BOTHELL — Diane Symms can walk less than 400 feet from her restaurant along the Bothell-Everett Highway and find a marijuana store in either direction. She considers the situation out of hand.
There’s Euphorium to the south. To the north, there’s A Greener Today and Herbal Nation. Symms, a co-owner of Lombardi’s Italian Restaurant &Wine Bar, isn’t taking issue with legal marijuana. She’s worried about the impact that the concentration of THC vendors has on other area businesses like hers.
“My feeling about it is if you had one of these retailers every five blocks, that would seem to be a reasonable amount,” Symms said. “But three in this one area is too much.”
The County Council took up the issue in June, by passing an emergency six-month moratorium on new marijuana businesses. That was supposed to give county lawmakers time to craft rules to prevent pot stores from clustering in certain business districts. But as the temporary law approaches its expiration date Dec. 22, policymakers still haven’t hit on a set of rules for buffers between stores.
The moratorium also didn’t necessarily stop stores from opening, if they already had state permits. Euphorium is appealing county code-enforcement actions that, among other issues, focus on whether that business is subject to the temporary ban. The store continues to operate, as the county hearing examiner prepares to consider the case next month.
The clustering of marijuana businesses is most obvious in unincorporated areas of Snohomish County. More than a dozen dot Highway 99 between Lynnwood and Everett city limits. The Bothell-Everett Highway has another bunch, with four businesses within less than a half mile, including the three near Lombardi’s. Outright bans on pot stores in cities such as Lynnwood and Mill Creek have led to more popping up in nearby county zones.
The situation ratcheted up last year after the state doubled the number of available marijuana-retail licenses in unincorporated Snohomish County to 32 from 16. That was part of a state effort to merge the marketplaces for medical and recreational marijuana.
County Councilmembers Terry Ryan and Stephanie Wright have taken a lead role in looking at ways to prevent clustering, which has disproportionately affected their districts.
“We understand that people want access to marijuana,” Ryan said. “We just don’t want negative impacts to neighborhoods. We’re trying to find that sweet spot in between access and negative impacts on neighborhoods.”
They’ve discussed a one-mile buffer between stores. That’s more than the 1,000-feet restriction that King County imposed this summer, when lawmakers there passed a variety of new restrictions and lifted a moratorium.
When the state crafted rules for marijuana retail stores, they left much of the fine-tuning to cities and counties. Washington law only requires a 1,000-foot buffer between marijuana businesses and a variety of places where young people are likely to congregate, including schools and public playgrounds. It sets no minimum distance for separating marijuana sellers.
The Snohomish County Planning Commission took up the issue in September but fell short of making a formal recommendation on what to do about separation.
Councilman Brian Sullivan wants to prevent marijuana stores from dominating some business districts, but he also wants to avoid penalizing pot businesses that have tried to follow the law.
“We want to respect those businesses that respected the law and did everything right,” Sullivan said. “Unfortunately, there are those who have not necessarily respected the law.”
Justin Ruiz said the temporary ban has put his business on hold — and forced him to lay off employees who earned more than $15 an hour.
“It’s been a disaster,” he said. “People lost their jobs.”
Ruiz’s business, Hypeherbally, had been operating since 2012 as a medical dispensary, which he referred to as a “medical marijuana safe access point.” He was shut down this spring, after moving to new property north of Lynnwood. He had been preparing to reopen as a state-licensed recreational marijuana store when the moratorium hit.
For now, he’s staying patient and preparing to start anew. Eventually, he believes he’ll come out ahead.
“Know your history,” Ruiz said. “The tortoise wins the race in this one.”
President-elect Donald Trump’s victory last month has raised wider questions about whether federal authorities might start cracking down on legal pot stores in Washington and other states where voters have legalized sales. Marijuana remains classified federally as a Schedule I drug. That means in the eyes of the feds, it is in the same category as heroin, LSD and other controlled substances considered to have a high potential for abuse and no medically accepted use.
For now, a 2013 memo from then-Deputy U.S. Attorney General James Cole continues to guide federal prosecutors on marijuana enforcement. Simple possession is considered a low priority left up to state and local enforcement. Federal officials are encouraged to focus instead on priorities such as ensuring that marijuana sales aren’t supporting gang activity and that the drug isn’t getting transported across state lines to places where it remains illegal.
Trump’s own statements suggest he might not be eager to interfere with state marijuana rules. In 2015, he said that individual states should decide whether to legalize the drug. Trump also said marijuana should be legal for medicinal use.
Trump’s nominee for attorney general, however, might have other ideas. U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., has made public statements criticizing marijuana legalization.
Unless the feds make drastic changes, officials in Washington’s cities and counties are expected to follow the state law and continue to carve out their own pot regulations.
“Something has to change,” Symms said. “I do not want to see this moratorium just go away. I do want there to be some kind of regulation.”
Noah Haglund: 425-339-3465; nhaglund@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @NWhaglund.
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