Earlier this month, voters chose to stick to the status quo, upholding a ban on cannabis in unincorporated Yakima County.

For advocates who wanted to keep the ban, the results come as welcome news. But others say they represent a missed opportunity.

In 2012, the production, processing and sale of cannabis was legalized statewide under Initiative 502. In Yakima County, 57.8% of voters voted against legalization, and two years later the county put a ban on those activities in unincorporated areas that has been in place ever since.

The county’s Proposition 1 on the November ballot asked voters if they wanted to maintain the ban. According to the county auditor’s office, 55.3% said they did. The results are close to last time the county held a non-binding advisory vote on cannabis in 2017, when 58.9% of participants voted in favor of keeping the ban in place.

Commissioners Amanda McKinney and LaDon Linde have both said they’re personally against the sale of cannabis in the county. Now that the people have spoken, Commissioner Kyle Curtis — who advocated for lifting the ban — said he doesn’t see the question going back on the ballot anytime soon.

At this point, there are no plans for the Board of County Commissioners to discuss the issue further.

“When I introduced this revenue stream as a potential opportunity for the county earlier this spring, I basically said, if it goes to an advisory vote and it doesn’t come back in support, if there’s not another commissioner that’s willing to explore this, then it’s kind of a moot point,” Curtis said.

Money left on the table

Curtis said his main reason for lifting the ban was creating an additional revenue stream in Yakima County.

The state’s cannabis excise tax is a 37% tax on all licensed cannabis products paid by consumers at the register. Most of the money goes back to the state, but a small portion is redistributed to cities and counties that allow cannabis growing, production and sales.

According to the Liquor and Cannabis Board’s Dedicated Cannabis Account Dashboard, the county government in Whatcom County — which is slightly smaller than Yakima County by population — received $371,221 in distributions from the state’s Dedicated Cannabis Account in 2024. The county government in Kitsap County — which is slightly larger than Yakima County — received $469,188.

While those numbers aren’t a direct comparison to Yakima County, they do give a ballpark estimate of what might have been available if the ban had been lifted.

“From the get-go, I expressed that it was about the money,” Curtis said. “For me, I mean, $300,000 to $400,000 a year that we’re leaving on the table by keeping this ban in place, I think those are dollars that we need in our community. Those are dollars that can be deployed immediately. That’s why I brought it forward.”

Most cannabis dispensaries in Yakima County are in the cities of Yakima and Union Gap. Yakima Communications Director Randy Beehler said the city received $265,000 in cannabis excise tax revenue in 2024, which went to the general fund for general government operations.

Union Gap City Manager Gregory Cobb said the city received just under $58,5000 in cannabis excise tax revenues in 2024. When the City Council approved the retail sale of cannabis, Cobb said it wanted the majority of the excise tax to go to education. The city contracts with Safe Yakima Valley to staff and teach a data-driven curriculum for its summer youth program and bring in educational programs on drug, gang and trafficking awareness to the Union Gap School District.

Substance abuse prevention

While cannabis excise tax revenues can be used for prevention and education, Safe Yakima Valley Executive Director Alicia Stromme Tobin said they pale in comparison to the cost of substance use disorder treatment. 

Safe Yakima Valley is a nonprofit focused on substance-use prevention. Stromme Tobin, who helped prepare the statement in favor of keeping the ban, said one of her primary concerns was youth access. Around 30% of all U.S. cannabis users show symptoms of cannabis use disorder — and if someone starts using cannabis during their youth, they’re more likely to develop a long-term substance use disorder. The vast majority of people seeking substance use disorder treatment, she added, started with alcohol, tobacco or cannabis.

No overdose deaths from cannabis have ever been reported, but there have been an increasing number of emergency room visits involving edibles, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

“We’re obviously very pleased — myself, as well as our board, are very pleased with the results, and that I think voters recognize that changes need to be implemented,” she said.

Stromme Tobin said Safe Yakima Valley’s stance isn’t to shut down existing retailers — but it is to limit expanded access to cannabis, especially for youth. She also has concerns about high-THC products, some of which have a potency several times higher than what is naturally occurring in cannabis and can be more likely to lead to addiction. Safe Yakima Valley regularly works with local dispensaries to provide educational materials on safe use and locking boxes to help keep cannabis out of the hands of children and pets. 

“For us, it’s really about the community getting educated,” she said. “And you know, people would say, ‘Well, there’s strict guidelines in place for dispensaries that they can’t get into the hands of youth,’ but we all know that youth indicate they’re getting it because people are selling it on the black market — either that or relatives, their siblings and their parents are providing it to them. So it’s still getting to youth.”

‘Missed opportunity’

Industry advocates have argued that legalization provides better tools for regulation.

Doug Henderson is the CEO of Painted Rooster Cannabis Company — a sun-grown, pesticide-free cannabis operation located in Moxee. Henderson has been in the cannabis industry for around 15 years and serves as the vice president on the board of The Cannabis Alliance. While lifting the county’s ban wouldn’t necessarily have a direct impact on existing growers, he said it would increase access to retail in rural parts of the county.

Licensed cannabis businesses are required to follow strict regulations around labeling and testing their products for heavy metals, pesticides and THC levels. Licensed cannabis retailers in Washington also have around a 95% compliance rate for not selling to minors, higher than the rates for liquor and tobacco, according to a report from the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board. The legacy or “black” market doesn’t have those safeguards.

“I do think it’s a missed opportunity for people to get easier access to age-gated, properly tested, regulated product throughout the county,” Henderson said. “It’s also a missed opportunity to get some revenue back from the state for the county.”

More retailers would also mean more opportunities for growers to sell their products.

According to the state Liquor and Cannabis Board, six retail store licenses were allotted to unincorporated Yakima County after I-502 passed, and other businesses could also potentially open up through two title certificate holders or through the state’s social equity license program. However, Henderson pointed out that retailers still wouldn’t be able to open in areas on tribal land near Toppenish and Wapato unless the tribal council agreed.

“Having more retailers available for us to sell our products to — there’s not much of a downside to that for any grower,” Henderson said in an earlier interview in October. “You know, we want to be able to compete, we want to be able to engage with as many retailers as possible.”

Other concerns

Henderson has also confronted other issues during his time in the cannabis industry — ones that didn’t appear on the November ballot.

When he first started at Painted Rooster in 2021, he recalls there were more than a dozen growers located on one road in Moxee. Just a few years later, only a handful of them remain.

Overall cannabis revenues have been declining for the last five years. Henderson said that’s due in part to regulation challenges and an oversupply influenced by consumption changes during and after the pandemic. As a result, cannabis prices have gone down.

Washington also has one of the highest cannabis taxes in the United States. Because growers in the state aren’t allowed to sell their products directly to consumers, the amount they make from wholesale is significantly lower than the final price tag.

“Farming isn’t easy. It’s not easy for anyone, but it becomes a lot harder when you’re highly regulated and highly taxed,” Henderson said.

Many of those issues would need to be addressed on state level. In the meantime, the immediate question of cannabis in unincorporated Yakima County has been decided — at least for now.

“I just appreciate that the community gave us their thoughts, and I respect what the community has had to share with us,” Curtis said.