissioner – a panel he appointed – after the panel urged that possession of marijuana not be illegal under state or federal law

1970

1971

National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse (“Shafer Commission”) recommends decriminalizing marijuana

1972

1973

tiative 502.

The number of arrests for marijuana possession from 1986 to 2010 in Washington totaled 240,000, according to the Marijuana Arrest Research Project, a nonprofit organization in New York that studies criminal justice policies related to marijuana.

In Idaho, where marijuana prohibition remains steadfast, if you’re convicted of possessing 3 ounces or less, it’s a misdemeanor, but you could still face up to one year in jail and a $1,000 fine.

If you’re found guilty of possessing 25 to 50 plants, which is within the range of what a collec-

If Kona alerts at the smell of drugs, it is not always clear whether she smells legal marijuana or illegal cocaine. She is now only used on school or tribal grounds, Salisbury said.

Newly trained narcotics dogs are not trained to detect marijuana anymore. The Shelton Police Department has recently acquired a narcotics dog not trained to detect marijuana.

Officials agree, however, that le-

galizing recreational use of marijuana, and regulating its production, processing and sale, will not eliminate illegal activity.

“There’s still, if not a black market, a gray market,” Dorcy said.

The Liquor Control Board originally planned on giving out producer and processor licenses by February. However, today, only one Mason County grower is licensed by the state.

Some growers aren’t waiting for their licenses, according to the Sher-

Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) established

FDA approves the use of Marinol, a synthetic cannabinoid, as a prescription drug

CREDITS: Netherlands, CNBC; Randall, deverpost.com; cannabinoid, HowStuffWorks.com; endocannabinoid, SciencePhoto.com; California legalization:,chrisconrad.com; federal DEA agents, Associated Press.

American Medical Student Association endorses rescheduling of marijuana

Scientists discover cannabinoid receptors

1976 1985

1986

Anti-Drug Abuse Act increases penalties for marijuana possession and dealing

1990

1991

tive garden in Washington can legally have, you’re looking at a guaranteed minimum of 1 year behind bars and a potential $5,000 fine.

One element that hasn’t changed since Washington legalized possession of up to 1 ounce of marijuana for adults 21 years of age and older is the disparity in arrests when it comes to race.

A black adult in Washington is three times more likely to have a low-level marijuana offense filed against him than a white adult, according to the ACLU of Washington.

- Kirk Ericson iff’s Office.

“We act on those … we know that it’s probably happening. They have to follow the rules,” the SOG sergeant said. “They have a product they can grow in their own house.

You can’t grow a Vicodin tree.”

Officials don’t know what to expect when retail stores are licensed.

“We don’t know how it’s going to be,” the SOG sergeant said. “We’ve never had a marijuana store before.”

Oct. 29: Presidents Ford, Carter and Bush urge voters to reject marijuana initiatives, including one in Washington

First medical marijuana initiative passes in San Francisco

The Netherlands decriminalizes the possession of small amounts of marijuana

Nov. 24: Federal court rules Robert Randall’s use of marijuana a “medical necessity”

see page C-12

it dropped to 6,743 cases. In 2011, it was 6,879 cases. In 2012, it fell to 5,531 cases.

And in 2013, the first year of full legalization under Initiative 502, it was 120 cases.

That’s right: 120 cases. A 96 percent drop from 2009 levels.

“The data strongly suggest that I-502 has achieved one of its primary goals – to free up limited police and prosecutorial resources.

These resources can now be used for other important public safety concerns,” Mark Cooke, criminal justice policy counsel for the ACLU of Washington, said in a news release. The ACLU of Washington was a prime sponsor of Ini-

Initiative 502 is still a toddler among Washington’s laws, but its passage has had an immediate effect far beyond its youth: Fewer people are being arrested for possession of marijuana in this state.

A lot fewer people.

In 2009, nearly 8,000 cases were filed in Washington courts for misdemeanor marijuana offenses, according to figures compiled by the American Civil Liberties Union, working from court data provided by the Administrative Office of the Courts. In 2010, butane from a home hash-oil production exploded. Four people were injured, two seriously enough to be transported to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

The Sheriff’s Office also has lost some of the benefit of having a narcotics-sniffing dog. Kona is trained to detect marijuana and other drugs, but does not distinguish among the drugs — she simply alerts at the scent of any drug she is trained to detect.

They could have their deposit insurance coverage yanked, effectively killing their business.

Marijuana banking guidelines issued in February by the Justice Department and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, a division in the Treasury Department, were promoted as an effort to ease the anxieties of bankers in Washington and Colorado by setting out a series of steps that institutions could follow to avoid a federal response. But as of June, only two credit unions in the state have announced they’ll jump into the game. The guidelines require bankers to keep an especially close eye (and nose — if business cash deposits smell like marijuana, a bank has to file what’s called a suspicious activity report) on marijuana-related accounts and doesn’t offer a bullet-proof guarantee that following the guidelines will prevent them from running afoul of federal money-laundering laws.

The two financial institutions in this state — a credit union in Eastern Washington and a credit union in the Seattle area — have agreed to handle the accounts of recreational marijuana businesses, but even that comes with limitations. Eastern Washington’s Numerica and Puget Sound’s Salal will only deal with businesses with producer or processor licenses, not with the stores that sell marijuana. Also, those two institutions will only serve customers in their service area. By armored car.

Shelton-based Peninsula Credit Union has no existing plans to accept marijuana accounts. Jim Morrell, president and CEO of Peninsula, said his institution passed a policy in 2011 that said it wouldn’t accept such businesses.

“It covers any business that’s marijuana-related,” Morrell said during an interview in May in his Shelton office. “It’s part of our Bank Secrecy Act risk assessment that we were doing ... We have not had any reason to change that policy since the regulations came out. I would never say never, but we’re not currently considering changing. The reason we’re not is the onus of responsibility that is still on us.”

1992

Scientists discover first endocannabinoid

Nov. 3: Alaska, Oregon, and Washington become the first states after California to legalize medical marijuana to legalize medical marijuana

1996

1998

U.S. House of Representatives rejects amendment to stop federal raids on medical marijuana patients and providers

2003

1993 California becomes first state to legalize medical marijuana

Federal agents execute widespread raids on medical marijuana dispensaries in California

2005

Page C-12 - Mason County Journal - Thursday, Aug. 28, 2014

Pot raids aren’t what they used to be

T

’was the week before Christmas in 2013 when a medical marijuana grower in Seattle got a call from his landlord.

