Adam Lind, a longtime front-end retail manager at a well-known Whidbey pharmacy, may be entering the medical marijuana business.
Lind confirmed this week that he hopes to open a medicinal dispensary, or access point, on Scott Street in Freeland. While the details are still being hammered out, Lind said he and an unnamed business partner are extremely close to a deal and could open a store in as soon as two weeks.
“We’re looking at a Dec. 15 opening,” Lind said.
“I’m 99 percent there,” he added.
Lind declined to delve into specifics, saying he wanted to wait until the new store is a certainty.
If the store becomes a reality, he said, it won’t be related to the family business.
Lind’s father is Ron Lind, owner of Linds Jewelry and Linds Pharmacy, which has stores in Freeland and Coupeville.
Adam Lind has managed the Central Whidbey branch for years.
“There’s zero relationship with Linds Pharmacy,” Adam Lind said.
Meanwhile, the Linds are in the process of brokering a deal to sell the pharmacy side of the business to a national chain.
Ron Lind could not be reached for comment by press time concerning the status of the deal.
Adam Lind’s new access point would be Freeland’s second dispensary. Island Alternative Medicine on Vanbarr Place has been open for a couple of years, and is the only medicinal marijuana store on South Whidbey.
Island Alternative Medicine owner Lucas Jushinski said he isn’t worried about competition, saying he’s confident the quality of his inventory and “comfortable” atmosphere of his store will keep him successful
However, he said, now is a risky time to enter the business.
The state Legislature is expected to look at several bills this year that could radically change the way medical dispensaries are regulated. Based on some previous proposals considered in the 2014 session, Jushinski said he is concerned that new laws may effectively close the door on the medicinal side of the industry altogether.
Access points predate Initiative 502, which legalized recreational use in Washington in 2012, but they don’t operate under the same rules. In fact, they have very little oversight at all, according to Brian Smith, spokesman for the state Liquor Control Board.
“One is tightly regulated, and one’s not regulated at all,” Smith said.
With the passage of I-502, the state agency was tasked with coming up with rules to manage the newborn recreational industry. Highly restrictive, the rules provide a framework for how producers, processors and retailers operate.
Access points, however, aren’t covered and remain a regulatory Wild West.
The issue has come to a head, particularly in Western Washington communities such as Seattle, where officials are cracking down on more than 300 stores that are unlicensed.
The exact number of dispensaries in the state remains unknown, but businesses with green crosses over doorways continue to pop up.
“If I open my window I throw a baseball and hit three of them,” Smith said.
One of the main complaints about the unregulated businesses is a lack of taxation.
Recreational marijuana businesses — producers, processors and retailers — must hand over 25 percent of gross earnings to the state, but medical marijuana dispensaries are under no such obligation.
“(Recreational users) are competing with people who aren’t paying taxes and following the rules regulating the retail market,” Smith said.
The taxation argument has two sides, Jushinski said. Some access point owners refuse to pay taxes because they view marijuana solely as a medicine, and medicine is exempt from taxation in Washington.
But while there is very little information about the known access points in the state, Jushinski maintains such objectors represent a select few.
“The majority of us do pay sales taxes,” he said.
Those are regular business taxes and are much less than those posed on recreational business.
Jushinski noted that the state’s rules do drive up the cost of recreational marijuana, which he says is two to three times that of cannabis sold at dispensaries.
If the state’s rules change and the entire industry comes under a single set of regulations, as was proposed by the Legislature in the 2014 session, Jushinski said he worries how it will impact the sick who rely on dispensaries. For access points that can get one of a limited number of permits in certain areas, they will see prices go up and, based on the current recreational guidelines, staff would be prohibited from providing advice to patients on the medicinal use of marijuana, he said.
“In the end, it’s the patients who suffer,” Jushinski said.
He said he believes dispensaries need some kind of regulation and oversight, but that lumping them in with recreational businesses isn’t the solution.
Such changes don’t make sense and might result in greater reliance on the black market, he said.
Maureen Cooke, owner of Whidbey Island Cannabis Company, said she disagrees that recreational marijuana prices are disproportionate. Cooke said she sells grams for as little as $14.
Supply problems drove up prices initially, but suppliers recognized the insustainability of an over-expensive market and lowered prices, she said.
Cooke speculates that illegal sales of marijuana will disappear altogether within a year.
“I would say by the end of 2015, the black market will be gone,” Cooke said.
As for Adam Lind and his plan to open a dispensary in Freeland, he acknowledges that it’s not the best time to be entering the business.
“It’s a big risk, a big jump to take.”
Lind has “been interested” in the industry for some time, however, and is now in the position to give it a try, and ready to take his chances.
Because access points are currently in a regulatory “no-man’s land,” Lind’s business would be treated as any business and likely require only an occupancy permit and a change of use permit in a commercially zoned building, according to David Wechner, director of Island County Planning and Community Development.
