Recreational marijuana was introduced to the Plateau a year ago when two retail stores set up shop on the out-skirts of Buckley.

And coming this summer, The Green Door and Mr. Bills of Buckley will both be expanding their businesses to include stocking and sell-ing medical marijuana. It is an option allowed to them by Senate Bill 5052, also known as the Cannabis Patient Protection Act, which was

passed last July.Both businesses applied

and received their medi-cal marijuana endorse-ment from the Liquor and Cannabis Board, and will start selling medical marijua-na on July 1, 2016, when the final rules of the Cannabis Patient Protection Act come into effect.

What is medical marijuana?

Although the term medi-cal marijuana will become more common as the

Cannabis Patient Protection Act is solidified over the coming months, it’s actually a bit of a misnomer, because there is no real difference between medical and recre-ational marijuana.

“The only difference between medical and rec-reational marijuana is the intent of the user,” said Kristi Weeks, a policy coun-selor for the Washington State Department of Health. “Some strains or forms of marijuana may be more typically used by a medical

patient, such as a very high CBD (or cannabidiol) and low THC strain (the psycho-active active ingredient of recreational cannabis). But they all come from the same plant.”

Despite the common use of the phrase, medical marijuana remains illegal under federal law, and does not have medication status; it cannot be prescribed by doctors or dispensed at a pharmacy, and stores are still not allowed to make medical claims concerning

marijuana.This is because the Food

and Drug Administration has yet to approve marijuana as a treatment or medication, Weeks said, and stores and products will are required to disclaim that fact in some form.

To further prevent medi-cal claims, stores with medi-cal marijuana endorsements are allowed to advertise the fact that they have a medi-cal endorsement and that

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WeatherThe forecast for Wednesday calls for rain with a high near 48 and lows around 40. Thursday expects a possibility of heavy rain and highs near 52 and lows around 38. Friday may have some sun with highs around 45 and lows close to 32. Saturday and Sunday expect some showers with highs around 45 and lows near 32.

Wednesday, November 18, 2015 | 75 cents www.courierherald.com

SEE INSIDE: Buckley police help victim of domestic violence | Page 3 . . . . Panthers rise, Spartans fall in state football | Page 4 . . . Charges increased in case of murdered Enumclaw woman | Page 13 . . . . Discover winter activities on the Plateau and in the Valley | Page 16

This Week...• Manestage Theatre presents “A Christmas Story, The Musical,” from Nov. 28 through Dec. 19 on Fridays, Sat-urdays and Sundays at the Sumner High School Performing Arts Center. Tickets are $22 for adults, $18 for students and seniors, and $12 for kids 10 and under. • Enumclaw’s Festival of Crafts will be taking over the Expo Center for three days, starting Nov. 20. Carolers and even Saint Nicholas will be at the event to bring holi-day cheer to shoppers.

Medical marijuana coming to the Plateau

Enumclaw sales tax to rise in spring, supports road improvements

Nonprofits appeal to council for funds

The heavy rain that fell over Washington last weekend � ooded the plat o� of 216th and Muckleshoot highway, but it also

produced this year’s � rst snowfall that dusted the Plateau early Sunday morning. In Buckley, a herd of elk wandered through Mallorie and Brent Lawson’s � eld. Photo by Dennis Box and Mallorie Lawson

Flooding and � rst snowfall

By Ray StillReporter

SEE MARIJUANA, PAGE 3

By Kevin HansonSenior Writer

Enumclaw voters have agreed to bump the local tax rate in exchange for guar-anteed street improvements, but residents won’t begin paying the higher tax until spring.

It’s all about timing, according to Enumclaw City Administrator Chris Searcy.

Local voters approved a tax increase as part of the Nov. 3 general election and the results await certification by the King County Elections Department. Then, instructions to implement the higher tax within the city limits must be forwarded to the state’s Department of Revenue. Because Revenue operates on a quarterly cycle, Enumclaw’s new tax will not be imposed until the beginning of 2016’s second quar-ter, or April 1.

Enumclaw’s sales tax rate will jump by one-tenth of 1 percent, courtesy of voters who supported the Nov. 3 measure with better than 60 percent support. The addi-tional tax equates to an additional 10 cents for every $100 spent – or a dollar for every $1,000 in purchases. The additional tax

SEE SALES TAX, PAGE 13

By Kevin HansonSenior Writer

The city of Enumclaw is taking a different approach this year when considering financial support for entities that provide good deeds for the community.

In years past, the city has advertised its intention to offer dollars for those helping local residents. Those requests were tabulated and included as part of the mayor’s budget proposal. Whether those recommendations were accept-ed, rejected or altered was left up the members of the Enumclaw City Council – as are all items in the municipal document of anticipated rev-enues and expenditures.

This time around – when considering a 2016 spending plan – the council opted against taking financial requests. Rather, representa-tives from agencies throughout the community were asked to make their pitch directly to the council.

Some have done exactly that.Several citizens stepped forward during the

Nov. 9 session of the City Council, appealing for dollars to keep their organizations operating.

