I want to thank Kent Mayor Suzette Cooke, for considering a veto on a measure passed by the City Council to ban medical marijuana cooperatives.
Thank you also to Tina Budell, Brenda Fincher and Dennis Higgins, the forward-thinking members of our City Council. If Mayor Cooke vetoes this measure, the council must hold a public hearing about the matter. The measure would then require a super-majority (5 out of 7), to overturn it.
Even if marijuana patient cooperatives are approved, that will only allow groups of up to four people to grow marijuana for their own medical use. The plants would then need to be processed. That just isn’t going to happen for people who are very ill, or in pain, even if they obtain help. Not every person has a green thumb. Many people who need medical marijuana prefer or need to buy food items made from marijuana, or tinctures they can add to coffee. Those require a huge amount of time and energy, not to mention knowledge.
As of July 1, 2016, Washington state incorporated the production and marketing of medical marijuana into the same regulatory framework as recreational marijuana. That has made it necessary for cities to approve the sale of recreational marijuana, because medical marijuana needs to be sold through a state-licensed retailer. Individuals who need these things in Kent must drive almost a half-hour to get to a city that allows marijuana.
Kent’s own volunteer Financial Sustainability Task Force, after a year’s work, recently recommended that the city should consider removing a ban against the sale and production of recreational and medical marijuana. Three stores in Kent would bring in approximately $350,000 per year in sales tax revenue. I will sure be thinking of this the next time city of Kent officials raise our taxes, or costs us money because of their oversights.
Even in this lazy, hazy time of year, we need to think about the future. I don’t know who will be running for the council or the mayor, but I will pay close attention.
We need our council and mayor to reflect the people they represent. In many ways the council seems to be stuck in neutral regarding the future of our city. I say it’s time to shift into drive.
– Carrie Stark
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