Record South Whidbey
WEDNESDAY, JULY 9, 2014 | Vol. 90, No. 55 | www.SOUTHWHIDBEYRECORD.com | 75¢
7pm
INSIDE
A kayaker’s view See...A16
WGH nursing chief charged with assault By JESSIE STENSLAND South Whidbey Record
Ben Watanabe / The Record
Maureen Cooke takes a call from a cable news reporter about her recreational marijuana sales license, one of the first issued in Washington. Her Bayview store was empty because she could not find a supplier.
SOUTH WHIDBEY POT SHOP GETS GREEN LIGHT State gives first license to Langley pub owner By BEN WATANABE South Whidbey Record A South Whidbey entrepreneur became the first person with a license to sell recreational marijuana in Washington this week. The process was arduous and the startup costly, but Maureen Cooke, owner of Mo’s Pub and Eatery in Langley, was the first name on the state’s list of approved sellers released Monday, July 7. Yet for all the hurdles jumped, money spent and time invested into Cooke’s newest venture, Whidbey Island Cannabis Company, she’ll have to bide her time a bit longer as the wait for something to sell continues and delayed a grand opening planned for Tuesday. Her store is ready. She just needs the pot. “I’m gonna feel better once I have some product in here,” Cooke said. “...It’s all money out with nothing coming in.” Cooke said she hopes to have buds, oils and tincture for sale by Friday. There will not be edibles, such as pot brownies or weed cookies, because the state is not allowing them yet. Prices were not known as of press time. Washington voters approved Initiative
502, which legalized recreational marijuana consumption and possession up to one ounce, in November 2012. It has taken the Washington State Liquor Control Board nearly 18 months to set out the rules and process applications for the production, distribution and sale — three distinct parts of the business. Cooke’s store represents the third step: retail. Her shop is about 875 square feet in a small strip of storefronts in Bayview on Kramer Road. On Monday, she first learned she had received one of Island County’s four allotted retail licenses. But the short notice for licensed growers a few weeks ago did not allow much time for them to harvest enough marijuana — product, as Cooke refers to it — for all 24 stores that were licensed in the first wave of issuances. “We all know you don’t grow marijuana in three weeks,” Cooke said. Inside, the short rectangular space for customers seems more like a pharmacy than some kind of smoke den or even a liquor store. Several stanchions will direct customers to one of two digital cash registers. Because federally-insured
banks are leery to open accounts with marijuana businesses, still a banned substance according to the U.S. government, Cooke’s store can only operate with cash. Cameras are in each corner inside and outside. All told, 15 cameras record every movement, day and night, as a security measure. The more obvious protection includes gated windows and doors. Behind the glass counter that fully separates customers from employees are three safes, and in a back room is a fourth safe, of which Cooke was mighty proud.
Waiting on the impact For all the nationwide interest in Washington’s pot legalization, on South Whidbey people remained mostly mum and curious. The only next door neighbor is restaurant El Corral, whose family owners were ambivalent about its presence. The Bayview area’s leader, Goosefoot Community Fund, was mostly interested in having an additional busiSEE POT, A9
Prosecutors charged the chief nursing officer at Whidbey General Hospital last week with assaulting a patient. Linda Gipson, 62, is facing a single count of assault in the fourth degree, a gross misdemeanor charge. The criminal charge was filed July 2 in Island County District Court. Coupeville Marshal Rick Norrie investigated the case. In his report, he wrote that Gipson fired one of the nurses who was an alleged witness and another employee expressed fear of retaliation if she spoke out. Whidbey General administration is standing by Gipson this week. Hospital spokeswoman Trish Rose said in a written statement that Whidbey General conducted an internal investigation and concluded the allegations are without merit. “Dr. Gipson has over 30 years of experience and has cared for thousands of patients,” Rose said in her written statement. “This is the first time she has ever been accused of any inappropriate behavior toward any patient.” Because the administration believes that Gipson is innocent of any wrongdoing, she is currently on the job, according to Rose. “Whidbey General is confident that Dr. Gipson will continue to perform her duties as chief nursing officer and her good work in support of community health,” Rose wrote. “Dr. Gipson has been active improving access to safe and quality health care as well as improving mental health services for island residents.” Rose also said that Gipson did not technically fire a nurse in connection with the allegations. The nurse worked for a nursing agency, not the hospital. The Nursing Commission, which is under the state Department of Health, is also conducting an investigation. Norrie wrote that Gipson and the hospital’s security officer first called 9-1-1 dispatch to report that an unruly patient had assaulted a nurse May 13, but Gipson herself ended up being investigated for allegedly assaulting the same patient. Gipson claimed in her 9-1-1 call that the nurse was assaulted seven hours earlier and that the nurse was being X-rayed in the emergency room, Norrie wrote. A few minutes after Gipson’s call, a man called 9-1-1 to report that a different nurse, SEE NURSE, A9