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To:
Seattle City Council Members & Mayor Murray
From:
Concerned 1-502 Business Owners
Date:
9 December 2014
Subject: Unregulated Medical Marijuana Markets. Greetings, We write this letter as licensed I-502 facilities on behalf of many of our industry's interested parties. Our concern is the unregulated medical marijuana market. As we all file and pay state and local taxes, pay living wages, allow employees to accrue sick time, abide by building code and 'regulations, adhere to strict investor, testing, labeling and packaging guidelines, we are competing with the grey market of growers and dispensaries who run all cash, regulation- and tax-free businesses. This uneven playing field is creating highly profitable untaxed businesses and路 individuals and threatens to cause the legal marketplace to fail. There are currently a couple of bills in the state legislature that will curb or end the so call.ed "medical" marijuana business as we know it, bringing it under the full fold of 502 rules, including licensing, zoning, buffers, employment, actual medical verification, security and so on. The end result would be a safe medical marijuana system for patients and recreational users路 that generates hundreds of millions in tax revenues. We have seen the City of Seattle's plan to regulate the medical market rather than end it. This approach conce,rns us as it runs the risk of further legitimizing the grey market and making it impossible for the state to create a