The grower, in his mid-20s, had about 165 marijuana plants growing behind multiple locked doors in the Seattle warehouse space he rented. He had partitioned the space into three sections, complete with walls, so he could claim that he was overseeing three collective gardens, which, in some people’s generous interpretation of the state’s medical marijuana law, would allow him to grow 45 plants in each section, for a total of 135 plants. The other 30 plants were starters — called clones in the pot trade.

State rules governing the growing and use of marijuana for medicinal purposes have been interpreted and reinterpreted since Washington voters approved medical marijuana use in 1998. In 2011, the state statute governing collective gardens was changed to allow people to grow, at most, 45 plants in one collective garden for people with marijuana authorization cards. To grow 45 plants, growers need medical marijuana authorization cards from at least three people, and those cards have to be posted at

By Kirk Ericson

Journal file photo

Marijuana grow operations, such as this one in Shelton, can be subject to raids. A Seattle grower had such an experience. the grow site. If you stay within the limits and you post your cards and you don’t call attention to yourself, you face a relatively low risk of being raided by the police.

However, the smell of 165 marijuana plants, even behind walls and closed doors, and even after the air’s been scrubbed through carbon filters, can be insistent.

The landlord called the grower on that December day to tell him a fully loaded drug task force was outside his warehouse door with a search warrant.

They said they’d bust the door in if he didn’t come with the keys and let them in.

Right now.

“When I got there, there were about 15 to 20 of them, all in full

riot gear,” said the grower, who insisted on anonymity.

He let them in.

“Three of them had their guns out and they’d say ‘clear’ as they went through each of the rooms,” he said. “I was near them the whole time. I was showing them the whole operation … A lot of them were my age, maybe five or six years older, and they were very impressed with how I had everything set up.”

Turns out, according to the grower, the drug task force was essentially serving notice of a code violation. The marijuana stench was so aggressive that it survived the carbon scrubbers and penetrated the interior and exterior walls of the building. The smell then drew a complaint from a rehab facility on

the same block. That complaint, he said, made it to the city’s planning department and it become a code issue.

“In the middle of that, the raid occurred,” he said. “I had my medical cards hanging and I explained I was a collective garden and that I was at my limit in each of these rooms. They had raided a few grows before, but they said they had never seen one that was as well put together or had their credentials in line like mine had.”

The officers proceeded to uproot about 120 plants, stuffing them in garbage bags. The officers left the grower with 45 plants, the legal limit for one collective garden.

He was neither arrested nor cited for having 165 marijuana plants.

In 2013, the United States Sentencing Commission released a document titled “Drug Primer.” It contains the following language: “Pursuant to 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(b)(1)(B) and 960(b)(2), a statutory range of 5 to 40 years

applies to offenses involving at least: 100 grams of heroin 500 grams of cocaine (powder) 28 grams of cocaine base 100 kilograms of marijuana or 100 plants 5 grams of actual methamphetamine or 50 grams of mixture or substance.”

Those statutory ranges for 100 marijuana plants — five to 40 years behind bars — might apply elsewhere in this country, but certainly not in Seattle.

“One of them (the officers) said to me, ‘Son if this was four years ago, we would have taken your butt to jail.’ ” Instead, he got compliments on the ingenuity of his operation.

“I had a conversation with two of the officers when the lieutenant wasn’t around and one of the guys was like, ‘Damn, did you do this HVAC work all by yourself?’ ” “I was scared, but I wasn’t worried about going to prison,” the grower said about the raid.

“I figured, man, my spot’s compromised now. It means I’ll probably have to move at some point … I’m still dealing with the code enforcement department. I’m just buying time now before I have to move.”

Deposit Insurance Fund; discourage, he’s seeing an evolution of how his colprohibit or penalize depository institu- leagues are treating marijuana.

The problem, as Morrell sees it, is “It’s long and slow ... It will take tions; take any action against a loan that his institution doesn’t have the made to a covered business; and force a years,” Heck said. “I had a delightful resources to do the extra surveillance depository institution to halt providing conversation of about 10 minutes durathat is required for such accounts. tion one day last year with a pretty conany kind of banking services.

“My interpretation is if you are a “We’re still trying to get a hearing servative Republican from the Midwest marijuana grow operation owner, you on the bill,” Heck told the Journal dur- and the first reaction I got was the roll go to the state for a business license,” ing an interview at of the eyes. And 10 minutes later, he Morrell said. “If we want to open an his Lacey office this was saying, ‘I understand what you’re account for you, it becomes incumbent spring. “It’s just a saying to me.’ They’re not ready to go upon us to ask for that business license massive educational there yet, but they get it.” and validate that the state issued this effort ... There’s lots Besides the worries about public license ... We have to confirm that what of jokes going on in safety, Heck sees that governments you told them you were going to be doCongress, let me tell and banks won’t be able to ignore the ing is what you’re doing. We have to you. They have that allure of money. confirm that what you said in the busi“What I think will ultimately cause tone or that spirit of ness license application who you’re more to come in is just the sheer marnot taking it seriousHeck selling to is who you’re actually selling ket opportunity,” Heck said. “They estily. You have to have to. We have to look and validate your mate that the state adult recreational at least a paragraph IRS tax return ... How do I look at a with them before they get past that. At market in Washington could easily grow business income statement and their the end of the day, access to banking ser- to $1 billion a year. I’m fairly confident tax return and know that the dollars vices is exactly what the Cole memo (the that 100 percent of financial instituthat are on the one statement are actu2013 federal guidelines issued to Colora- tions will not resist the opportunity. So, ally correctly flowing into the other? do and Washington regarding their rec- here’s what’s going to happen. We’re Rep. Denny Heck, 10th “Numerica is much larger than we reational markets) was all about. It had going to have a combination of things Congressional District (D-Wash.) are,” Morrell continued. “They have two top priorities: Keeping marijuana moving forward, and I don’t know in business and lending services as part out of the hands of children and cash out what ratio. We’re going to have those of their operation already so they have by U.S. Rep. Denny Heck, D-Olympia, of the hands of the gangs and cartels. who do it on an all-cash basis. We’re a lot more personnel to manage this. I who represents the southern section of “And those two, most people don’t going to have those who figure out aldon’t know what their fees are but I be- Mason County, including Shelton, and grasp them intuitively,” Heck Oct. continternative banking-type arrangements.

