Business
Will Seattle Regulate MMJ?
In the spring of 2011, the Washington State legislature passed Senate Bill 5073 to regulate cannabis for medical use. However, based on concerns with how the federal government would respond to that B
n the spring of 2011, the Washington State legislature passed Senate Bill 5073 to regulate cannabis for medical use. However, based on concerns with how the federal government would respond to that Bill, then-Governor Christine Gregoire vetoed those portions of the Bill that would have legalized cannabis for medical use and created a licensed and transparent chain of distribution for dispensing, cultivating and manufacturing medical cannabis.
That veto has left Washington State’s medical cannabis laws vague/non-existent regarding commercialization of cannabis for medical use. Washington State has laws that set up a framework for “collective gardens,” but no law legalizing the sale of medical cannabis or the lawful establishment of brick and mortar access points. There are also no laws on state oversight of medical cannabis.
Despite the lack of any state law clarity on medical cannabis, a number of Washington State cities have nonetheless allowed commercial medical cannabis businesses to operate within their borders. Some of these cities have enacted their own regulations such as requiring medical cannabis businesses to secure business licenses or comply with applicable zoning laws. Washington’s hodge-podge system of little-to-almost-no regulation of medical cannabis led the federal government to call Washington’s medical cannabis program “untenable” and the Washington State Court of Appeals to hold that medical cannabis activity, including running a medical cannabis business, is illegal under state law.
In 2012, Washington State passed Initiative 502 to legalize recreational cannabis and since that time, the Washington State legislature has been trying to decide whether to enact laws to merge existing medical cannabis businesses into I-502 or to create a wholly separate licensing system for medical cannabis altogether.
Seattle, Washington’s largest city, nicely represents the legal chaos surrounding medical cannabis in the entire state. In the summer of 2011, the city of Seattle talked of treating medical cannabis access points like any other business. But after the passage of Initiative 502, local policy leaders, including Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes, began calling for a single regulated cannabis system under Initiative 502, without any medical cannabis businesses. In 2013, the Seattle City Council passed an ordinance mandating that cannabis businesses without State licenses by January 2015 (then extended to summer 2015)—either pursuant to Initiative 502 or a licensing program for medical cannabis that the state has yet to create—would be shut down by the city. Just last month, the city of Seattle sent shutdown warning letters to over 300 access points, reminding them that they are on borrowed time because they lack a state license to run their business and will be shut down this summer.
But in an effort to avoid the shutdowns and to bring some order to the chaos, Seattle is once again looking to revamp its treatment of medical cannabis. Most recently, Seattle and its mayor, Ed Murray, seem ready to intervene on their own regulatory terms.
The mayor’s plan would establish a regulatory system for medical cannabis, similar to that of the state’s recreational system in that it sets standards for testing, packaging and advertising. It would require criminal background checks for business owners and require businesses to allow inspections by the city. The new system also calls for two classes of collective gardens. Class 1 collective gardens would operate with access points; class 2 collective gardens would not and aren’t subject to many of the more restrictive requirements such as testing. The class 1 access points would have to be 500 feet from childcare centers, schools, parks, libraries, transit centers and recreation centers, but there don’t appear to be limits for class 2 gardens, which would only allow 45 plants on each parcel. Class 1 collective gardens are required to test for potency (including CBD), as well as pesticides, mold, fungus and heavy metals. Pesticides and heavy metals tests are typically more expensive than the testing the state’s Liquor Control Board requires for recreational cannabis.
The outline also calls for a separate processing license that establishes packaging requirements for edibles and adopts the state Liquor Control Board’s rules for concentrates.
These are the mayor’s plans and proposals. Nothing has gone to the City Council yet. Whether or not the State legislature acts on medical cannabis during its upcoming 2015 session, it is now looking as though Seattle may have a heavily regulated medical and recreational marketplace going forward.
