The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

DAYTON – In less than three weeks the Columbia County Commissioners will decide whether to extend the county moratorium on marijuana, allow marijuana operations in the county, or ban them altogether. In December, they agreed to extend the moratorium until March to allow more time to investigate the issue and make an informed decision.

A public hearing regarding the county's moratorium is scheduled for 1:15 p.m. on March 16 in the commissioners' board room. The county's 15-month-long moratorium expires the following day, on March 17. A representative from the Washington State Liquor Control Board will meet with commissioners prior to the hearing, at 10 a.m., to provide further information on the issue.

In further researching their pending decision, all three commissioners, as well as staff from the county planning office, drove Monday to Prosser to visit a retail marijuana dispensary called Altitude and speak with the owner.

"I thought it was a very worthwhile field trip," Commissioner Merle Jackson said Tuesday. "It gave us another perspective on the whole situation in which to make an informed decision. I didn't know what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised at the professionalism displayed at this particular business. I don't know whether the owner goes above and beyond what is required, but certainly it was a very well-run business."

All three commissioners expressed surprise at how clean, upscale, controlled and professional the operation appeared.

"It was a lot different than I think we were expecting," Commissioner Dwight Robanske said Monday night. "When you first come in the doorway, you enter a hall and you can't go any further until you show your driver's license, which is scanned to ensure it's valid. If not, they don't let you walk through the next door. I thought that was pretty cool."

After you enter the second door, you are in the showroom where merchandise is on display. Paraphernalia is located on one side; on another side was a counter, with a female employee in attendance, where very small samples of marijuana were kept behind a locked glass counter.

"Then if you wanted to purchase something, you had to go through yet another doorway. Product is kept locked in a cabinet. And there were a couple of ATMs in the room because sales are cash only," Robanske said.

Retail recreational marijuana stores, which have only been allowed in the state since July of last year, have found that banks – which are federally regulated – do not allow money (cash, credit or checks) from marijuana shops to be deposited into their vaults. Although Washington voters legalized marijuana in 2012, the drug continues to be federally banned.

"It's kind of a hardship on them," Robanske said. But Altitude, Yakima Valley's first marijuana shop, seems to be flourishing. They have 12 full-time employees. "And a pretty good supply of product," Robanske said. They have cameras taking pictures of every inch of the store, he said. And after hours, an employee stays all night to provide security. "There's somebody there all the time," Robanske said.

Commissioner Mike Talbott agreed with the impressions expressed by both Robanske and Jackson. "I Thought it was an interesting trip," he said Tuesday morning. "It gave us a great idea of what this kind of business could be like with the right regulations in place. I'm not sure I'm ready to accept it yet, but it looks good. There were no red flags or anything that we saw. It was quite a business. And the woman we spoke with said they were doing quite well financially."

The city of Dayton voted to ban marijuana businesses at the end of last year. The cities of Walla Walla and Waitsburg have both passed ordinances addressing licensing and locating of marijuana businesses within their boundaries.

According to nonprofit Municipal Research and Services Center (mrsc.org), both Garfield and Franklin counties have placed moratoriums on marijuana businesses; Walla Walla County has banned them while other nearby counties such as Whitman, Adams and Franklin counties have ruled that marijuana businesses are allowed under existing zoning.