About 52 percent of Poulsbo residents voted in favor of legalizing recreational marijuana statewide in 2012. But legalized pot businesses won’t be opening in the Viking City anytime soon.

The City Council adopted a ban on marijuana enterprises (PDF) last summer that remains in effect.

Prior to the vote, council members voiced societal and moral concerns with legalizing pot. They also argued permitting and regulating the new industry would be expensive, and the city would receive negligible economic benefit in return.

The council’s decision to ban legal pot businesses didn’t sit well with Branden Heinemann, a 30-year-old military veteran and medical marijuana patient who lives in Poulsbo. Continue reading →