Following US Attorney Jeff Sessions rescission of the Cole Memorandum, the WSLCB and the Governor have stated that they will continue to uphold the will of the Washington State voters by licensing and regulating the marijuana industry in Washington.
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Just before Olympia’s regular session ended last week, a huge “omnibus bill” of pot laws quietly passed the legislature. The bill tackles a ton of legal issues, and it is now sitting on the governor’s desk waiting for a signature. Governor Jay Inslee has 20 days to sign it, though his office declined to comment on his feelings about the bill.
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The Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board (WSLCB) will stop accepting marijuana retail license applications March 31, 2016 at 5:00 p.m. The WSLCB began processing retail applications on Oct. 12, 2015 to accommodate additional demand and provide additional access points before the medical and recreational marketplace are merged on July 1, 2016.
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Trying to fold medical marijuana into Washington’s regulated recreational system, state officials approved a plan to add up to 222 more pot stores. But some retailers say there’s too much risk in selling medical products.
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The Legislature on Saturday passed a measure that makes several changes to Washington state’s new recreational-marijuana law, ranging from revising the market’s tax structure to zoning rules.
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Carney Badley Spellman attorneys Joe Wallin and Michael Schneider interview Cindy Flynn on legalized marijuana in Washington state. Cindy, who has a practice focus on I-502 business and litigation, talks about challenges facing pot entrepreneurs and where the regulations may be heading.
Of all the steps taken since Washington legalized marijuana, North Bonneville’s might be boldest.
The town of about 1,000 in Skamania County, which sits on the Columbia River about 40 miles northeast of Portland, is becoming the first government in the nation, and perhaps the world, to own a recreational marijuana store.
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State Sens. Brian Hatfield, D-Raymond, Pacific County, and Ann Rivers, R-La Center, Clark County, are pushing a bill that would replace the state’s three-tier tax system with a single marijuana tax, paid by the consumer.
Initially, the tax would be 37 percent of the selling price, but would scale down to 30 percent in July 2017 and 25 percent in 2019. Sales tax also would be collected.
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AS medical marijuana heads back to Olympia, legislators are bracing for a rerun of last session’s drama of makeshift dispensary operators and self-appointed patient advocates decrying any effort to rein in abuses of the law.
Lawmakers face many competing priorities, but it’s important they clean up Washington’s medical-marijuana mess. Before licensed marijuana retail stores began opening last summer, legitimate reasons existed to tolerate some of the commercial activity that’s been squeezing itself into gaps in the medical-marijuana law. Now, however, it’s time to stop winking and nodding. Everyone who wants to make money selling marijuana ought to play by the same rules, and we finally have a set of rules under Initiative 502.
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The city of Seattle is warning more than 300 medical marijuana businesses that their days could be numbered. Officials have sent letters to medical marijuana growers, processors and dispensaries reminding them they need to either shut down or be licensed by the state by next summer.
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