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Buyer Tyler Wellner of Yakima leans in for a whiff of marijuana at the state's first-ever legal pot auction at Fireweed Farms north of Prosser last month. A total of 44 licensed retailers, producers and processors attended the event. "Who would have thought this would ever happen?" said Wellner of Orgrow, a licensed producer-processor in Moxee. This week, Fireweed Farms' owner, Randy Williams, tried to donate a portion of the proceeds from the sale of his crop to a local school district but was rejected.

(Ross Courtney/Yakima Herald-Republic)

Randy Williams, a Prosser, Wash., marijuana farmer who auctioned off his crop last month, pledged to donate some of the proceeds to the local school district. On Monday, he tried to make good on his promise but was turned away by the superintendent.

The Yakima Herald-Republic reports on Williams' effort to give away some of his profits. Williams held Washington's first-ever marijuana auction. He told The Oregonian that he opted for an auction because he wasn't sure how to set prices and he didn't want to deal with packaging marijuana for sale.

Ross Courtney, a staff writer at the Herald-Republic, reports that Williams, a Yakima Valley grower who owns Fireweed Farms, promised to give away proceeds from the sale of one low-grade lot to local schools. But Prosser Superintendent Ray Tolchacher rejected it, saying he was making a stand against marijuana use among youth.

“We’re not taking it; end of story,” Tolchacher told the Herald-Republic.

Williams, in response, said, “I never thought it’d be a problem to give money away.”

Reports Courtney:

Williams' next choice is the Prosser branch of the Boys & Girls Club. The youth nonprofit will "evaluate internally," said Brian Ace, executive director of Boys & Girls Clubs of Benton and Franklin Counties. Next in line would be the VFW, Williams said.

-- Noelle Crombie