New store offers wide variety - of marijuana

You can get whatever you want at B Street Bud.

The new marijuana store's list of products is like an extensive menu in a large restaurant.

The newest retail operation in Grand Coulee, on Burdin Boulevard, is highly regulated and will return some 37 percent of its sales in taxes to the state, says its owner, Jean Comstock.

Comstock purchases her marijuana from six licensed growers. Her edible products come from two other vendors, also licensed and controlled by the state.

The range of products includes marijuana buds - with intriguing and outlandish names - oils, pre-rolled cigarettes, cookies and brownies, naming just a few.

Names such as "Super Silver Haze," "Jack the Ripper" and "AC/DC" bounce out at you when you look at the product sheet.

There are "Strawberry Jam" cookies, Chocolate Macchiato Brownies, and liquid drops, of which just a little dab in your tea or coffee will do you.

The marijuana comes in gram or any of several multiple-gram packages. The most you can purchase at any one time is 28 grams, according to Comstock.

"It's safer than alcohol," Comstock asserts.

She carries one of just five current or pending licenses in Grant County, according to state records, and has gone through the background check and fingerprinting requirements.

Marijuana retail and growing operations are licensed and closely monitored by the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board. The state's voters passed Initiative 502 to legalize and regulate the sale of marijuana. Recreational sales to the public began in July 2014.

The Grand Coulee store is heavily guarded with wire mesh windows, surveillance cameras and alarms. Periodically, enforcement officials drop by to check records and see how business is doing, Comstock noted.

How many varieties of the stuff exist? Hundreds, Comstock notes. The varieties come from cross-pollinating marijuana plants. Plants and products are designed to deliver desired effects to both the body and mind, she says.

On a recent afternoon, a steady stream of customers are in and out the door. One chooses four cookies, and another a pre-rolled marijuana cigarette for $5.

There are tins of marijuana candy, "high energy" drops, and scores of other exotic products.

If names can confuse you, check on "Green Crack," "Alice in Wonderland," "Cotton Candy" and "Sour Diesel," to name a few.

Comstock has had her state license for over a year, but went through the process in Grand Coulee of applying for a city business license, only to have it rejected. Persistence paid off when she applied a second time and the license was issued.