Seattle marijuana

Everything cannabis, pot, or weed in Seattle.

Marijuana Bars and Reconstructed Retail Taxes ASAP

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We’ve come a long way…

Not so much.

December 9, 2013. I-502 anniversary celebration under the Space Needle. Not only was there a celebration to celebrate the legalization of marijuana in our state, but there was a special permit handed out to allow adults over the age of 21 to smoke cannabis in a designated area, despite this being an event opened to the public. I’m sure that many people were looking up ‘All you Need to Know About Bongs‘ after this announcement in preparation for the day, so they could join in and celebrate! There are so many ways to use cannabis of course. It’s a trend now, after its heroic purposes used in healthcare, it’s shone a pretty positive light on the substance! But anyway, this is a breakthrough, yes, but it’s just the beginning, right? We live in such a great and progressive state, it’s just a matter of time that Washington allows for marijuana use lounges and bars.

Pete Holmes marijuana memorandum

It’s been almost a year and a half since that anniversary celebration and progress has been minimal at best. Sure, Pete Holmes detailed in a memorandum at the beginning of the year that we should have a place for people to consume marijuana publicly or ‘marijuana use lounges.’ Because of the clean air act, customers will only be able to eat edibles or vaporize cannabis.

If you are going to designate a place to consume marijuana, then let the public consume the herb in any way they choose, be that smoking something like this cake crasher strain or taking edibles, vaping etc. The clean air act was created because of tobacco smoke, not marijuana smoke. There is a huge difference.

Also, the majority of customers are not going to care about being in an environment filled with cannabis smoke. Do people go to a hookah lounge and complain about smoke from hookahs. No, they expect it. If people don’t want to be around marijuana smoke, guess what? They don’t have to go to a marijuana use lounge.

It’s been almost a year and a half since that anniversary celebration and one of the biggest names in marijuana, and its’ annual Cannabis Cup, is moving out of our state because they can’t get a special permit for anything – not even a liquor license.

You would think the state would allow for at least a liquor license, a special permit to smoke cannabis, or just turn a blind eye. After all, they continue to turn a blind eye to the marijuana delivery services who are still operating and advertising freely, without licenses or jurisdiction. So, why not turn a blind eye and allow High Times to conduct their annual event?

In some ways, legalization has made us soft. We made a huge statement in 2012 when we became the first state in the nation to legalize marijuana. We were a pioneer in every essence of the word.

Now, years later, we have the newly legalized state of Oregon watching our every move and mistakes, and doing things differently and how they should be. For example, allowing residents to grow their own recreational marijuana.

There are two things that need to happen by years end:

One, we need to get the recreational marijuana retail tax issue sorted out so the retail marijuana stores can survive and thrive. This is issue number one. Quit gouging the lifeblood of our industry. In fact, why not an emergency session to get this fixed?

Jim Lathrop, owner, Cannabis City Seattle, High Five Interview

James Lathrop, owner of Cannabis City, has been very vocal about this. Let’s follow his lead and get this sorted out.

Secondly, allow for marijuana use lounges. Real marijuana use lounges where we can light up a joint if we choose. The clean air act was created for tobacco. If it was created for any type of pollutant, then you got a problem. Try walking along along the road on Capitol Hill and get a good whiff of a city bus as it passes by. This violates everything about clean air.

Also, if legislation passes a better recreational marijuana retail tax and marijuana use lounges, have a plan to implement these things right away. We have already waited two and a half years since we became the first state to legalize marijuana and we still are trying to get our industry up and running. Don’t make us wait any longer.

The Elephant in the Room? Nah, The Elephant in the Industry…

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We interviewed James Lathrop, owner of Cannabis City, a few weeks back and he brought up the heavy taxation issue of not just recreational marijuana stores, but all recreational marijuana businesses. We highlighted this last week only to have the first Seattle cannabis store owner contact us with an even more detailed version of the issue. It’s important, so please take the time to read:

In Washington marijuana products are taxed at a multiple compound rate: That is 25% from the grower to processor, plus 25% from the processor to the retailer, plus 25% from the retailer to the customer [each of these levels of tax pay tax on the previous tax], plus another 10% of regular sales tax, city tax, and B&O [which includes taxation of the excise tax itself]; then there is an additional Federal tax of another 25% [that is a fed 35% tax on the ~70% gross profit [gross after cost of goods] falling out at about 25% of gross – including Federal taxation on the State excise tax itself.).

So on the retailer side alone that is ~60% of the product in pure tax, with ~30% going to to cost of goods and ~1-5% left to actually run the business; the growers and processors are in a similar situation.

All cannabis businesses in Washington are set to fail under this unreasonable and compound tax structure; many will fail, some will survive; but none can exist under this tax structure for very long. 

WOW. This issue that James Lathrop brings up is no laughing matter. This is a major issue that could literally make or break an industry, and needs to be dealt with sooner or later. If not, it could have negative consequences – not just for our local industry – but for national legalization as well. High Above Seattle will continue to increase awareness of this issue into next year.
What are your thoughts about this issue? Is this an issue that  is directly affecting you and your business? What are your ideas or solutions? 

High Five Interview: James Lathrop, Owner of First Seattle Recreational Marijuana Store: Cannabis City

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‘High Five’ is an interview where we choose someone from the local marijuana industry who is deserving of appreciation.

