The Issaquah Cannabis Company has been cited by the state Liquor and Cannabis Board after a compliance check saw an underage investigative aide successfully make it onto the sales floor and purchase product, after the doorman reportedly misjudged the aide’s age.
The incident — which saw Issaquah Cannabis Company fined a total of $3,500 — was the first and only violatory compliance visit for Issaquah’s sole recreational marijuana store. The business has since instituted a more rigorous age-screening policy, manager Cliff Gehrett told an enforcement officer.
On Nov. 19, the Reporter received a call from an anonymous tipster who claimed Issaquah Cannabis Company had sold to a minor the month prior. The person declined to identify herself outside of a claim she was a consultant for recreational marijuana businesses who frequents the Liquor and Cannabis Board’s public records.
A public records request with the Liquor and Cannabis Board confirmed that, on Oct. 18, liquor enforcement officer Joseph Bussman had cited the business during routine alcohol and cannabis compliance checks using an underage volunteer.
Bussman had sent the 20-year-old aide to the store to see if he would be stopped at the ID checkpoint outside its sales floor. A short time later, the aide returned with a half-gram of wax concentrate.
According to the aide’s report, the doorman had checked his identification — a vertically printed driver’s license standard in Washington state for persons under 21 — but allowed him to enter the sales floor. Once inside, the aide was assisted by a cashier who did not perform a secondary ID check.
The aide’s and Bussman’s reports also noted that the doorman had asked the aide if he would turn 21 in 2016, to which the aide replied “no.” However, there may be some confusion on the reporting of this point as records show the aide will turn 21 in February 2016 and compliance protocol calls for investigative aides to use their true ID and age.
Bussman confronted the doorman about letting a minor onto the premises and asked the birth year of a 21-year-old. The doorman said he thought the birth year for a 21-year-old was 1995.
The cashier was “visibly upset and frustrated,” according to Bussman’s report, about the sale and the failure of the doorman to screen a minor.
The store was fined $1,000 for allowing a minor on the premises and given the choice of a 10-day suspension or a $2,500 fine for sale to a minor. License holder Reach Island LLC paid both fines in November.
On a follow-up call on Oct. 21, store manager Gehrett notified Bussman that he had fired the doorman and instituted a policy not to accept vertical IDs and to perform a secondary ID check at the point of sale. Additionally, the store had added signage listing acceptable forms of ID and reminding employees of the current birth year for 21-year-old customers.
Between Sept. 4, 2014 and Oct. 30, 2015, the Liquor and Cannabis Board conducted 215 sale compliance checks on marijuana retailers as part of approximately 7,113 contacts — ranging from phone calls to in-person inspections and investigations — with all recreational marijuana businesses, according to enforcement records.
Liquor and Cannabis Board spokesman Brian Smith reported the marijuana retail compliance rate for sales to minors — based on checks from enforcement officers and their underage investigative aides from January to September of 2015 — was 88 percent, compared against 91 percent for alcohol.