29: Presidents Ford, Carter and Bush urge National Commission medical voters to reject marijuana initiatives, including lieve they will be significant.”

“Those two are very related.

If this Cashless ATMs, Bitcoin ...of Representatives I don’t know. parts of Thurston and Pierce counties, ued.First U.S. House on Marijuana and marijuana one in Washington rejects amendment to stop DrugMost Abuse (“Shafer passes business, it’s much more observers say the only solution to and fellow Democrat Rep. Ed Perlmut- is aninitiative all-cash ...

And we’ll continue to have a winking The Netherlands federal raids on medical Commission”) American Medical Nov. 3: Alaska, Oregon, and Washington become in San Francisco decriminalizes the marijuana patients andyou’re providers a this banking conundrum is for Congress inclined to be Student engaged in by thepeople nodding relationships.

‘Oh, recommends Association first states after and California to legalize medical possession of smallter of Colorado. Bill co-sponsors include Scientists decriminalizing endorses marijuana to legalize medical marijuana amounts of marijuana or state legislatures to act.

The Colorado who don’t care whether you’ve turned farmer, are you?

Wink.

Wink.’ ” fellow state Democrats Reps.

Derek discover marijuana rescheduling of cannabinoid 1976 Legislature to push his 18 or 21. So, wemarijuana really need this1996 in the 1998 Heck says he’ll continue Kilmer, who represents Mason County 2003 1973 passed a bill in May to allow 1972 receptors 2005 the marijuana industry to pool their monsafety. You incentiv- bill. north of Shelton, and1985 Suzan DelBene, interest of public Nov. 24: 1993 1992 1986 1991 Federal court 1990 presence of organized crime in ey a cooperative, but the Washington FDA “Congress will follow the nation on ize the approves the use of Marinol, and Adam Smith. It Jim McDermott Druginto Enforcement rules Robert California a synthetic cannabinoid, as a Agency (DEA) Randall’s usesuch move.

Legislature has made no this,” Heck said.Federal “Congress won’t lead. an all-cash business because the whole also includes Republican Rep. Dana becomes first prescription drug agents established of marijuana state to legalize ... No execute widespread However, a marijuana banking ef- Rohrabacher of California.

And my job as I see it, in pursuit of pubsystemScientists is given to tax-avoidance a “medical medical marijuana raids on medical necessity” discover first Abuse Act increasesbanking fort has been launched in Congress. The lic safety, is to continue good comes from all cash.”

Under the Anti-Drug bill, federal marijuanato chip away at endocannabinoid penalties for marijuana in Marijuana Business Access to Bank- regulators maypossession andCalifornia educate one memThe bill started with 16 sponsors; it their awareness dispensaries not threaten or limit and dealing CREDITS: Netherlands, CNBC; Randall, deverpost.com; cannabinoid, HowStuffWorks.com; endocannabinoid, SciencePhoto.com; California legalization:,chrisconrad.com; federal DEA agents, Associated Press. ing Act was introduced in July 2013 a depository institutions’ access to the now has nearly three dozen. Heck says ber of Congress one paragraph at a time.” continued from page C-11

Presbyterian Church approves resolution to support medical marijuana

“They estimate that the state adult recreational market in Washington could easily grow to $1 billion a year. I’m fairly confident that 100 percent of financial institutions will not resist the opportunity.”

Two pounds of Cannabis found buried in 2,700-yearold Chinese tomb

2009

2006

Washington residents, by a 55.7 percent to 44.3 percent margin, approve Initiative 502, legalizing possession of up to 1 ounce of marijuana for people ages 21 and older. It also establishes protocols for creating state-run sales. The law goes into effect Dec. 6, 2012. Washington and Colorado become the first states to legalize possession of marijuana

Washington expands list of medical professionals authorized to recommend medical marijuana

2010

2011

2008

CREDITS: Chinese tomb, ScienceBlogs.com; Justice Department, Shay Sowden, LAist.com; Gov. Gregoire, et. al., nbcnews.com.

The U.S. Justice Department issues a memo – known as the “Ogden memo” – that states the federal government will consider medical marijuana prosecutions a low priority

2012 March 23 - May 16: U.S. attorneys send letters to states with legal medical marijuana laws that Cannabis providers, and state employees involved in the regulation of medical marijuana, could be exposed to prosecution July 8: DEA denies 2002 request to reclassify marijuana out of restrictive Schedule I category Dec. 1: Washington and Rhode Island governors seek reclassification of marijuana

Aug. 29: Justice Department will not challenge state marijuana laws Oct. 22: National poll reveals that, for the first time, a majority of people in the U.S. favor legalizing marijuana

2013

2014 Jan. 1: Colorado becomes the first state to sell marijuana out of state-regulated stores July 8: Washington becomes second marijuana out of statestate to sell sellmarijuana regulated stores

Thursday, Aug. 28, 2014 - Mason County Journal - Page C-13

Nick Browne of Highwater Farms in the Skokomish Valley was granted the first producer license in Mason County.

Journal photo by Tom Hyde

Producing a legal crop Marijuana producers, processors navigate laws to help create an accepted trade

I

t’s the biggest business opportunity since cellphones, a new crop to boost struggling farming communities and the end of a modern prohibition.

That’s how Mason County’s marijuana producers and processors describe the advent of a legal commercial Cannabis industry in Washington, made possible by the passage of Initiative 502 by voters in November 2012.

“If I could have started the first brewery after prohibition ...” Nick Browne mused, “Wouldn’t you do it? There’s not going to be another chance to get into something like this on the ground floor.”

Browne’s Highwater Farms in the Skokomish River Valley was granted the first producer license in Mason County in late March, and as of Aug. 25, was one of four licensed growers in the county.

Statewide as of Aug. 25, 172 producer and 133 processor licenses have been issued.

The Liquor Control Board approved his Tier 2 operation for 7,000 feet of plant canopy space.

That amounts to about 200 plants, Browne said.

