Quick Bit: How Cannabis Growers Aren't Always Welcomed In Farm Country

Washington voters legalized recreational marijuana in 2012, but it is far from settled law in the state. This week’s guest is Jacob Jones, the founder and editor of the Whitman County Watch.

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Full Transcript:

– Hi, I’m Scott Leadingham, thanks for joining us here at the Unique Northwest. Today we are with Jacob Jones, founder and editor of the news website Whitman County Watch. He’s recently reported on how pot has split rural communities, despite Washington voters having passed legalization in 2012. Jacob, what’s going on there?

– As the state has tried to sort of evolve it’s regulations for legal marijuana over the last few years, it’s handed over a lot of that, authority to local jurisdictions. And so, eastern Washington counties and cities have started being more aggressive in how they restrict where and how it can be grown or processed, because the Attorney General’s office has basically determined that there is no right to grow marijuana, but you can grow it. So as cities and counties have set their own regulations on things they have, in some counties, completely banned it, in other counties they treat it the same way as they treat Hopps or fruit trees, that kind of thing. And it’s introduced this new kind of culture conflict between these rural agricultural-based communities against the family-values type of concerns revolving around marijuana usage. Whitman County has just finished up a six month moratorium on it, as they have been kind of grappling with it, and they are now working to finalize some new language about setbacks and how they might look to restrict it in the future.

– [Scott] Well thanks for that reporting on that Jacob. You can see more of his work at whitmancountywatch.com and for more Northwest News, come to our website nwpb.org. Thank you for joining us here, in the Unique Northwest.