City businessman Tom Poe spoke on behalf of Plateau Outreach Ministries, emphasizing the many roles the organization plays in the community. He noted how POM gives food

SEE FUNDS, PAGE 13

Inside, Pages 16-21

they sell marijuana to medi-cal patients, not that they sell medical marijuana, said Weeks.

While medical claims about marijuana are being avoided, the Department of Health will be identify-ing marijuana products that it deems to be beneficial to marijuana patients.

“The legislature asked us to define what products are beneficial for patients. A lot of people thought we were going to say, ‘this kind of marijuana is medical and this kind is recreational.’ And we can’t do that,” said Weeks. “So we listened to patients and what they have said over the years, in terms of what is important to them when they buy marijuana. They wanted products there are well test-ed, and have safe-handling, accurately labeled, things like that.”

Conditions and rules for medically-beneficial mari-juana were made on Oct. 5 when the department filed emergency rules relating to quality testing. The rules expire after 120 days, but can be renewed.

Currently, marijuana can be labeled as medically-beneficial for patients if it is tested for pesticides, heavy metals and mycotoxin. There

are also additional rules con-cerning sample size and how the marijuana is handled by producers and processors.

While the emergency rules are in play, the department is going through the formal rule-making process with the public, Weeks said.

“We anticipate the final, permanent rules will be issued in the spring,” she said. “They may be a little bit different after we’ve been lis-tening to patient and indus-try feedback. But mostly the rules have been really well received.”

Marijuana producers that meet the Department of Health’s requirements for medically-beneficial mari-juana can advertise this on their products, which can be purchased by both medical marijuana patients and non-patients.

Patient benefitsPeople who are qualified to

become a patient are required to have a medical condition that is “terminal or debilitat-ing,” Weeks said. The full list of qualifying conditions are listed in the Cannabis Patient Protection Act, and include HIV, multiple sclerosis, epi-lepsy, intractable pain, and any disease that results in nausea or vomiting.

The list also includes post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury, which are new qualifying condi-

tions.A patient of one or more

of these conditions, who is 18 or older, can be authorized by a doctor to use medical marijuana.

After receiving a doctor’s authorization, a patient may decide to log into a voluntary database of information for medical marijuana patients. Most of the benefits allowed to medical marijuana patients will only be available if a person is entered into the database.

Medical marijuana patients in the database will receive a state-issued identity card that can be presented at medical marijuana-endorsed stores for a number of ben-efits, Weeks said.

One benefit is not pay-ing sales tax on marijuana, although patients still have to pay the 37 percent excise tax on marijuana.

This is because Washington voters approved Advisory Vote No. 11 on Nov. 3 by 59 percent, which kept the excise tax in place for marijuana bought by patients.

Additionally, medical marijuana patients in the database are allowed to pur-chase more marijuana at a medical marijuana-endorsed store than a non-patients.

Nonpatients are allowed to purchase one ounce of dried marijuana, 16 ounces of marijuana-infused edibles, 72 ounces of marijuana in a liquid form, and seven grams of marijuana concentrate at any one time.

Medical marijuana patients will be allowed to purchase up to three times the amount nonpatients can buy at any one time, varying by the form of the marijuana.

Card-carrying medical

marijuana patients will be protected from being arrest-ed for possessing or growing marijuana in excess of non-patients.

Medical marijuana patients can be arrested but can still use an affirmative defence in court.

Medical marijuana-endorsed stores can choose to donate marijuana to medi-cal marijuana patients free of charge.

“If a patient is in the data-base, and they cannot afford the marijuana they use for medicine, a retail store with a medical endorsement can donate it to a patient or their designated caregiver,” Weeks said. “That is based on some-thing we have heard, and the Legislature has heard, for the last several years, that a lot of patients cannot afford their medication.”

The donation will still be tracked as if it was a sale, Weeks continued, although there would be no cost to the patient.

Finally, medical patients can have access to products that have 50 mg THC per serving, as opposed to the 10mg THC per serving the rest of the public has access to.

“We heard from patients that they take up to 1000 mg a day of THC, and having to take it in 10mg doses was not going to work for them,” Weeks said. “They can pur-

chase certain products that are up to 50 mg of THC per serving, but those are limited to capsules, tinctures, trans-dermal patches, and supposi-tories.”

Weeks said there will be no edibles with 50 mg THC per serving will not be made available.

Additional legislative changes

It’s not just medical mari-juana patients that may get a break in sales tax.

House Bill 2136 allows any marijuana product that the Department of Health deems medically beneficial to be sold without sales tax.

“These are products that won’t get you high,” Weeks said. “Any value they have is potentially medical, as opposed to recreational.”

Examples of products without an added sales tax for anyone, patient or not, includes edibles that have five times more CBD than THC.

For concentrates, there must be 25 percent more CBD than THC to reach the non-sales tax status.

“A lot of people have been confused and think those are the only ratios that a (medical marijuana) patient can have,” said Weeks. “It’s just a tax recognition status. Anybody can buy those products with-out paying sales tax.”

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MARIJUANA FROM 1

Integrity Labs co-owner Mark Hubbard holds up a sample of dried marijuana after the THC had been chemically separated. Photo by Ray Still