The Liquor Control Board allows three tiers of plant canopy sizes. Tier 1 allows for up to 2,000 square feet of plant canopy, Tier 2 allows for 7,000 feet and Tier 3 allows for 10,000 to 30,000 square feet of plant canopy.

His operation is unusual because he plans to cultivate his plants outdoors.

“It’s a completely different animal,” Browne said, of growing marijuana indoors versus outdoors.

However, Browne has farmed vegetables and other crops at Highwater Farms for the past 11 years. He plans to continue grow squash, tomatoes and other crops on other parts of the farm.

“Growing outdoors really comes down to your strain selection,” he said. “It’s basically farming the same way you would farm any crop.”

Browne uses hoop houses, or temporary greenhouses, to nurse the plants in colder parts

of the growing season.

“In the main growing season, the outdoor temperature here and the humidity is actually perfect for the plant,” he said.

The hoop houses are slightly warmer on the inside than the outside.

“That five or six degrees is a huge difference,” Browne said.

Certain strains will react better than others to outdoor growing, he said.

Brown plans to use Orange and Cheese strains. The Cheese strain originates in the United Kingdom, which has a similar climate to Western Washington. Both strains have short growing cycles, which make them ideal for outdoor, summer growing.

“They only need seven weeks of good summer weather to finish them off,” he said.

Browne expects his overhead cost to be significantly lower since he is growing outside. He also plans to fill a niche market for organic, outdoor marijuana.

“I just want to grow high-quality organic products … and be able to make a living farming my land,” he said. “I kind of want to prove it can be done on a small scale, it can be done profitably, it can be extremely environmentally friendly.”

APPLICANTS FACE DELAYS Agropack, owned in part by Steve Fuhr of Union, is also a Tier 2 operation, and plans to build out to a 7,000-foot plant canopy as well.

However, their operation will be indoors, and include both producing and processing.

By NATALIE JOHNSON “With the indoor grow, we’ve got a lot more control but we have to invest a lot more money,” Fuhr said.

Fuhr has applied for both producer and processor licenses with the liquor board, but has not received either license.

Like many applicants, Fuhr was planning on being licensed and operational by February.

However, navigating state and local requirements for producers and processors has been harder than Agropack’s owners expected.

“They’re bankrupting us right now,” he said.

“We’re all stumbling around in the dark trying to figure out what last week’s change (in the law) will do to us.”

Agropack had to relocate to a property on Cady Farms Road west of Shelton after learning its original location was too close to an at-home day care. The change pushed its application to the bottom of the state’s stack, Fuhr said.

Not long after finding a new location, and submitting new paperwork, Fuhr learned that the state Liquor Control Board had amended the rule, and that Agropack’s original location would have been allowed.

Now their application is on hold to give the FBI time to do a background check on its owners, Fuhr said. Now Fuhr said he doesn’t know when to expect a license.

While Agropack has struggled with state and local requirements, Browne said he had a fairly easy time being licensed.

“I wasn’t really surprised at all — I think they did a great job,” he said. “I was impressed.

“Everyone at the county has been super helpful. see page C-14

Page C-14 - Mason County Journal - Thursday, Aug. 28, 2014

Journal photos by Tom Hyde

AT LEFT: Marijuana grows outside at Highwater Farms in the Skokomish Valley. AT RIGHT: The commercial growing operation at Highwater Farms is surrounded by an 8-foot tall fence and signs in accordance with the new state law regulating the industry. continued from page C-13 “I wasn’t really surprised at all — I think they did a great job,” he said. “I was impressed.

“Everyone at the county has been super helpful.

It’s been a real positive experience.”

Browne is required to have 8-foot tall fences with security cameras. The plants can grow up to 6-feet high, he said.

While waiting for approval, Fuhr, who has a background in marketing and mountain climbing, started a consulting business to help other commercial Cannabis applicants.

Despite the difficulties, Fuhr said he’s not giving up.

“It’s the mountain climber in me,” he said.

‘THE REAL MONEY IS IN PROCESSING’ Growers and processors have varying estimates on the costs associated with their endeavors.

“The real money is in processing,” Fuhr said.

“My focus has really been on processing — growing is the easy part … The revenue (for a processor) is three to four times what a retailer would expect.”

Cannabis takes about a month to process before it can be packaged. Marijuana loses about 80 percent of its weight in the drying stage, Fuhr said.

After drying, the plants are cured in glass jars. Fuhr compared the curing process to the fermentation process with wine.

“It goes into an environment where we have to carefully control the moisture and the light,” Fuhr said. “Light hurts the THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) — it makes it less potent.”

Growers can monitor the THC content of a growing plant by using jeweler’s loops — high powered magnifying glasses — to look at trichrome crystals that form on the plant. When they go from clear to a milky white color, the buds are ready to be harvested, Fuhr said.

“It’s a very finicky process,” he said.

Agropack will likely hire about 20 people,

nine to 12 of which will harvest the marijuana by hand.

Larger operations might use trimming machines, but Fuhr said they can mangle the marijuana buds.

“When you have a product that has the value our product does, it makes sense to have them hand trim,” he said.

Agropack recently had its packaging approved by the liquor board.

“Packaging is the biggest mystery for all of us,” Fuhr said. “No one’s packaged Cannabis like this before.”

Packaging at Agropack will also be accomplished by hand. Fuhr said small packing machines cost up to $25,000 and would have to be custom-made.

Flowers must be in sealed packages, but edible and oil-based products must be in childproof containers. Each container lists the percent of THC, cannabidiol (CBD) and total activated cannabinoids (TAC). The recipes for edible products must be approved by the liquor board.

GOOD AS GOLD Agropack will likely produce Cannabis oil products, commonly known as hash oil, package dried marijuana flowers and maybe produce edible products, he said.

Fuhr said hash oil is worth “literally twice as much as gold.”

Because the industry is so new, producer and processor applicants are learning as they go.

“I have been working seven days a week since before Thanksgiving,” Fuhr said. “I spent three weeks in Colorado two years ago researching the market carefully.”

While the revenues are expected to be great, the cost to enter the industry is high, he said.

Fuhr said a minimum startup cost for a producer and processor operation could be $150,000.

