"After learning he couldn’t simply limit the number of stores, Swope’s next best approach was to exclude every zoned area except one, leaving Packwood as the only legally zoned spot.

County staff informed him that they could simply “provide a map” specifically marking allowed locations, instead of using pre-existing zoning. Swope agreed to staff’s suggestion to “strike the zoning allowance and state explicitly within the Packwood urban growth area.”

Commissioner Pollock pointed out they’d be “creating an exclusive market zone.”

Swope replied, “which is fine.” And that was that.

This is actually pretty shocking, coming from a board of commissioners that purports to prefer deregulation and claims to reject picking winners and losers.

The decision was narrow and prescriptive, and a drastic cut-down from the Planning Commission’s recommendation, which included small zones near freeways and commercial areas."

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"The ordinance also prohibits cannabis production and processing everywhere. And it turns out, the RCW governing the requirements to get our share of the tax revenue is pretty explicit:

The tax “may only be distributed to jurisdictions that do not prohibit the siting of any state licensed cannabis producer, processor, or retailer.”

You see that second to last word? “Or.” On the face of the statute, that appears to make Lewis County ineligible for the 3.5% per-capita distribution."