BLYN — Those interested in cannabis products have a new place to buy goods: Cedar Greens in Blyn, a dispensary store operated and sponsored by the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe.
The store at 52 Sophus Road celebrated its grand opening Friday with live music and vendor booths.
“We’re about offering people a lot more than just intoxicants,” said Mike Smith, Cedar Greens’ general operations manager. “There’s a lot more to cannabis products than just that.”
The store is possible thanks to what Smith referred to as a “compact” between the tribe and Washington state that allows the tribe to operate under the same guidelines as the state laws stemming from the passage of Initiative 502 in 2012, which decriminalized marijuana in the state.
Before that compact, it was illegal to bring cannabis products onto Jamestown S’Klallam land, even if was legally purchased elsewhere.
Now, though, it’s legal, and the tribe is ready to take advantage of that.
According to Smith, the compact says the taxes that normally the state would collect on the sale of cannabis products get to stay within the tribe, which he says will be used to expand the tribe’s community improvement budget.
“We want this money to do some good,” Smith said.
As for the profits Cedar Greens makes on its sales, Smith said that money will stay within the shop to be used for potential expansion and enhancement of the store.
While Cedar Greens carries many of the traditional marijuana products — including pre-rolled marijuana cigarettes, dried buds and even high-concentration resins — Smith said that Cedar Greens features many non-intoxicating products aimed at pain management or naturopathic health care.
“We’re also bringing in a naturopathic pharmacist every other Friday to help educate and inform the public about the realities of cannabis products,” Smith said.
That pharmacist was later identified as Claire Capriola, a Washington-licensed pharmacist who advertises herself as a “state certified cannabis consultant” on her website, clairesrx.com.
“She’ll talk about what THC and CBD really do and how they interact with other drugs or with diseases,” Smith added.
As far as the store itself, Smith is very pleased with the staff that he and tribal operations leadership have assembled.
“There’s a lot of really great people here,” Smith said. “Some of them already knew a lot about cannabis and the culture and other things around that, and the ones who didn’t are learning it very quickly.
“There’s so much knowledge here, and they can find you exactly what you need.”
One member of that staff, Crystal Holden, said that the store offers a “wide range” of products in every category, including working with several local cannabis production companies.
“We wanted to offer the best of what this area offers,” Holden said.
Another employee, Mason Peters, was asked about the store’s vape-related products given that the Washington State Board of Health just enacted an emergency 120-day ban on all flavored vapor products or materials that can make them.
“That decision has zero impact on us,” Peters said. “We had already decided not to stock them and never ordered anything flavored.”
“We were really worried about how having (flavored vape products) would look in the community while we were planning our product purchases, given all the news about them,” Smith added.
“After considering what we knew, I decided to not place any orders when we were getting our stock, and two days after that was when Governor [Jay] Inslee made his request [to the Board of Health to consider the ban].”
The store is open seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 12 a.m.
For more information, phone 360-489-6099 or email info@cedargreens cannabis.com.
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Conor Dowley is a reporter with the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which is composed of Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum. Reach him at cdowley@sequimgazette.com.
