The Pacific City Council got an earful from speakers on both sides of the marijuana debate Tuesday at a hearing conducted to solicit input from the public before the council votes on the future of marijuana businesses inside the city.
At the Jan. 26 regular council meeting, Pacific’s leaders expect to vote on extending an interim zoning ordinance that temporarily bans any marijuana business in the city. At that meeting the council may also choose from five ordinances that will govern how the city handles marijuana businesses, with options ranging from licensing and allowing recreational processing and shops, banning just medical or banning pot businesses altogether.
One ordinances allows for the processing, production and sales of recreational marijuana, one allows for just production and processing while banning sales, one bans all recreational sales while allowing production and processing, and a third allows recreational entirely.
A fourth ordinance would ban medical marijuana and the fifth ordinance would extend interim zoning regulations that currently ban any marijuana businesses. The current ban expires on Jan. 28.
At Monday’s public hearing, the council heard opinions from city residents about which ordinance the city should choose, as well as from nonresidents whose communities have been affected by marijuana.
Pastor Dr. Steve Koppleman from the Highland Park Baptist Church in West Seattle cautioned Pacific councilpersons about the potential pitfalls of retail marijuana stores.
“I’m here to talk to you about the marijuana issue because they set up a [recreational marijuana] shop within 30 feet of my church,” Koppleman said.
“Let me tell you what’s going on,” he said. “First of all, we have a huge traffic problem, evidently this drug, this marijuana thing is skyrocketing. So the streets around my church are blocked from early morning until late at night.”
Koppleman also claimed that he had been informed that the store’s clientele were buying and then selling the marijuana on the street.
“Another problem is the people are buying are reselling it in front of the church,” he said. “People have told me that people who are selling it bought it at the shop.”
Koppleman said he also planned to share his views with the Washington State Legislature in Olympia.
New Hope Lutheran Church in Pacific’s Pastor, Mark Gause, also urged the city not to allow any marijuana businesses.
“We’re not ready,” he said.
Gause continued:
“The laws, rules, procedures about marijuana in this state are in a state of constant change,” he said. “We don’t know what will be required or permitted tomorrow. We don’t have what it takes to get ready. As community leaders, it’s on us to speak out on the welfare of our entire community.”
Pacific resident DuWayne Gratz sees the issue differently, however, and he urged city leaders not to close the door on medical marijuana.
“Pot is going to happen in this town, and it’s happening no matter what you do tonight,” Gratz said. “We know anybody can get a hold of it if they really want to, and they have forever. As far as individual access from younger people, I don’t know if this increases it, in my opinion. I would just vote for [allowing] it.”
Also coming out in favor of allowing recreational marijuana was Enumclaw resident Ian Wilson, an applicant for a Tier 1 production license.
“I am for allowing it with Ordinance 1861,” he said.
Wilson added:
“As far as being sold, nobody is buying from a recreational store, getting charged 25 percent tax, and trying to sell it on the black market,” he said. “That’s not realistic. In the medical industry I could see that happening.”
Recreational sales are taxed by the state while medical marijuana is unregulated.
Pacific has four medical marijuana businesses in operation.
All five ordinances come before the council at next Tuesday’s meeting.
