Licensed marijuana businesses in Washington could face new restrictions on where they can operate, under one of the first bills to get a hearing in the 2019 Legislature.
However, opponents told the House Commerce and Gaming Committee this week the plan to ban stores and other marijuana businesses within 1,000 feet of a school bus stop, playground, or child-care facility would be expensive and hard to enforce.
Kennewick Republican Representative Brad Klippert made an impassioned plea for more restrictions on marijuana businesses based on his work as a school public safety officer and a Drug Abuse Resistance Education instructor. Legislators and others raised concerns about his proposal, asking whether the bill should also include places that sell alcohol and cigarettes.
Klippert said he’d rather not have an omnibus bill, and was open to discussing if his measure should be amended to grandfather in marijuana operations that are licensed and currently operating.
Officials with the state Liquor and Cannabis Board, which licenses marijuana businesses, said the bill could cost the state an estimated $2.5 million in extra labor, management, and information technology costs for enforcement, and even with that it would be difficult.
There’s no list of all the playgrounds and unlicensed child-care operations in the state, and the schools change their bus stops from year to year.
A board spokesman added that licensed businesses forced to close under new rules would likely sue, and defending the state against those claims could cost millions.
The committee will decide in the coming weeks whether to propose changes to the bill before it votes or whether to pass it to the full House. (Spokesman-Review)
