The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

DAYTON – The Columbia County Commissioners held a workshop Monday to consider regulations on the growing, processing, and sale of marijuana in the county. The session was set up last week after the board voted down a motion to ban pot businesses in the county.

The commissioners met with County Planning Director Kim Lyonnais and Prosecutor Rea Culwell to discuss changes to county ordinances that will address regulation of recreational marijuana businesses, along with medical marijuana in general.

The group began by discussing growing of marijuana for medical use. The state does not allow unlicensed individuals to grow marijuana under its new recreational law. However, under the medical marijuana law that was passed in 1999, patients with medical marijuana cards can grow their own marijuana plants, either individually, or in limited co-ops.

The state also now allows counties to require medical marijuana growers to register with the county and to allow inspections.

All three commissioners – Dwight Robanske, Mike Talbott and Merle Jackson – said they preferred that the county have strong oversight of medical marijuana grows.

“We want to be able to inspect all medical marijuana,” said Robanske, referring to both individual grows and co-ops.

Culwell cautioned that, for individuals growing plants in their homes for their own use, there may be an issue of privacy.

“You might get a challenge to wanting to inspect an individual grow,” she said. “Your own home is a private place, and normally you would need a warrant to go into a home.”

She added that a co-op grower providing pot for other patients would not have the same expectation of privacy. “I think we have much stronger grounds (for inspection without a warrant) if it’s a co-op.”

The commissioners agreed that the law should be written so that, while the county had the right to inspect medical marijuana grows, inspection of individual grows in private homes would require a warrant.

The commissioners also agreed that inspection of medical marijuana grows would be led by law enforcement officers, rather than planning personnel.

The group then discussed whether all medical marijuana patients should be required to register with the county. Culwell again cautioned that there would be concerns about privacy.

State law allows the state to keep medical marijuana patients’ identities private, she said, but counties are subject to open records laws. While the county has the right to require medical marijuana patients to register, it couldn’t guarantee the information wouldn’t be made public. Culwell said she would research the issue further and report back.

The discussion then turned to recreational marijuana businesses and the zones in which they would be allowed.

In discussing zones in which the county would allow marijuana grows, the consensus was that grows should be restricted to indoor facilities and be allowed only in heavy industrial zones.

“It seems to me that you have an argument that you could just permit the growing of the crop in industrial” Culwell said, because of the need for a secure enclosure. “It is a different animal than a regular crop,” she added.

Marijuana retail stores would be allowed only in commercial zones. It was pointed out that the state has only allocated one retail license to Columbia County, including Dayton. The city of Dayton has banned marijuana businesses.

The commissioners agreed that establishment of any marijuana business in the county would be subject to a conditional use permit. Lyonnais said he would draw up a list of basic conditions that would likely be imposed

Regarding enforcement of rules for marijuana businesses, the county is preparing to adopt new code enforcement regulations, and Lyonnais said that code violations by marijuana businesses would be covered by that new ordinance.

All of the proposals discussed during the workshop are still subject to final approval by the board of commissioners. Lyonnais and Culwell agreed to present final language to the board so that they could likely act on it at their next regular meeting on Oct. 7.