Marijuana growers worry county could pull their permits

EVERETT — Out near rural Lake Bosworth, on a wooded lot, a business was launched this year that its owner hopes will gross $1 million per year.

If Snohomish County doesn’t shut it down, that is.

GreenRush is one of just four legal marijuana growing and processing companies operating in Snohomish County.

While more than 80 producer and processor applicants in rural areas have been approved by the state Liquor Control Board, the tortuous and bureaucratic path from application to selling product means that only a handful have been able to get up and running under the law created by Initiative 502, approved by voters in 2012.

Meantime, political pressure from some neighbors of marijuana businesses prompted the once-welcoming Snohomish County Council to impose a temporary moratorium on new marijuana businesses as of Oct. 1 — so it can “consider these issues thoughtfully,” council Chairman Dave Somers said at the time.

GreenRush opened its doors in September, just in time to avoid the moratorium.

Among growers, the worry now is that continued public pressure might lead to revocation of the businesses’ permits, said GreenRush’s owner, a man named Mark. The Herald agreed not to use Mark’s last name out of concern that he could lose his day job if it were known he was a marijuana producer, albeit a legal one.

Mark said he sank $220,000 — practically his entire savings — into opening GreenRush. If he can keep it open, the 55-year-old hopes to be able to recover startup costs and retire from his day job in June, allowing him to operate his home-based business full time.

He operates a “Tier 1” facility, the smallest as defined by the state, which caps his operation at 2,000 square feet. He converted a 2,160-square-foot building on his property to grow 1,440 square feet of plants in three rooms.

Expanding to 2,000 square feet would require adding to his facility, which he can’t do under the county moratorium. Mark worries the county might eventually impose a permanent ban on marijuana businesses, which has happened in several jurisdictions around the state, forcing him to close before he has a chance to recoup his investment.

“It would be just devastating,” Mark said. “My retirement is gone.”

Several Snohomish County marijuana producers, including GreenRush, have formed the R5 Cooperative and have hired consultants to help push back against the pushback.

Land-use consultant Reid Shockey was brought on board after the moratorium was imposed because “they felt like they needed someone who spoke land use to help them,” he said.

The R5 Cooperative was named for the county’s R5 zones, where one home is allowed per five acres and agricultural practices are permitted.

The group’s intention is to show that marijuana cultivation under the new law is an agricultural use of the land and therefore allowable on those lots.

This week the group won a small victory, said another consultant, Jamie Curtismith, when the county Agricultural Advisory Board asked the Planning Commission to recommend that the County Council overturn the moratorium.

“You can’t do that to small-business owners, which is basically pull the rug out from under them in the market,” Curtismith said.

The Planning Commission takes up the moratorium question in a public hearing Tuesday, Dec. 16.*

Opposition to marijuana businesses also has cropped up in the city of Everett, where neighbors have been trying to prevent a retail store from opening on a commercial strip that has residences nearby.

A proposed emergency moratorium was voted down two weeks ago, but at Wednesday’s Everett City Council meeting, Councilwoman Judy Tuohy asked that the city draft an amendment that would include residential housing and churches on the list of building types protected from pot businesses by a 1,000-foot exclusionary radius.

Jessica Jordan, an Everett resident, said that the additional restriction would prevent her from opening her planned marijuana retail shop in the Silver Lake neighborhood.

“I have every dime in this location,” she said. “Please don’t take this away from me and my family.”

From the standpoint of marijuana entrepreneurs, the nature of the permitting process is upside down: The city and the county won’t permit a new business until the Liquor Control Board has approved them, which doesn’t happen until after an applicant has made significant investment in an operation.

Out at GreenRush, Mark’s investment has begun to pay off.

According to his records, he booked $210,000 in sales in October and November and paid the state nearly $50,000 in taxes. He might break even by March, he said.

Visitors have to sign in and wear a badge, security cameras feed into a multiple-monitor security station, all of the air used for cooling heat lamps is isolated from the growing rooms to keep the odors inside. A German shepherd patrols the grounds and approaches any cars that come up the driveway.

Mark had to expand his driveway so fire trucks can turn around, and he installed a sidewalk that is compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. He only employs immediate family members and one other person.

O Bee Credit Union in Tumwater, established in 1955 for employees of the Olympia Brewery, was one of the few financial institutions willing to accept his money.

“I went down there with $135,000 in a backpack,” he said. “What am I going to do? I have a concealed-weapons permit, so I had that too. I just tried to do it nonchalantly.”

One of his buyers, Casacde Kropz in Arlington, also banks with O Bee and can pay him with a check, he said, reducing the amount of cash he needs in a largely cash-based industry.

With the three growing rooms, Mark separates strains by growing cycle, ensuring about three harvests per month.

Every plant is logged with BioTrackTHC, a software package approved by the state. BioTrackTHC records the plants’ stages of growth, their bud yield, THC concentration, and packaging and sales data. The software also allows Mark to pay his taxes to the state directly.

“That’s what I like about the recreational market. You can prove what you do,” Mark said.

That’s in contrast to the largely unregulated medical marijuana market, which he thinks has fueled the concerns of neighbors and political leaders, leading to the recent grassroots pushback.

In a locked storage box, pot ready for sale is bagged and bar-coded for tracking.

His carefully managed operation has allowed him to grow a number of strains of marijuana, including variations of “9 Pound Hammer,” each with a color ranging from green to purple and scents from musty to fruity.

“This is my favorite,” he said of 9 Pound Hammer, even though he doesn’t smoke marijuana.

“It’s the smell and the look!” he said. “It’s just like wine.”

Chris Winters: 425- 374-4165; cwinters@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @Chris_At_Herald.

Correction, Dec. 12, 2014: The Planning Commission will consider the moratorium question at a public hearing on Tuesday, Dec. 16. The date was incorrect in an earlier version of this story.