Browne said he hopes to keep his costs low, resulting in an affordable product. He plans to grow for five to six months per year and make

one harvest. He said the size of the harvest is difficult to predict.

“Growing indoor, your production cost per gram has to be so high,” he said. “My cost per gram is pennies.”

He plans to find a “like-minded” processor who can help him market the distinctive product.

“I think that’s why (my application) got pushed through so quick,” he said. “Mine is so basic, so small.”

Browne said another producer and processor told him that they plan to ask for $10 to $15 per gram, or $300 to $400 an ounce wholesale.

“Price to the public could almost double that,” he said. “I will absolutely do my best to make sure Highwater Farms Grade A organic ganga is available at a reasonable price.”

The future It’s tough making a living growing vegetables, Browne said.

A new crop under high demand may be just what it takes to stimulate Mason County’s economy and revive the sodden Skokomish Valley, he said.

“We need to be realistic about the changing land in the valley,” he said.

The Skokomish River, full of silt from mountain runoff, regularly floods, making farmers’ pastures unusable. Farmers in the valley used to have large dairy farms, but floodwaters reduced the size of their pastures, making the farming unsustainable, Browne said.

Farmers began turning to vegetables and other crops, but continue to lose land to flooding, he said.

However, farming Cannabis outside can be very lucrative on a small amount of land, Browne said. His patch sits on a quarter of an acre.

“I think it’s important not to forget it’s a crop,” he said. “I think by leading by example … hopefully the county and neighbors will see maybe this is the crop that can save our way of life.”

“I have been working seven days a week since before Thanksgiving ...

I spent three weeks in Colorado two years ago researching the market carefully.”

Steve Fuhr, co-owner of Agropack

Minimum startup costs for a producer and processor operation could be $150,000, according to one grower.

Thursday, Aug. 28, 2014 - Mason County Journal - Page C-15

Herbal relief

Skokomish Valley woman experiments with marijuana-infused oils to help with pain

M

any marijuana processors seeking licenses from the state Liquor Control Board will prepare and package the product to be smoked or eaten in cookies or brownies.

Deb Petersen, seeking a license in the Skokomish Valley with her business Crema de Gaia, will infuse oils, lotions and soaps with the plant, exploiting its pain-relieving qualities.

Petersen, a 52-year-resident of Mason County, has created bath and beauty products through her company Shepherd Soaps for 23 years.

“It’s a business opportunity,” she said.

When Initiative 502 passed in November 2012, she decided to explore how she might incorporate the new industry into what she already knew — soaps, lotions and other beauty products.

SHE HAS A CARD Last summer, Petersen got a medical marijuana card, allowing her to experiment with infusing marijuana into oils. She uses the products to help with pain from carpal tunnel syndrome.

“I’m sleeping and this horrible pain wakes me up in the middle of the night. I don’t like using Ibuprofen and acetaminophen … I was curious because I saw the I-502 window coming up,” she said. “I wanted to research it and see if it really was effective.”

Petersen starts by getting the dried plant material from a grower, then grinds it into small pieces.

Then she roasts the ground marijuana in an oven. Heating the material releases carbon molecules, which activates the canna-

By NATALIE JOHNSON binoids, or the chemicals found in Cannabis.

Petersen uses strains of Cannabis with higher concentrations of cannabidiol (CBD), than tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).

CBD is known for its pain-relieving benefits, while THC is the psychoactive chemical in Cannabis.

Next, she mixes it with oil, such as coconut, grape seed or olive oil, and cooks the concoction again.

During the cooking, “the fat acids in the oil will pull the THC and the CBDs into the fat,” Petersen said.

After it’s cooked, she uses a juice press to separate the infused oil from the remaining marijuana plant material.

“It’s a very messy job,” she said.

The oil is mixed with lotions, salves and other products. Used topically, the lotions are remarkably affective for Petersen’s carpal tunnel pain, she said.

“It works incredibly well,” she said. “I was surprised. I still am.”

SOMETHING FOR THE NIGHT The oil is also edible and can be used as a sleep aid, Petersen said.

The plant matter separated from the infused oil, known as mash, becomes an exfoliant in soaps, Petersen said.

“It’s been historically used for this kind of thing,” she said. “They used to use it as far back as I can tell in the 10th century.”

Spurred on by the success of her experiment in creating medi-

Journal photos by Natalie Johnson

Deb Petersen shows off the mash produced in the process of infusing marijuana into oils, such as coconut oil. The mash is later used as an exfoliant in soaps. Petersen has a medical marijuana card and is working with the state Liquor Control Board to get a license to make the products commercially. cal Cannabis products, Petersen is working with the state Liquor Control Board to get her commercial processing business licensed and up and running.

While previous batches were completed in her home, the business will operate out of a former canning shed on her property, being converted to her “Cannabis shed,” Petersen said.

In addition to being a longtime county resident and a businessowner, Petersen is a Hood Canal School District board member and is vice-chair of the Mason Transit Authority Board.

Before applying for her processing license, Petersen asked both boards what they thought of her plan.

Neither board saw an issue with Petersen continuing to serve while pursuing her state processor license While some county residents

Deb Peterson produces small amounts of lotions, salves and soaps containing marijuana to help relieve pain.

have expressed concerns about producers and processors in residential areas, Petersen said her Cannabis shed shouldn’t have any effect on her neighbors.

State regulations require that her 180-square-foot facility be equipped with eight security cameras.

However, Petersen addressed the stigma still attached to marijuana and its byproducts.

“It shouldn’t be there,” she said.

“It’s a legal substance.”

She said concerns about increased crime are “mostly bred out of fear of the unknown.”

In the long run, Petersen predicts that the industry will lead to more business growth, tax revenue, and other benefits to Mason County.

“I think they will see this is a huge help for our community,” she said.

Page C-16 - Mason County Journal - Thursday, Aug. 28, 2014

Q&A

Sharon Foster, chairwoman of the Washington state Liquor Control Board

Sharon Foster is the chairwoman of the Washington state Liquor Control Board, the agency that was given the job, through Initiative 502, of writing and administering the rules for the state’s recreational marijuana businesses. Members of the board had to decide divergent matters such as how much marijuana should be grown to supply the stores, what labels on edibles should look like, and how to screen potential producers, processors and retailers. Foster has worked around the Capitol for years, as a lobbyist and also as the state director of the YMCA Youth in Government program. She learned in 2012, soon after the state ended its control of alcohol sales, that her agency would be in charge of the unprecedented task of starting up a government-sanctioned marijuana retail trade. They were given roughly a year to write the rules.

