The first retail licenses for the state’s recreational marijuana market will be issued “no later than the first week of July,” the Washington Liquor Control Board said today. That’s the first deadline we’ve seen that can give some indication of when stores selling I-502 weed will be open for for the general, of-age public.

Previously we have all been guessing that June or July would be when stores opened based on growing and curing time for the legal pot plants. Now we know the licenses will go out about the time we thought the stores could open based on product. Thus, no recreational weed until mid-July at the earliest (based on guessing of when a store could get a license, stock its shelves and flip on the “open” sign … has to be at least a couple weeks before the most ambitious and organized could open.).

So far the state has issued eight licenses to growers:

Cannaman Farms in Vancouver

Downtown Cannabis Company in Pacific

Highwater Farms in Shelton

Nine Point Growth Industries in Bremerton

O2 Sun in Benton City

Sea of Green Farms in Seattle

Farmer J’s in Spokane Valley

Kouchlock Productions in Spokane

First on the retail side, however, will come the lottery. Looks like roughly half of applicants have been kicked out of the lottery for document failures.

“… roughly 25 percent did not return the required documents at all. Of the returned packets, anywhere between 20-50 percent are incomplete, thus disqualifying them from the retail lottery,” the board said in its release.

So, figure somewhere in the neighborhood of half of the 2,181 applicants are gone from the competition to open one of 334 stores the board will license.

One of the more contentious issues in the retail side of the new market has been what level of commitment to a piece of property would qualify an applicant for the lottery. Some have already put money down on leases to fully commit to a location and some have only submitted addresses they hope to be in. The board today clarified who will be in the lottery, based on property:

“A letter of intent to lease was acceptable to be eligible for the lottery.”

So, you don’t have to have an active, paid-for lease, just a letter from the property owner saying they will rent to you. However, there are very few locations in the state that will qualify because of the board rules for where a store can be (such as no closer than 1,000 feet to a school, measured from the nearest property edge to the school or playground) and city/county zoning rules. Consequently, those with tied-up leases should still have some advantage … if they get selected in the lottery.

Once selected … you enter another pool where the best applicants will then be licensed … based on where they landed in the lottery. News release:

The agency contracted with the Social and Economic Sciences Research Center of Washington State University and the accounting firm for Washington’s Lottery, Kraght-Snell of Seattle, to independently produce rank-ordered lists of applicants in each jurisdiction where a lottery is necessary. Being identified as the apparent successful applicant is not a guarantee that the selected applicant will receive a license.

Complicated stuff …

Here’s the board’s full news release:

The Washington State Liquor Control Board (WSLCB) today approved staff’s recommendation for a lottery that will select the apparent successful applicants for marijuana retail licenses. The independent, double-blind process will take place April 21-25, 2014, and will produce an ordered list of applicants that the agency will use to continue its retail licensing process. The agency expects to begin issuing retail licenses no later than the first week of July. Initiative 502 directed the WSLCB to limit the number of marijuana retail stores by county. In its rules, the WSLCB limited the number of stores statewide to 334. The most populated cities within each county are allotted a maximum number of stores with the remainder at large within the county. The rules further state that if the WSLCB receives more applications for a jurisdiction than there are stores allocated the state would use a lottery process for producing a ranked order of applicants. The allocated list of stores and locations are available on the I-502 implementation section of the WSLCB website. The agency contracted with the Social and Economic Sciences Research Center of Washington State University and the accounting firm for Washington’s Lottery, Kraght-Snell of Seattle, to independently produce rank-ordered lists of applicants in each jurisdiction where a lottery is necessary. Being identified as the apparent successful applicant is not a guarantee that the selected applicant will receive a license. There are multiple requirements for licensure such as the applicant must pass a criminal history and financial investigation as well as have a location that is not within 1,000 feet of a school, park or other area specified by Initiative 502 as places where children congregate The WSLCB began pre-qualifying applicants for the lottery the weekend of Feb. 21-23, 2014. Applicants had 30 days to return the basic documents necessary to be eligible for the lottery including verification of: their personal criminal history, their age being 21 or older, that they are Washington State residents, that their business was formed in Washington State, and that they have a location address with a right to real property. A letter of intent to lease was acceptable to be eligible for the lottery. WSLCB licensing staff is currently reviewing pre-qualifying packets. Initial estimates of returned packets show that despite repeated notices and reminders to applicants, roughly 25 percent did not return the required documents at all. Of the returned packets, anywhere between 20-50 percent are incomplete, thus disqualifying them from the retail lottery. The WSLCB is expected to post the ordered list of applicants for each jurisdiction in the public records section of the agency website on May 2, 2014.

Jake Ellison can be reached at 206-448-8334 or jakeellison@seattlepi.com. Follow Jake on Twitter at twitter.com/Jake_News. Also, swing by and *LIKE* his page on Facebook.

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