The Vancouver City Council is leaning toward increasing the number of recreational marijuana stores from six to nine — but that’s still three pot shops shy of the 12 licenses the state Liquor and Cannabis Board made available in the city last week.
The city council will hold a public hearing Feb. 1 to consider changing city code to allow nine pot shops, which is in keeping with the city Planning Commission’s recommendation. The state had set the limit of six stores in 2013.
Two potential stores are waiting for the city to raise its cap so they can open their doors. Meanwhile, some owners of existing pot shops in Vancouver have urged the council to keep the limit to six stores because their sales have dropped since Oregon legalized recreational pot Oct. 1, and they believe more stores would spread all pot retailers too thin.
Councilor Ty Stober, who was sworn into his council seat Jan. 4, said at Monday’s council workshop that he supported raising the limit to nine.
“It’s not our business to determine who wins and who loses in this marketplace,” he said, echoing a sentiment held by other councilors.
He and Councilor Anne McEnerny-Ogle asked about requiring any additional pot shops to have a medical endorsement to sell medical marijuana. McEnerny-Ogle said she wanted to get the medical pot off the black market so patients could be assured of quality products and the state and city could collect taxes.
Councilor Bill Turlay said he didn’t want more pot shops in Vancouver. He said that people who want to open more stores should talk to jurisdictions that ban retail marijuana and convince them to allow pot sales. If circumstances warranted a change, the council could look at the issue again, he said.
“I know why the pressure is on us to increase,” Turlay said, “is the fact that those other entities aren’t opening their areas for shops.”
On Dec. 16, the state liquor board’s staff recommended boosting the number of retail pot shops statewide from 334 stores to 556 stores, based on an analysis of the marijuana marketplace by research consultant BOTEC Analysis Corp. The move is meant to accommodate the state’s alignment of the medical marijuana market with the existing recreational market, with the expectation that medical pot users will be turning to retail pot shops for their marijuana supply.
On Wednesday, the state board issued the new caps on the number of stores each jurisdiction will be allowed. Cities and counties that ban the sale of retail marijuana were not included.
The board doubled the number of available licenses in the 10 counties with the highest medical sales (Cowlitz County is included on the list). Other areas received a 75 percent increase in their number of licenses.
In its Dec. 15 report, “Estimating the Size of the Medical Cannabis Market in Washington State,” BOTEC estimated the overall marijuana market value is $1.3 billion. Estimated at $480 million, medical marijuana has 37 percent of the market, state-licensed recreational stores, valued at $460 million, have 35 percent of the market, and the black market, valued at $390 million, has 28 percent of the market, according to a Liquor and Cannabis Board press release.
