LONGVIEW — A Clark County woman attempting to open a Longview retail marijuana shop is trying to halt the state license lottery system, saying she was unfairly rejected as an applicant.
Liz Hallock appeared in Cowlitz County Superior Court on Wednesday, asking for an emergency order to stop at least the Longview part of the state lottery. She wants the state Liquor Control Board to allow applicants to appeal rejections before awarding licenses through the random draw lottery.
Hallock, a lawyer in White Salmon, is a partner and manager of the proposed Lucky Toke LLC marijuana license applicant.
She wasn’t successful Wednesday for technical reasons. Because she hadn’t filed a civil case and paid the $250 fee, Judge Stephen Warning said he couldn’t rule on her request.
On Thursday, she said, she decided to pay the court filing fee, and the judge agreed to temporarily stay the Longview part of the state lottery until he reaches a decision. A hearing on the matter is scheduled for next week.
On Wednesday afternoon, she said she’d seek the order in Thurston County. That county gets more requests of this nature — technically called a writ of mandamus — because the state capital is located there, Hallock said. She said the request may be less “political” there, noting that some Cowlitz County cities have passed moratoriums temporarily blocking marijuana retail shops.
Hallock received a letter Saturday telling her Lucky Toke’s application for the lottery system had been rejected as incomplete. She said no other reason was given, though she suspects the state processors weren’t able to open an electronic file because they didn’t have the latest version of Adobe Acrobat reader.
She also noted that she wasn’t given even one weekday to take action before the lottery started on Monday.
Hallock says the state’s system, which she called rushed and confusing, doesn’t allow for basic administrative appeals, and it should. So far, she said, state officials can’t even tell her what the appeal process is, only that it will be handled later.
That would make appeals moot, she said, because it’s likely most if not all state licenses will be awarded before she finds out if her application can be added back into the lottery.
State officials said Wednesday the lottery is moving forward as planned.
“The electronic admissions system has been sound,” said Mikhail Carpenter, spokesman for the state Liquor Control Board, adding many more applicants were successful in submitting complete applications than were not.
As for Hallock’s rejection, Carpenter said not submitting a complete document is not a reason for appeal. If someone could prove in writing they did turn everything in, he said he’s sure officials would be open to a review but didn’t know when that would be.
“Right now we haven’t seen any evidence that the system is failing,” Carpenter said. Lottery results will be released May 2, though applicants will be notified ahead of time.
The lottery system is being used to select which proposed retail stores can continue on in the licensing process. A total of 1,160 applicants were successful in qualifying for the 344 licenses to be doled out in the lottery. Seven of those will be in Cowlitz County.
To qualify for the lottery, applicants had to provide information about their age, residence, their proposed company, the store’s location and their criminal background.
Hallock, who said she doesn’t smoke marijuana herself, said she got interested in the business because this is a unique time in Washington history. The licenses being chosen by the lottery will be the first approved since voters legalized recreational marijuana in November 2012. Marijuana production/processing licenses already are being issued and are not part of the lottery system.
Columbian staff writer Paris Achen contributed to this story.
