What should a pot shop be like?
That question surfaced Tuesday in a legislative hearing, although it couldn't be answered. The State Liquor Control Board, which is tasked by Initiative 502 with setting up the system to regulate growth, processing and sales of legal marijuana, announced early in the day it had just hired consultants to help set up that system.
The House Government Accountability and Oversight Committee meanwhile looked at ways to change the initiative’s rules on where a store can be located and how much a license costs. . .
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The House Government Accountability and Oversight Committee meanwhile looked at ways to change the initiative’s rules on where a store can be located and how much a license costs.
Bill Brouillet, spokesman for potential retailer Diego Pellicer Inc., said that company supports reducing the distances a store must be from parks, playgrounds and some other facilities. I-502 says 1,000 feet, but House Bill 2000 would drop that to 500 feet for everything but schools. Under current initiative restrictions, it would be difficult to open a store in most parts of Seattle and Bellevue, Brouillet said.
Diego Pellicer wants to be a premium retailer of marijuana, he said, an experience for its customers like Nordstrom is for buying clothes. It wants to offer good quality product and dependable consistency at all of its stores. It also supports letting the board charge higher fees for licenses in certain markets.
“We're not an evil out-of-state corporation,” Brouillet said. According to its web site, Kirkland-based Diego Pellicer's founder and chief executive officer, Jamen Shively, is a former Microsoft corporate strategy manager.
But setting high fees will lead to something medical marijuana proponents feared would happen with I-502, said longtime critic Arthur West – “Wal-Mart style marketing and big government regulation.”
Rep. Chris Hurst, D-Enumclaw, the sponsor of the bill, said some proposed rules are a way to keep people who have operated illegally in the past out of the new market. When Prohibition ended, the government didn't let Al Capone into the new liquor market, he said.
But it did let bootleggers in, if they promised to obey the law, said Alison Holcomb, the author of the initiative. Setting a high price for the right to sell marijuana could mean the new industry will be dominated by large corporations that will look for ways to market to teens, the way alcohol and tobacco companies have done.
Smaller operations, who may now be growing illegally, shouldn't be closed out, she said. “Let mom and pop have a shot at it.”
The state retail options for marijuana could be similar to what it now has alcohol, a range from craft microbrews to Budweiser, she added.
To make any changes to I-502, HB 2000 would need to pass both houses of the Legislature with a two-thirds majority. Hurst said it's still being revised, and won't even come out of the committee unless it has near unanimous support from the panel.
