OLYMPIA — Washington state issued its first legal-marijuana business license Wednesday, launching a new phase in the state’s ambitious effort to regulate a market that has been illegal for more than 75 years.
Sean Green, who has operated medical marijuana dispensaries in Spokane and the Seattle suburb of Shoreline, proclaimed the document “beautiful” as it was handed to him at a state Liquor Control Board meeting in Olympia.
In Clark County, Vancouver is the only city that has established a process for applying for marijuana licenses.
The license will allow Green to grow 21,000 square feet of cannabis at his Spokane facility — the first pot that will be grown for sale under the highly taxed system approved by voters in 2012. The possession of marijuana became legal for adults older than 21 soon after the vote, but it’s still illegal to grow or sell it for recreational use until pot shops open in the state later this year.
Green plans to begin by raising marijuana starter plants to sell to other growers, and later expand to growing buds for retail pot shops.
“Cannabis prohibition is over,” Green declared to applause from a room packed with his supporters. “I’m coming home with jobs, Spokane.”
But even the issuance of the first license underscored the hurdles the industry continues to face. Pot remains illegal under federal law, and despite recent guidance from the U.S. Treasury and Justice departments, banks continue to be wary of working with marijuana businesses.
Green said he has lost bank accounts six times because of his connection to the pot industry, most recently last week. He already found another one but isn’t sure how long he’ll be able to keep it.
Green said he got involved in the industry after his decade-long career as an independent real-estate appraiser dried up. He took $10,000 and started Pacific Northwest Medical in Shoreline in 2011, later expanding to Spokane.
He plans to begin by growing 1,200 square feet of starter plants to provide to other growers as they become licensed. He said he hopes to expand to growing marijuana buds for retail, with 30 to 50 employees. For now, he plans to also continue running his medical operations, though the Legislature is considering whether to bring medical marijuana into the same system as recreational pot.
Green also said he plans to make cannabis-infused candies, as well as what he described as a “super joint,” an ultra-strong marijuana cigarette made with cannabis oil and flowers.
