Wednesday, August 20, 2014

WEED WEDNESDAY: New stores and a pot/pizza/comedy empire

Posted By on Wed, Aug 20, 2014 at 4:34 PM

Welcome back to Weed Wednesday, your weekly dose of pot news. Wondering what this is about? Click. Looking for our previous marijuana coverage? Click. Got a question or tip? Email me at [email protected].

The rundown: The state has now approved 46 total recreational marijuana stores, with four licensed in Spokane. Spokane Green Leaf is keeping regular hours (check their Facebook) and says prices range from $18-27 a gram, though they've avoided answering specific price questions on their Facebook page. Satori is now open Sunday through Thursday 11-7 and Friday and Saturdays 11-9 and is charging $25 a gram. They're currently out of pre-rolled joints, but will be restocking soon. The owner of Green Star Cannabis (1403 N. Division) says he had a quiet soft opening earlier this month and will have a grand opening Saturday. Then, regular hours there will be 9 am-9 pm Monday through Saturday and 10-6 on Sunday. He wouldn't disclose prices, but says he'll be "competitive." A representative from Green Depot, the latest licensee, says that store is still looking for product and is unsure when it will be open. Sativa Sisters on East Trent is advertising an Aug. 29 opening, though they have yet to be licensed.

Over the weekend in Spokane, a man attempted to steal "several branches of cannabis plants" from Herb Nerds, a medical collective in the Valley, according to the Spokane County Sheriff's Office. An officer patrolling nearby had seen the man acting suspiciously, watched him enter the building through a partially open roll-up door and arrested him as he attempted to flee. The suspect's mother, who'd given him a ride there and was waiting for him, was also arrested and deputies found meth in her car. The two were booked into jail.

Seattle now has its second recreational store. Also in Seattle, the officer who wrote 80 percent of the year's pot tickets and referred to I-502 as "silly" is back to work, the Seattle Times reports.

Tacoma also got its second recreational store and had a pot business expo last weekend (featuring just about everything except cannabis). We've heard from a local organizer who's planning a similar event in November at the Spokane County Fair and Expo Center, but some details are still being worked out. I'll update you as I hear more. There's a similar conference aimed at cannabis entrepreneurs in Portland September 13-14.

Washington state's attorney general has submitted a memo outlining his arguments in a case involving the city of Fife's ban on marijuana businesses. While Attorney General Bob Ferguson has said he doesn't believe the state's pot law stops cities from banning marijuana businesses, he and the ACLU of Washington have stepped into this case to argue that the state's law is not preempted by federal law. This is a big deal because if a court ruled in favor of federal preemption, the state's entire pot system could be at stake.

In Colorado, arguments continue over whether people were sickened by pot edibles allegedly offered at the Denver County Fair while edibles makers struggle to keep up with demand for their products, according to Westword and The Cannabist.

Elsewhere, the NFL is trying to figure out how to handle cannabis, New Hampshire's governor declared a state of emergency after 41 people experienced "serious medical reactions" to synthetic pot, medical marijuana is on its way to Nevada and maybe Oklahoma, and the Coast Guard seized 900 pounds of pot off the coast of Florida.

Also, much is being made of the fact that Michael Brown, the unarmed teenager shot by police in Ferguson, Missouri, had marijuana in his system, but remember that doesn't mean he was high and it doesn't mean he was violent.

In Canada, doctors are refusing to join an anti-marijuana campaign, CBC reports.

Finally: Weed. Pizza. Comedy. Meet the guy behind the empire that combines your three favorite things in this Denver Post profile.


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Heidi Groover

Heidi Groover was a staff writer at the Inlander from 2012-2014.