Mayor to Introduce Medical Marijuana Enforcement Plan That's Likely to Shut Down at Least 50 Dispensaries

Ahead of new state rules for medical marijuana, the city plans to shut down dispensaries that didn't have a business license before January 2013 or sell to kids and people without doctor's recommendations. The Stranger

At a press conference this afternoon, Mayor Ed Murray will announce his plan to shut down misbehaving medical marijuana dispensaries and allow others to operate until next summer, when a new state law effectively kills Washington's separate medical marijuana market.

The broader context of the mayor's move: this year, the state legislature approved massive reforms to Washington's medical marijuana market. Those reforms will fold medical dispensaries into the newly created recreational system beginning next summer.

Between now and then, the city will seek to shut down certain medical dispensaries using enforcement priorities laid out in the mayor's plan. Among those priorities is an intention to target dispensaries didn't have city business licenses by January 1, 2013. That describes 54 dispensaries in the city, according to the mayor's office, meaning those are likely to get shut down soon.

Here's how the Murray administration lays out the current market. (The city has previously said there are about 300 total marijuana businesses within Seattle. Here, we can see 217 total businesses, not including medical growers, processors, and delivery services without business licenses.)

In pursuing its shut-down strategy, the city will first go after medical marijuana stores that sell to people younger than 21 or people who aren't qualifying medical patients, processors that make edibles that "mimic trademark protected products" or appeal to kids, businesses that are being investigated by law enforcement, and businesses that didn't have a standard city business license by January 1, 2013.

Then, in second and third tiers of enforcement priorities, they'll target those businesses that deliver, are violating fire and building codes, allow marijuana consumption on site, aren't testing their products, or are within 1,000 feet of schools and playgrounds or 500 feet of another dispensary.

Dispensaries that had their city business license before January 2013 and aren't violating one of those other priorities will be allowed to continue operating until the new state law takes effect next summer.

The city's Finance and Administrative Services department has been building cases against misbehaving businesses by cataloguing their code violations and conducting stings, according to the Seattle Times, which first reported on the mayor's plan this afternoon.

For all recreational growers, processors, and sellers in Seattle, the city will also require new marijuana-specific licenses—effective once the city council passes an ordinance creating those new licenses, likely this summer. When medical businesses are folded into the recreational system next year, they'll have to get those licenses too. The licenses will cost $1,000 for any grower, processor, or retail store located in the city and $500 for growers or processors outside of Seattle that sell to stores inside the city.

The mayor's marijuana policy adviser, David Mendoza, told the Times the city is still "finding" the $800,000 needed to fund the enforcement and licensing plan.