Question: You joined the board in August 2009 and your duty then was strictly alcohol.

When did you first become aware that marijuana was going to be put in the Liquor Control Board’s purview?

Foster: Once we saw the initiative and started watching the polls [in 2012], we knew pretty early that it was probably going to pass. My reaction was, “Wow. Read it, Sharon, and see how much time you’ve got before you have to have it in place.’ Because we had just gone through (alcohol) privatization, we had 11 teams in place … we had six months to get out of a business that we’d been in for almost 80 years. So we had 11 teams in the agency on how to divest ourselves of all that. We really just moved those 11 teams over into handling marijuana … There wasn’t really any time to catch our breath.”

Question: Once you started getting involved in learning about marijuana, how soon was it before you realized how little you knew about marijuana?

Foster: I didn’t know anything. I really didn’t. I’ll never forget when it passed in November and Dean (her husband) and I went to Mexico for a couple weeks in December. I was lying by the pool and I had a book on marijuana that I was reading and almost everyone that walked by wanted to stop and talk about it. That book – ‘Marijuana Legalization: What Everyone Needs to Know’ – was really important for me to read. And from there, we took it one step at a time … we had a couple of staff people that really, really could get down into the weeds and learn it and bring it back to us.

Question: There’s been a lot of criticism that the Liquor Control Board has been moving too slow and it’s not doing it like Colorado did. What do you have to say about that?

Foster: I will say we’re different than Colorado. Colorado had a well-regulated medical marijuana law in place. Colorado is vertically integrated, meaning people can be the producer, processor and the retailer, which is different than here. In Washington, you cannot be a retailer and have an interest in either one of the other two, or vice versa. So, that’s a big difference. But the really big difference was they had something in place. We had nothing in place.

Question: Why couldn’t you have let Washington’s existing marijuana dispensaries apply for the licenses?

Foster: Because they’re not licensed.

They’re not regulated … There was absolutely nothing in the initiative that would have allowed us just to say, ‘Medical, you folks out there who are operating illegally and not paying taxes …”

Question: What’s your sense of the medicinal value of marijuana?

Foster: I think there’s definitely a medici-

Photo courtesy of the Washington state Liquor Control Board

nal value. There isn’t any doubt in my mind.

And there’s no doubt in my mind that in years to come, when we’re legal and we can do more research on it, that we’ll find it’s an amazing little weed that does amazing things.

Question: But we’re not going to be able to do any research until the federal government reschedules marijuana. Right?

Foster: I think research is going to go on in this state regardless.

Question: There were a lot of people who were upset over the board’s decision in February to decrease the amount of marijuana a producer could grow. A lot of potential producers lost a lot of money on that decision. Was that a difficult decision to make?

Foster: It was the only decision we could make because we had so many producers.

If we had let everybody produce at the level (we initially projected), we would have had so much product out there that the feds would have known we had too much product and the chance for diversion was just too high of a risk.

Question: What do you hope the recreational marijuana business looks like in five years?

Foster: I hope it’s a respectable industry. I would certainly hope that we don’t see a crimi-

nal element creep in. And more acceptance that it is a product that’s useful in many ways, such as it’s nice to share some marijuana after work as it is to have a glass of wine.

Question: How will the Liquor Control Board be monitoring compliance? Will it be over the computer or out in the field?

Foster: Both. We have a traceability system so that at any given moment, we know what’s going on everywhere with every single producer.

Question: What do you like about your job?

Foster: I’ve never done anything in my whole life – even 20 years of lobbying and all the other things I’ve done – that has been as intellectually stimulating.

Question: What don’t you like about your job? Does public criticism bother you?

Foster: No it doesn’t. I certainly took a lot of it during the (public) hearings that we did all over the state … and the ugly things that came across on emails and telephones that really bordered on threats … that I’ve ruined people’s lives. I don’t think that’s ever comfortable for anybody to get those kinds of comments.

- Kirk Ericson

Thursday, Aug. 28, 2014 - Mason County Journal - Page C-17

The retail chain of command What customers should know about buying marijuana at retailers

Pending Mason County recreational marijuana store Licenses As of Aug. 25, no state-sanctioned marijuana stores are open in Mason County.

The state Liquor Control Board allotted the county four stores, and one for Shelton. Out of 21 applicants for stores in Mason County, only the top finishers have a shot at opening stores. Because only one applicant applied for a license in Shelton, no lottery was necessary. Statewide, the Liquor Control Board received more than 2,100 applications for retail stores; about 2,600 for producer (grower) licenses); and about 1,900 for processor licenses. The state put a limit of 334 recreational stores for the state.

Here are, according to the Liquor Control Board’s website, the county’s top five lottery winners, including the address on the application, and the application for Shelton. All the retail licenses in Mason County, including Shelton, are pending: MASON COUNTY Business: The Root Cellar Location: 23730 state Route 3, Suite B, Belfair *Business: EZ Daze Location: 211 E. North Bay Road, Allyn *Business: EZ Daze Location: 20 E. Wheelwright St., Allyn Business: Belfair Marijuana Depot Location: 25603 NE state Route 3, Belfair

Below is an interview with Mikhail Carpenter, spokesperson for the state Liquor Control Board. The interview was conducted before the first stores opened July 8.

Question: How much marijuana can you buy in one visit to a store?

Carpenter: You can buy 1 ounce of marijuana dried flowers.

Question: Can I go to another store and get the same amount on the same day?

Carpenter: There is nothing that prevents you from doing that. The onus is on the customer.

Question: What are the penalties for getting caught with more than 1 ounce?

Carpenter: Possession limits are what was set out in the law (Initiative 502).

None of the penalties have changed for possession over the amount that was allowed

by I-502. If you go from one store to the other purchasing multiple ounces of marijuana and you get busted, you’re still looking at a felony. The criminal penalties changed only for people over the age of 21 who stay within the possession limits (1 ounce).

Question: Do I have to use cash at the retail stores?

Carpenter: Presently, yes.

