PORT ANGELES — The only two recreational marijuana stores within Port Angeles city limits recently opened, the city’s state-mandated limit for retail pot operations.
The shops are attracting tourists and new residents, owners say.
Malik Atwater and Vivian Wai opened Mister Buds at 536 Marine Drive on Friday.
Wendy Buck-Benge and Nicholas Benge opened Sparket R&R at 1403 E. First St., Suite B, on Monday — right next to their medical marijuana dispensary, Sparket 420 Alternative Health.
Meanwhile, owners of the Green Flame recreational marijuana store on the 4900 block of East U.S. Highway 101 outside of Port Angeles hope to open by mid-April, proprietor Shara Smith-Widmer said Wednesday.
That means that with The Hidden Bush at 3230 E. U.S. Highway 101 east of Port Angeles, pot smokers will have four retail pot locations to choose from within about a 4-mile area.
Medical marijuana shops, which have flourished in North Olympic Peninsula towns including Port Angeles, are not subject to the same restrictions as retail establishments.
Atwater and Wai opened their store next door to their now-closed, soon-to-be-reopened Colonel Hudson’s Famous Kitchen.
“It seems to me like it’s going to be a very good business very soon,” Atwater said this week.
He noted, like Buck-Benge did in a separate interview, that a sizable number of customers are tourists or newer residents hailing from places where pot is not legal.
“We are expecting the tourism to be big, so it’s just a matter of letting them know we are here,” Atwater said.
On Monday, he had customers from Oregon and Las Vegas who had just moved to Port Angeles.
The refrain of some, said Atwater: They can’t believe recreational marijuana has been so long in coming.
Atwater and Wai shut down Colonel Hudson’s in November and focused on opening Mister Buds and welcoming their new baby boy.
They hope to reopen the restaurant in about a month.
Atwater, as a new dad, has limited help from Wai in running the store.
Under state law, children are not permitted on the premises.
“[Marijuana] growers have said the same thing: that children can’t be anywhere near grow operations,” he said.
At Sparket R&R next to Sparket 420, Buck-Benge and her husband are sharing marijuana business duties.
Benge is running the retail operation while Buck-Benge, a registered nurse, is handling the medical marijuana side of things.
“We’re hoping to capitalize on tourism,” Buck-Benge said.
“Cannabis is definitely a draw.
“We have refugees moving here from other parts of the country who want to be able to have the freedom to medicate themselves the way they see fit.
“It’s nice to not have to turn them away.”
The shop has five employees and have located their stores at a former gas station and vehicle repair business.
Buck-Benge said she is a member of the American Cannabis Nurses Association and has earned her cannabis nurse certification through the group, which offers a six-hour curriculum for the certificate.
She also counsels her medical marijuana customers.
Sparket R&R and Mister Buds are open Mondays through Saturdays.
According to the state, Clallam County can grant permission for up to six marijuana retailers: two in Port Angeles, one in Sequim and three anywhere else in the county.
Jefferson County will get four retail pot shops: one in Port Townsend and three elsewhere.
Sea Change Cannabis at 282332 U.S. Highway 101 became the Peninsula’s first retail marijuana outlet when it opened in Discovery Bay on July 25.
In August, Port Townsend set zoning conditions for marijuana growing.
Herbal Access Retail at 661 Ness’ Corner Road in Port Hadlock opened in October.
Jefferson County has imposed a moratorium on all new marijuana businesses until June.
In February, Sequim extended a moratorium on retail marijuana to this August.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.