SEATTLE, WA — State regulators have allocated 21 legal pot shops to Seattle, and hundreds of applicants hope to win a lottery for those lucrative licenses. But the majority of them will be disqualified, says map maker Ben Livingston.
“People who thought they bought a ticket in the Seattle cannabis lottery may be surprised, because over half of them won’t qualify for the drawing,” says Livingston, who is Director of the Center for Legal Cannabis, a cannabis project incubator.
This week, Center for Legal Cannabis launched its first spin-off company, called Canna Zoning. The startup creates zoning maps for the cannabis industry, offers individual property investigations, and provides I-502 business and land use consulting.
Canna Zoning released a white paper titled “Pot Lottery Numbers,” which calculates that 52% of all Seattle pot shop applicants are in locations that are within 1,000 feet of schools, parks, libraries and other forbidden features. With 413 applications vying for 21 retail cannabis stores in Seattle, the probability of procuring a license is around 5%. But Livingston’s analysis puts that number closer to 12% for qualified applicants.
The Washington State Liquor Control Board has given hopeful cannabis retailers 30 days to submit final paperwork to the agency in preparation for the lottery. “At such a critical stage in this new industry, this report clearly shows how important in-depth zoning research is for the cannabis industry,” Livingston says. “Most of these people are throwing away their money.”
“Pot Lottery Numbers: Retail Cannabis Licensing Odds in Seattle and Washington State” may be purchased for $89 at https://www.cannazoning.com/download/.
Leave A Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.