We’ve heard that some institutions in Colorado are able to use credit cards, but here it’s going be store to store on what they can take. The expectation is it will be in cash.

Question: How much is it going to cost a gram?

Carpenter: Until the sys-

tem is up and running fully, it’s really hard to tell. I expect it will probably be pretty expensive in the beginning as supply chains get worked out. There will be a big rush on stores and there probably won’t be as much product before the market gets established. You start getting all these producers producing on schedules, the price will probably drop. Dispensaries are between $10 and $15 a gram, depending on what you are buying.

Carpenter: No. You cannot advertise therapeutic effects. The reason for that is this is a recreational market, not a medicinal marijuana market. That’s completely separate from what this is.

They cannot talk about the medicinal value. I-502 was expressly written to not affect I-502. There is an entire medical marijuana market that exists separate from this and so if you’re looking for medicine, you need to be accessing it different market.

Question: Will there be cameras on site taking my picture?

Question: If you present a medical marijuana card, do you get a discount?

Carpenter: No. Again, it’s two separate systems.

Carpenter: Absolutely.

There are security requirements on all licensees. Ultimately you’re dealing with a controlled substance that is still illegal according to the federal government. The federal government has said we want this to be a highly regulated and a very tight system so part of that is having cameras.

Question: Can I buy marijuana-smoking gear in a retail store?

Carpenter: Yes you can.

As a matter of fact, that’s really the only thing outside of marijuana products that people in stores are allowed to sell. You can sell marijuana; you can sell marijuanainfused products; you can sell marijuana paraphernalia; and you can probably sell your store’s branded logo. But you can’t sell cigarettes or video games or food. You can’t incorporate these stores into an existing business.

Question: Can people behind the counter give therapeutic advice on the best strains for any ailments people might have?

Question: Will you need to present ID? Carpenter: Yes. You have to prove you’re over 21.

Question: Will there be any record of your visit at a store?

Carpenter: There will be a sales receipt, but you won’t have to sign your name or have a photocopy made of your identification. … You’re just making a transaction as you would anywhere else.

Question: Can I buy products that are heavy in cannibidinol, which is a nonintoxicating cannibinoid (the marijuana plant has about 60 of them)?

Carpenter: You could, as long as the THC (the intoxicating element in marijuana) content is not below 0.3 percent. Marijuana that has less than 0.3 percent THC is not technically considered marijuana according to the way the initiative was written. So that’s actually not something

Business: Bomar Holdings Location: 23490 NE state Route 3, Belfair Business: CBD Associates Location: 935 E. Johns Prairie Road, Shelton CITY OF SHELTON Business: Tidehaven Recreation Location: 118 S. Third St., Shelton * EZ Daze will be limited to one retail license and the next application on the lottery list will take its place.

you can sell in the store because you can only sell marijuana and marijuana-infused products.

Question: How is the marijuana to be displayed?

Carpenter: It has to be in sealed packages behind the counter. Stores are allowed to have sniff jars so customers can smell the marijuana, but they can’t touch it. Everything has to be packaged — that was one of the things in the initiative. The label on the package will include the strain, the THC content, the moisture content.

Question: Can they serve you if you’re visibly high?

Carpenter: There is nothing in law or rule that address that subject, but the retail licensee can always refuse a sale if they feel that the person is intoxicated.

Question: Can stores give out free samples?

Carpenter: No. However, there is sampling between producer and processor and processor and retailer. As a producer, you want to be able to sell your product to a processor, so there is a mechanism in the rules that allows for a small amount of

marijuana from a producer to go to processor to smoke to see whether or not that product is something they want to buy.

Question: Where does the marijuana come from?

Carpenter: Only from licensed marijuana producers in Washington state. And it can come from anywhere in the state. If someone is growing incredibly great marijuana at a 21,000-square-foot production facility in Walla Walla, you can purchase that product from there and sell it in Olympia or Vancouver or wherever there’s a retail store. Also, where it is grown will be furnished on the label.

Question: How does a person know what she wants if she’s a novice user of marijuana?

Carpenter: How do you know what beer you want when you turn 21? You give it a shot, you go in and look. You talk with whoever’s behind the counter. Again, you can’t talk about the therapeutic value, but you can say this strain has 17 percent THC so it’s a high THC content marijuana or this is 10 percent THC. ­— Kirk Ericson

Page C-18 - Mason County Journal - Thursday, Aug. 28, 2014

Marijuana not legal in all of Washington Still unlawful on federal lands, reservations

“Marijuana has been illegal on federal lands, and continues to be.”

T

he legalization of marijuana use in Washington doesn’t mean you can fire up a joint on the Skokomish Indian reservation, on the Staircase trail or in the Dosewallips campground.

Marijuana possession and use remains illegal on federal lands, which in Mason County includes immense stretches of Olympic National Park and Olympic National Forest. It can also get you arrested on Indian reservations, including the two in Mason County, the Skokomish and Squaxin Island Tribe reservations.

Under the tribal laws, marijuana is categorized as an illegal substance alongside heroin, morphine, cocaine, hallucinogens such as peyote and LSD, and depressants that are not prescribed.

Any person who possesses for personal use, or grows or manufactures for personal use, any of those substances is guilty of a gross misdemeanor, according to the tribal ordinance. Any person who grows, manufactures, delivers or possesses marijuana is guilty of a felony.

Lands in Mason County that retain federal marijuana laws include Olympic National Forest, which covers more

Rainey McKenna, Olympic National Park spokeswoman

Journal photo by Gordon Weeks

It’s illegal to possess marijuana on federal lands, including Olympic National Park, shown here at the entrance to the Staircase trail next to Lake Cushman in Mason County.

By GORDON WEEKS than 633,000 acres in two districts, Hood Canal and Pacific; and Olympic National Park.

“Marijuana has been illegal on federal lands, and continues to be,” said Rainey McKenna, spokeswoman for

Olympic National Park.

Visitors charged with possession of marijuana in the park are charged with a federal misdemeanor, punishable up to six months in jail and a $5,000 fine, McKenna said.

People cited in the park must make a mandatory appearance in federal district court in Tacoma, she said.

In 2013, 62 cases of drug citations were issued in Olym-

pic National Park — one case could mean more than one alleged offender, McKenna said.

