The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

DAYTON – Columbia County Commissioners met on Monday with the Washington State Liquor Control Board and two dozen citizens to discuss the issue of allowing recreational marijuana businesses in the county.

After many hours of discussion, the three county leaders voted unanimously to extend the moratorium for another six months.

“The easy thing would be to ban it,” Commissioner Mike Talbott stated before the vote on Monday. “But I’m not sure I’m ready to say ‘ban it,’ because I think the people [who spoke in favor of marijuana businesses] have a very valid point. I mean, it’s just not going to go away if we say, ‘ban it.’ It’s just not. It’s here and it’s available. How can we control it? How can we make it better for the kids? Which is the best way?”

Talbott reminded everyone present that 54 percent of Columbia County’s citizens opposed the passing of Initiative 502 in November 2012, which legalized recreational marijuana. He is worried that allowing businesses in the county would be tantamount to endorsing the industry. But now that it’s here, he said, wouldn’t it be better to have a controlled, professional, regulated and safer way for adults to buy what they are already getting somewhere else?

All three commissioners agreed that both sides of the issue argued intelligently on Monday, and all three county leaders are still on the fence over the issue.

Monday’s public hearing took place just days before the current moratorium, which was established in September 2013, was set to expire. Commissioners were faced with banning marijuana sales in the county, allowing it, or postponing a decision by extending the moratorium.

The state frowns upon moratoriums that last longer than 18 months, but according to Columbia County Planning Director Kim Lyonnais, the county should be okay to continue the moratorium with proper justification. Waiting to see what happens in the legislature with the 30 or so proposed bills dealing with marijuana would be a defensible justification, Lyonnais said.

Most of the bills in the House and Senate at this time deal with medical marijuana, but any changes to zoning (distance required from schools, daycares, etc.) developed as part of the plan in regulating medical marijuana, which is currently not regulated at all, is likely to impact the regulation of recreational marijuana sales as well, according to the state liquor board.

“Myself, I would like to read those bills and see what’s in them before I make any decision,” Commissioner Dwight Robanke said at the close of the public hearing Monday. He and his colleagues on the board were aware of several proposed marijuana bills but were shocked to learn that there are many others they hadn’t yet read.

Karen McCall, senior policy/rules coordinator with the state liquor control board, met with the commissioners in open session Monday morning to answer questions. Eight citizens also attended that morning meeting.

In the morning session, many of the attendees expressed concern with allowing marijuana businesses into this family-oriented community. “If we put out the welcome sign, are we attracting the wrong sort of people?” asked long-time Dayton resident John Johnston.

Currently only three places in the county are zoned for retail sales and could be sites for the one marijuana business allowed: Blue Mountain Station, the former location of Mom’s Café on Highway 261 near Starbuck, and the city of Starbuck itself, which is governed by county ordinances. The city of Dayton has already banned recreational marijuana businesses.

Betty Longen lives across the street from Blue Mountain Station and expressed her worries about the increased traffic and potential for a rise in crime in her neighborhood, since it’s one of the only places in the county where a retail pot store could potentially open.

Not all the public input was negative, however. A number of citizens in the afternoon hearing hoped the commissioners would lift the moratorium and allow the controlled sales of marijuana in Columbia County.

For Dayton resident and Waitsburg nurse practitioner Dawn Meicher, it’s about safety. “If they get it off the black market now, there’s no safety, there’s no looking for molds, mildews and other contaminates,” she told commissioners. “Addiction is a problem in our society. Banning it has not made that go away. We know that, so let’s treat it as it’s an adult choice.”

The hope is that money from taxation will allow states to give more funding to educating children to stay away from things like alcohol and marijuana until they are grown, and more funding for mental health, which is the root of addiction anyway, Meicher said.

“Plus this is a whole new industry, and it’s going to happen. How often do you get your county to start on a brand new industry? I think if a distiller wanted to come into our county and build a gin distillery, that would be okay. And we know all the bad things that go along with alcohol. So I’m for it. I think that if we get legal, we get taxation, and you guys have seen that it can be done in a classy, upscale way.”

And many were in favor of continuing the moratorium, at least until more questions were answered or a clearer path was in view. Longtime Dayton resident, property and business owner Kay McFarland was one of these. “Well I came today thinking that I was against it, but now after listening to everything today I don’t know,” she said. “I think we should continue the moratorium.”