A fourth and final marijuana store has been approved for
the city of Bremerton.
The state Liquor and Cannabis
Board gave the green light Thursday for a recreational pot shop
called
Budeez, at 2111 E 11th Street, next door to Manette Saloon.
The space was previously home to a martial arts
studio.
A recreational marijuana store has been approved for a space
near Walmart on Highway 303.
The retailer, licensed by the Liquor and Cannabis Board on Friday,
is called Pacific Northwest Green Leaf. Its listed address is
6733 Highway 303 NE in East Bremerton (but outside city
limits).
Green Leaf is the 14th marijuana seller approved in Kitsap.
The state will issue a total of 20 retail licenses in the
county.
Nine Kitsap marijuana stores posted sales in March. These
were the top five performing stores by gross revenue in the first
quarter of 2016 (before the 37 percent excise tax and other taxes
are subtracted):
1. The Pot Zone (Port Orchard)
First quarter sales: $890,399
Excise tax: $329,448
2. Destination Hwy 420 (Bremerton)
First quarter sales: $755,53
Excise tax: $279,549
3. Hwy 420 (Bremerton)
First quarter sales: $745,941
Excise tax: $275,998
4. Paper & Leaf (Bainbridge Island)
First quarter sales: $652,043
Excise tax: $241,256
5. Pacific Cannabis Co. (Bremerton)
First quarter sales: $470,718
Excise tax:$174,166
(The Suquamish Tribe’s Agate Dreams store is excluded
from this list as its revenue is not made public.)
Here’s a graphical look at recreational marijuana sales in
Kitsap:
The new producer/processor is called Sound Extracts.
It’s the twelfth marijuana production company licensed in
the county.
Unlike retail licenses, there is no cap on the number of
producer and processor licenses the state will approve.
The Liquor and Cannabis Board approved two
recreational marijuana stores off Mile Hill Drive this month,
bringing the Port Orchard area’s total to six.
Both new retailers appear to be just outside city limits.
(Click on the image at right to see all six locations.)
The board announced Monday it would stop taking applications at
the end of March.
As of Tuesday, 37 retail applications were pending in
Kitsap (see map above). The state will allow
20 total retail outlets in the county. Eleven licenses have
already been issued, leaving nine to dole out.
Here’s a breakdown of applications and license allotments by
jurisdiction:
Applications are being processed under three priority tiers,
according to a Liquor and Cannabis Board release:
Priority 1: Applicants who applied for a
marijuana retail license prior to July 1, 2014, operated (or were
employed by) a collective garden prior to January 1, 2013, have
maintained a state and local business license and have a history of
paying state taxes and fees.
Priority 2: Applicants who operated (or were
employed by) a collective garden prior to January 1, 2013, have
maintained a state and local business license and have a history of
paying state taxes and fees.
Priority 3: applicants are those who do not
meet priority 1 or 2 criteria.
Since October, the board has
received 162 priority 1 applications, 63 priority 2
applications and 879 priority 3 applications with 166 still
awaiting prioritization, according to the release.
I corrected the license allocation graphic in
this post to reflect a second Bainbridge Island application. Both
island applications are for the same Miller Bay Road
address.
A recreational marijuana store is finally coming to Kitsap’s
commercial hub.
The state Liquor and Cannabis
Board has approved a Silverdale store called Fillabong, located
at 2839 NW Kitsap Place, just east of the mall. It’s
the first recreational store approved in Central Kitsap, though
there are a few medical dispensaries in the area.
A marijuana processor established in Port Townsend is moving
to Kingston.
The state Liquor and Cannabis
Board approved a location change for processor THC Express on
Wednesday.
THC
Express was located off Highway 20, just south
of Port Townsend. It will shift its operation to
a business park at 26121 Calvary Lane, off Bond
Road.
THC Express is the 22nd recreational marijuana business in
Kitsap, joining the county’s 10
established producer/processors and 11 retailers. It’s the
first in the county to hold only a processor license. Other
processors in Kitsap are also licensed as producers (growers).
In other cannabis news, retail sales of recreational
marijuana dipped slightly in January, according to state
records.
Salespeople have to know their product, whether they’re
selling cars or selling marijuana.
To make sure its staff are knowledgeable about its
wares, one recreational marijuana store in Kitsap has
been providing employees with free samples.
According to a blogpost on Forbes, Bainbridge Island’s Paper & Leaf
provides “budtenders” with samples of the cannabis strains and
edibles the store carries. Employees try the products at home and
report back. The store even set up a private Facebook
group where workers post their reviews.
“They post about the scent of the product, the potency, how it
makes them feel,” said Hill.
“Most of our employees have been with us since we opened last
June, so they know the information that customers are looking for,”
he said.
Staff reviewers will use lingo like “gave me couch-lock,”
“relaxing,” “euphoric,” “uplifting” or “made me kind of nervous,”
in their reviews for each other.
Marijuana shops keep sprouting in the south end of Kitsap
County.
Thursday the state Liquor and
Cannabis Board approved a license for a recreational marijuana
retailer called GreenX3, located at 4235 Olympic Drive W
in Gorst.
Statewide sales followed a similar trend, according to stats
released this month by the state Liquor and Cannabis Board.
In Kitsap, eight shops reported a combined $1,439,266 in
gross sales in December, marking a 10 percent gain from November.
The county finished the calendar year with about $11.71 million in
retail marijuana sales.
Kitsap County’s first slump
in legal marijuana sales proved short lived.