Kent’s Mayor Cooke decides not to veto medical marijuana co-op ban

Kent Mayor Suzette Cooke decided not to veto a medical marijuana patient cooperatives ban adopted by the City Council.

“My veto would have accomplished nothing other than hang over the council’s future debate while the city remained under the moratorium passed at the previous council meeting,” Cooke said in an email. “There appears to be no legal path towards permitting legitimate medical marijuana local access without individuals growing their own (the state requires the city to allow up to 15 plants per person) or opening us up to recreational retail shops.”

Cooke won’t sign the ordinance because she doesn’t support it, but the ordinance still becomes law without her signature.

The council voted 4-2 on July 5 to approve a land use zoning code amendment to ban the four-member co-ops to grow marijuana that the state began to allow on July 1. The city already bans recreational marijuana businesses.

Cooke said right after the vote that she would consider a veto because she supports medical marijuana patient co-ops under the rules approved by the state. But Cooke said her veto couldn’t add any language to an ordinance, so even a veto wouldn’t have allowed the patient co-ops to exist under the city’s land use code.

The state set up the cooperatives to allow medical marijuana patients to grow up to 60 plants. They would not be allowed to sell the marijuana. Patients also can choose to grow a limited number of plants at their homes.

The mayor said in a July 15 letter to the council that Council President Bill Boyce, Councilwoman Dana Ralph and Councilman Jim Berrios agreed to address the issue of local access to medical marijuana at a council retreat in February. All three council members along with Councilman Les Thomas voted to ban medical marijuana patient co-ops.

Voters statewide, and a majority in Kent, approved Initiative 502 in 2012 to legalize the possession and sale of recreational marijuana in Washington and create a system of state licensing and regulation. Cities and counties, however, are allowed to ban marijuana businesses through zoning laws.

Here is Cooke’s letter to the council:

Dear Kent City Councilmembers,

On July 5 you passed Ordinance 4208 by a 4 to 2 vote amending Title 15 of the Kent zoning code, prohibiting medical marijuana cooperatives in all Kent zoning districts. Your action would have replaced the moratorium against MMJ patient cooperatives passed at the previous council meeting. Following passage, in light of my support for public access to medical marijuana (MMJ), I announced that I would either veto the ordinance or allow it to be enacted without my signature. I have decided the latter: Ordinance 4208 will become law without my signature.

Had I vetoed the ordinance, MMJ patient cooperatives would still be illegal. Our city has a “permissive” zoning code, which means that if a use is not specifically allowed, it is prohibited. Since MMJ patient co-ops are a newly established land use created by the state legislature this year, they do not appear as a regulated use in our zoning code. Since a veto cannot add any language to an ordinance, my veto of Ordinance 4208 would not add MMJ patient cooperatives as a land use in our code, and therefore would have been ineffective in allowing them to exist in Kent.

Additionally, had I vetoed Ordinance 4208, the Council’s moratorium against allowing MMJ patient cooperatives would still be in effect for at least 6 months – and may be extended.

While I am disappointed I cannot increase local access to MMJ, I am appreciative of individual conversations I had with Council President Boyce and Councilmembers Berrios and Ralph.  They have committed to addressing the broader issue of local access to medical marijuana in a more comprehensive fashion at a council retreat in February of 2017. I look forward to a positive resolution.

Respectfully,

Suzette Cooke, Mayor