I recently attended a meeting of the owners of North West Connoisseurs, a local 502 licensed marijuana grow-op, and concerned business owners in the area of Mt. Baker Road and Hope Lane, where the new facility would be located.

The main concerns were potential odor and/or possible contamination from waste materials. There will be no odor as they have invested thousands of dollars in state of the art filtration systems to comply  with state regulations, and to be good neighbors to the local population.

Also, what little waste is produced, will have little or no THC content and will be contained and disposed of properly on a regular schedule. Realistically, the vehicles that come and go in that neighborhood now create more toxic fumes or leak toxic substances than the 502 will ever produce.

Apparently there are still a lot of misconceptions regarding the production and use of marijuana, mostly due to false propaganda, fear or ignorance. Education is a beautiful thing and it was really nice to see these people get together to discuss their concerns, as well as their willingness to comply with those concerns, and, ultimately, become good neighbors that can be trusted and welcomed into the local business community and neighborhood.

This law should have been passed long ago, everywhere. It has created a multitude of job opportunities and revenue for many local people and businesses, as well as the state of Washington.

It is a proven fact that marijuana helps relieve chronic pain, from stress related muscle tension to many other illnesses, including terminal cancer. It has also put an end to incarceration of people who are not criminals, or social liabilities. They are honest, hardworking, taxpaying members of communities everywhere. We could discuss alcoholism but that would be redundant and take way too much time.

Thank you to Uzek Susol for helping to organize the meeting in an attempt to resolve some legitimate  concerns. I think it went well and it was a real pleasure to observe intelligent individuals working  towards a common goal; co-existing and rebuilding our broken down economy.

Good luck to all!

Mick Stevens

Eastsound