That includes all drugs, including marijuana, she said.

MORE VISITORS Between January and mid-August, 58 cases were reported, McKenna said. She attributes the increase in drug cases to the large number of visitors.

“We’re having one of our busiest seasons in years,” she said.

Of course, marijuana laws change as you cross the borders into surrounding states and countries.

In Oregon, possession of less than 1 ounce of marijuana is a misdemeanor with a possible $650 fine.

Possession of more than 1 ounce can be a more serious crime if it occurs within 1,000 feet of a school. Possession of more than 1 ounce, but less than 4 ounces, is class B misdemeanor; possession of more than 4 ounces is a class B felony.

In Idaho, a person charged with possession of up to 1 ounce of marijuana faces a possible year in jail, a $1,000 fine or both.

In Canada, a person convicted of possession of 30 grams or less faces a maximum fine of $1,000 or six months in jail, or both.

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Thursday, Aug. 28, 2014 - Mason County Journal - Page C-19

Marijuana paranoia: A personal story Reporter’s brush with pot crushes senses, creates confusion during trip to Hawaii

M

arijuana can be a tricky ride. Sometimes you’ll sit comfortably in the saddle, moved by fresh insights and sensations.

Other times, you can be seized by a paranoia that makes your brain unspool as your horse gallops through brambles.

Tremendous insight often accompanies tremendous paranoia. That’s the yin and yang of marijuana.

“We don’t want to treat this like plutonium, but at the same time, society is not ready for us to treat this like oregano,” John Novak, operator of the website 420leaks. com, told Northwest Leaf magazine in a March 2014 article.

Indeed.

You can’t overdose on pot, but you certainly can get too high.

who’s in his early 60s put it this way in an interview with the Journal: “When you settle down and get married and you have a fulltime job, you have kids, you’re not smoking pot like you used to,” he said. “I didn’t miss it. … It not only made me stupid, but it put my brain in a different place than the rest of my family and it wasn’t fair to them or to me.

They’re not on the same wavelength.”

Fair enough, but this was Hawaii and I was a guest.

We sat in his car, away from the beach, and he rolled one. He lit it, inhaled once and handed it to me. I inhaled, and then he started coughing. Big, deep, shuttering coughs. I couldn’t hand it back to him because of the coughing, so I was stuck with this thing.

I inhaled … and inhaled. After a minute, he stopped coughing, I handed it back to him. He took another puff, handed it back to me and started coughing again. So I, again, was stuck with this marijuana for far too long. After a few minutes of this dance, I realized I wasn’t feeling its effects, which was odd because my tolerance was zero and I had just smoked a lot of marijuana in a car with all the windows rolled up.

“Did you grow this?” I asked, looking for clues as to why it wasn’t working.

“Yeah.”

“Where did you get the starts?”

I don’t recall his exact sentence, but it was along the lines of: “From a strain that was in the Cannabis Cup in Amsterdam a couple of years ago.”

Oh. That fact immediately clicked with a fragment in my brain that knew this guy was a top-notch horticulturalist.

And bam.

I began to notice life outside the car. The swaying palm trees, the deep color of the flowers and the landscape of a Hawaiian beach started to pulse. Across the road was a sign for a polo club. Odd, but not overly weird. In the back-

By KIRK ERICSON

*** In the summer of 2007, my wife, our two sons – ages 3 and 12 – and I were in Hawaii, where we visited a couple who had retired from Mason County and moved to the island of Kauai. The wife had worked for the state and her husband had run gardens, including for some South Sound tribes. The husband taught youths the ways of the garden.

The husband had a Hawaii medical marijuana card because marijuana helped him with his ailments — Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes — and he grew a few marijuana plants on his secluded property for his own relief and pleasure.

One Hawaiian afternoon, they drove us down to a beach, and then he and I left the womenfolk and the kids behind so they could enjoy the pacific Pacific and the sandy, gently sloping beach. The husband wanted to smoke marijuana in his car. I joined him.

I didn’t smoke marijuana much because, mainly, I found it put me out of sync with my family and my work.

Plus, I wasn’t interested in making the effort required to get it.

A marijuana grower in Seattle

I couldn’t stop it ... Paranoia rolled over the pleasant sensations of Hawaii like the tide over a sand castle. ground, though, I felt a creeping anxiety. You’re away from your family. They’re in the ocean. Entire families were swept away in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

Sharks. Beach thugs. Sneaker waves. Somali pirates. Where’s Dad when we needed him?

I couldn’t stop it. Paranoia rolled over the pleasant sensations of Hawaii like the tide over a sand castle.

I got out of the car and walked the hundred yards back to the beach. My wife was talking with her friend. A few feet away toward the beach, our 3-year-old, Ryan, was playing in the sand.

Our 12-year-old, Alex, was wading nearby in the ocean about 10 feet from the shoreline.

Everything was as it should be.

I went to the 3-year-old. I asked how he was doing, trying to reconstruct from memory how I normally act. He turned from the ocean, looked at me and said, “Dad, Alex is a ghost.”

“What do you mean?”

“Look at him. He’s a ghost.”

In a sober state, I might have played along, but in the state I was in, my brain told whatever was left of me that my son can see the future and something awful is about to happen to Alex. I have to act.

I moved quickly to my 13-yearold and stood next to him in the

water. I asked him how he was.

“Fine.”

What are you doing?

“Just staring at the ocean.”

Silence. He wandered away from me. I followed. He looked at me. I looked away. He moved again and I stayed with him again.

“Dad?” “Yes, Alex?”

“You’re acting weird.”

Alex wandered away again, but I didn’t follow this time. I took deep breaths and tried to chill the hell out, wishing I could purge this substance from my system.

After I straightened up, Ryan told me he said Alex was a ghost because his brother’s skin was so white compared to the tanned people on the beach.

I pointed out that Alex was ghost-like, not a ghost. I told him he should have said he looked like a ghost, not that he was a ghost.

Otherwise, you’ll scare dad. *** If you haven’t had marijuana for years, be careful. It really is more potent these days. It’s like a haircut. If you get too much cut off, you can’t put it back. And if you smoke too much, or especially eat too much, you can’t make it go away quickly.

That can ruin your trip.

Page C-20 - Mason County Journal - Thursday, Aug. 28, 2014

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