EVERETT — A moratorium on more marijuana retailers in Everett garnered support of a majority of City Council members Wednesday but fell one vote shy of the five needed to enact the emergency measure.
The ordinance, proposed by Councilman Scott Bader, stemmed from the state’s effort to integrate the largely unregulated medical marijuana industry with the heavily regulated recreational market.
A state Liquor and Cannabis Board revision of rules doubles the maximum number of retailers allowed to operate in a jurisdiction.
Everett already has four pot retailers and a fifth is in the permitting stage. Five formerly was the maximum number of shops allowed in Everett.
The proposed ordinance was an attempt to put the brakes on more shops opening before they became vested under state law.
“After we passed the existing legislation to allow five establishments, I felt that Everett had done its part,” Bader said.
He pointed out that there are unresolved legal issues about city rules that might pre-empt state law on pot shops. Aside from Lake Stevens’ single retail outlet, he said, Everett is the only city in the county to allow shops to open.
“I’m kind of fearful the city will get a reputation as the place to get marijuana in Snohomish County,” Bader said.
The ordinance would have given the city a year to study the effect retail pot has had, including crime statistics, which the police haven’t yet analyzed, planning director Allan Giffen told the council.
Richard Ek told the council he and other attendees of his church were concerned about more marijuana shops coming into the city.
His church is across 19th Avenue SE in the Silver Lake neighborhood from Mary J’s Highway Pot Shop. A year ago, members of the church spoke to the council before the shop opened to try to stop it.
Ek acknowledged that the business has not caused problems in the neighborhood.
“That neighbor is actually getting along, and the building doesn’t look as inviting as we’d feared. But we don’t want any more” shops, Ek said.
Diane Brooks, a north Everett resident, urged the council not to block more shops because people like her husband, who has terminal bone cancer, needed to maintain access to medical marijuana.
“My husband already takes 20 pills every day, while trying to keep up his energy to teach at Everett Community College,” she said.
Narcotics make him too sleepy to teach, so in the morning he takes a formulation of marijuana that kills the pain without getting him high, she said.
Even so, it’s a one-hour round trip for her to go to HypeHerbally, which is outside city near Paine Field, for the drug, she said.
Councilman Paul Roberts articulated several reasons why the council should not enact an emergency ordinance, including the facts that the four stores have been operating largely without problems for the past year, that many aspects of the city’s regulations were thoroughly debated a year ago and that expansion of the legal marketplace comes at the expense of the illegal one.
“And they don’t care where they operate,” Roberts said.
Roberts was joined by Councilwomen Brenda Stonecipher and Judy Tuohy in voting “no” on the ordinance, enough to block the measure. Council members Jeff Moore, Cassie Franklin and Scott Murphy joined Bader in supporting it.
After the vote, Brooks expressed relief at the decision.
“I go to Safeway to pick up his morphine, I go to Safeway to pick up his oxycodone, but it’s one hour to pick up an herb, a legal herb,” she said.
“I’m just grateful for the three council members who took a reasonable approach.”
Chris Winters: 425-374-4165; cwinters@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @Chris_At_Herald.
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