A third superior court judge on Friday agreed with an opinion issued by the state Attorney General’s Office last year, concluding that nothing in Initiative 502 overrides local governments’ authority to regulate or ban marijuana businesses.
Benton County Superior Court Judge Vic VanderSchoor made the ruling in the case of Americanna Weed, LLC v. city of Kennewick, according to a Attorney General’s Office media release. The plaintiffs in the case sought to open a marijuana business in Kennewick despite the city’s ban on such businesses. A formal opinion released by the Attorney General’s Office in January concluded that, as drafted, I-502, passed by voters in 2012, does not prevent cities and counties from banning marijuana businesses.
Kent is one of numerous cities that bans recreational marijuana businesses.
VanderSchoor is the third judge to make a similar ruling, following Chelan County Superior Court Judge T.W. Small’s ruling in October involving the city of Wenatchee and Pierce County Superior Court Judge Ronald Culpepper’s ruling in August involving the City of Fife.
If courts continue to agree with the Attorney General’s Office opinion that I-502 does not require local governments to allow marijuana businesses, they will not need to decide in these cases whether federal law preempts I-502. This allows I-502 to continue to be implemented.
“My office is working aggressively to uphold the will of the voters,” said Attorney General Bob Ferguson in a prepared statement. “Today’s (Friday) ruling affirms the opinion of my office earlier this year and allows Initiative 502 to continue to be implemented in Washington state. As I have said from the beginning, the drafters of Initiative 502 could have required local jurisdictions to allow the sale of recreational marijuana. It could have been done in a single sentence, but it was not. Now it is up to the Legislature to decide whether to require local governments to allow for the sale of marijuana.”
The plaintiffs in the first case, MMH, LLC v. Fife, have appealed the decision to the Washington Supreme Court. The court will likely decide sometime early next year whether to accept review of that case.
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