Jim Lathrop, owner, Cannabis City Seattle, High Five Interview

It has been quite the year for James Lathrop, the owner of Cannabis City. He survived the media blitz in the heat of July when his recreational marijuana store became the first one to open in Seattle; managed to fight through early pot shortages due to an industry in its’ infant years, and is looked at and admired as a spokesperson for a segment of an industry still finding its way.

We would like to thank this recreational marijuana store owner for taking the time out of his busy schedule to answer the following questions. For opening the very first legal weed store in Seattle, we give James Lathrop a ‘High Five.’

1) Predict the Future. Three years from now what does the local Seattle recreational marijuana industry look like and where are we nationally?

NORMAL. Seriously. Selling, buying, smoking weed will be a normal experience for mainstream society (except for certain repressed areas of the US midwest). Prior to Google, I would have said this would be a 10-30 year trajectory, but with the internet (the “power of the [digital] pen” combined with the “unseen hand of economics”), we will see will 20 years condensed into three, starting…right…now. I am also really excited about what the future holds for cannabusinesses all over the world. For example, some friends of mine that live in Australia told me that they recently discovered an online cannabis seed store called https://marijuanaseedsaussie.com/. Ultimately, I suppose what I am trying to say is that I think we are going to see a huge shift towards cannabis being legalized in more areas than ever before.

2) Go back to the age of 21. Someone tells you that you would open a marijuana shop in Seattle in 2014. How do you react and what do you say?

Whaa? Well, OK, sure …

3) What is your favorite part about running Cannabis City? What is the most challenging?

Favorite part: talking to people who are buying legal weed for the first time in their life from all over the city, the state, the country, and the world.
Most challenging part: paying the HEAVY taxes imposed by I-502 and Federal Code 280e. These two laws put the taxation of the product at a compound rate of 85% (25% + 25% + 25% + 10%) at the state level, PLUS an additional 35% at the Federal level.
In Washington it is impossible to make a profit selling legal weed: everything is going to taxes. Year 2014 is “Stay Alive Year” for growers, manufacturers, and retailers. Someday in the future we will make a profit, but for now the State and the Feds are taking everything just like they always have when it comes to weed: remember property forfeiture for growing a plant, a weed? Ha! That was child’s play! Now instead of a one time property forfeiture they are simply taking their forfeiture payments monthly in the guise of “excise taxes” — so really, has anything actually changed? … Fuck man, Dave’s still not here.

4) Who is your role model and why?

I’m going to name one dead and one alive: dead – Carl Sagan, alive – Mark Emery.

I never met Carl Sagan, but like most I loved his COSMOS series as a child, and after opening Cannabis City, I also learned that he was a strong cannabis advocate. He consistently called for an honest, public, intellectual debate over “marijuana” – and he left us before seeing the days of legal weed but I think he would have been proud.

Conversely, I have met Mark Emery, but it has been a while … of course he has been in a US Federal prison in Mississippi for the last 4 years (with a 235 day early release for “good behavior”) — and his story gives me an absolute disgust for the politics of government.

Mark is one of the kindest intellectual souls of our generation and has been persecuted by the US FBI and the Federal Government since the 1990’s. When I met him at a libertarian conference in France in 1999 he had never been to the US. Way back then he told me he was on the FBI’s “Top 10 Most Wanted List” for selling marijuana seeds across the Canadian border into the US. Eleven years later he was extradited out of Canada and charged in a US Federal court in Seattle (Hempfest 2010 – during) and I ponder if the US Feds had not been so obsessed with chasing marijuana seeds in the 1990s, maybe Osama Bin Laden would have been on the 10 ten most wanted list instead of someone like Mark Emery of a Vancouver BC Cannabis Club.

Mark has been to the US once, and only once. For how long is the US going to feel it is OK to yank citizens out of another country for committing a misdemeanor in their own country, and put them in a Mississippi federal prison? I do hope this drug war will truly end – the American political system is obsessed and in love with war — internationally and at home. But Mark is not a casualty — he is a trooper, a soldier, and a beacon of light and positivity

5) Martian Mean Green, Schnazzleberry, and Trainwreck, are some of our favorite names for strains of cannabis. Here’s your chance! If you could name a strain of cannabis, what would you name it?

Iris — Smoke this and see the world for what it is.

Look What We Have Here: Cannabis City Gets Shipment From Gecko Growers

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UPDATE: Check out these Seattle marijuana stores for more options when buying recreational weed.

Is this a sign of an industry coming into fruition?

Just last month we paid a visit to Cannabis City to check out what they had to offer. Turns out it wasn’t much, and the quality of weed left much to be desired according to our marijuana review. In defense of Cannabis City, they have been very professional in addressing this issue and are doing the best they can with what they have to work with. After all, the Seattle recreational marijuana industry is still in its’ earliest stages.

But patience pays off, and so does trusting that James Lathrop -owner of Cannabis City – really does want what’s best for the industry. Cannabis City just received a shipment of weed today from Gecko Growers, a producer/processor located in East Wenatchee. The shipment included 2 strains of cannabis: Purple Girls Scout Cookies and Dirty Girls. We have not tried either strain by Gecko Growers but judging by the photo, these buds look like the real deal!

Cannabis City SODO New Strains of Weed

Also, judging by recent lines, even in the rain, I can’t imagine this new stock of cannabis to last long:

So what are you waiting for? Car, bus, light rail, walk, jog, or teleport your way over to Cannabis City now!