[Vision2020] Seattle marijuana-delivery service fills void for buyers

[Tom Hansen]

“It’s so convenient.  It’s as easy as ordering pizza but faster.”

Courtesy of today's (February 23, 2014) Spokesman-Revjew.

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Seattle marijuana-delivery service fills void for buyers
SEATTLE – Wombat sat in his car in a Wallingford parking lot, waiting to make a drug deal.

Shannon, 33, hopped in, her first time buying pot from the delivery service that Wombat – not his real name – works for. It’s called Winterlife and because of its questionable legality, its employees use animal pseudonyms, such as Otter, Owl and Fox.

Shannon showed Wombat her ID. He showed her a couple different strains of pot in clear, tidy packages and an array of pot-laced cookies, truffles and chocolate bars. She bought a quarter-ounce of Purple Wreck for $80 and several edibles for $25. This wasn’t medical marijuana. This was the newly legal recreational variety.

Shannon didn’t want to disclose her full name and occupation. But she did nothing illegal, according to Washington’s voter-approved recreational pot law.

The law allows adults to possess up to an ounce of pot and a pound of marijuana-infused edibles. Where and how they got the products are not legally relevant, said Alison Holcomb, chief author of the law and criminal-justice director at the ACLU of Washington.

Winterlife is filling a void, said Evan Cox, one of the company’s founders and owners. Pot consumers have been in limbo ever since Washington’s new law took effect in December 2012. They can legally possess weed, but there’s no place for them to legally buy it until state-regulated stores open in late spring or summer.

Winterlife isn’t the only service offering delivery of recreational pot. Others can be found in Craigslist ads, including Raccoons Club, a Winterlife spinoff.

But Winterlife is the most prominent with its advertising, appearances in local media and sophisticated website. Winterlife has more than 1,000 customers, said Cox, aka “Possum.”

“It’s so convenient,” Shannon said. “It’s as easy as ordering pizza but faster.”

But services that now sell recreational pot are committing a felony under state law, Holcomb said. Only state-licensed businesses can sell marijuana.

Cox acknowledged that he’s taking a calculated risk. He believes Winterlife’s precautions and overarching policy of “no kids, no shipping and no BS” makes his business legally defensible.

The Seattle Police Department may not go after Winterlife, according to a spokesman. “It’s not legal. It undermines the spirit of the law. But like anything else, our department takes all the complaints and dedicates our resources in a way that makes sense and is going to be most impactful,” Sgt. Sean Whitcomb said.

He compared the delivery services to speeding drivers. “They’re doing about 6 miles over the limit on the freeway. They’re banking they’re not going to get stopped,” Whitcomb said.

In previous stories about Winterlife on TV and in The Stranger newspaper, Cox hasn’t used his full name or allowed himself to be clearly photographed. But emboldened by such comments from the police, he was willing to do both for the Seattle Times.

Good money, low risk
“Hey it’s Wombat at Winterlife.”

Wombat was on to his second delivery, a little after noon, on a recent day. The new customer he called lives in the suburbs and Winterlife only delivers in Seattle. They arranged a meeting in the University District.

Wombat, 25, is a culinary-school graduate. He’s extremely polite, well-groomed and always uses his turn signals. He was a customer himself, he explained, built a relationship with his delivery guy, Otter, and couldn’t turn down the opportunity, he said, to make good money at Winterlife as its business grew.

He picked his own animal name. He wanted something to distinguish him from the Bear and Bull, Owl and Elk.

His mom is nervous about the job, he said. “I tell her it’s as legal as can be at the moment.”

Wombat gets paid a percentage of what he sells. Some days he sees 10 customers; on others it’s more like 30. Most people buy quarter-ounces, he said, which tend to run about $80. Many customers tip as well.

“I think there’s more risk of robberies than being busted by Seattle police,” he said.

Wombat hasn’t been robbed. But Cox said he was held up at gunpoint. Since then the company has done better at screening customers, he said.

Thieves tend to reveal themselves in questions they ask and in other ways, Wombat said. “We have filters for weeding out nefarious customers,” Cox said.

About 30 percent of Wombat’s customers are happy to have him come to their homes, he said. The rest prefer to rendezvous at public sites, especially cautious first-time customers and tourists.

Wombat met Obie, 49, in a parking lot near Interstate 5.

Obie, who didn’t want his full name used, said he learned about Winterlife through friends on Facebook.

After 27 years of abstaining, Obie said, he’s eager to try pot again now that it’s legal and drug testing is less likely at his job.

He’s tired of waiting for the state stores to open, he said. “What good is it being legal if you can’t get it? What’s the point?”

Obie is interested in the Critter Box, a $350 starter kit that includes two kinds of marijuana, three kinds of hash, edibles, a vaporizer, a pipe and even wicks one uses to ignite pot without having to inhale butane from a lighter.

Whenever a customer buys a Critter Box, Winterlife says it donates $100 to South Sound Critter Care, a nonprofit animal-rehabilitation center in Kent.

Obie purchases the package and tips Wombat.

“It’s about time,” Obie said of his legal bounty.

In terms of selection and prices, Shannon said Winterlife is “awesome.”

She feels the quality of her neighborhood dealer’s weed has recently slipped. “My guy is going to have to up his game if he wants to stay competitive,” she said.

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A Winterlife driver, who uses the name Wombat, sells cannabis product from his car. The product comes in clearly marked packages and a quarter-ounce sells for about $80. Pot-laced cookies, truffles and chocolate bars can also be purchased.



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$300+ AN OUNCE ? ! ? ! 
(And that is considered the low-end price)

I can remember, back in the fall of '76, when an ounce of Columbian could be purchased in San Francisco for $40.

Sing along with me, V-Peeps, to the tune of . . .

"The Wildwood Weed"
http://www.TomandRodna.com/Songs/Wildwood_Flower.mp3

"The name of this song is 'The Wildwood Flower'
Now 'The Wildwood Flower' is an old country classic
It gained a whole new popularity
The song isn't any more popular
But the flower is doin' real good

The wildwood flower grew wild on the farm
And we never knowed what it was called
Some said it was a flower and some said it was weed
I didn't gave it much thought...
One day I was out there talking to my brother
Reached down for a weed to chew on
Things got fuzzy and things got blurry
And then everything was gone
I Didn't know what happened
But I knew it beat the hell out of sniffin' burlap
I come to and my brother was there
And he said, 'What's wrong with your eyes?'
I said, 'I don't know, I was chewing on a weed'
He said, 'Let me give it a try'
We spent the rest of that day and most of that night
Trying to find my brother, Bill
Caught up with him 'bout six o'clock the next mornin'
Naked, swinging on the windmill
He said he flew up there
I had to fly up and get him down
He was about half crazy
The very next day we picked a bunch of them weeds
And put 'em in the sun to dry
Then we mashed 'em up and we cleaned 'em all
And put 'em in the corncob pipe
Smokin' them wildwood flowers got to be a habit
We didn't see no harm
We thought it was kind of handy
Take a trip and never leave the farm
A big ol' puff on the wildwood weed
Next thing you know
We's just wandering behind the little animals
All good things gotta come to an end
And it's the same with the wildwood weed
One day this feller from Washington come by
And he spied us and he turned white as a sheet
And he dug and he burned
And he burned and he dug
And he killed all our cute little weeds
Then he drove away
We just smiled and waved
Sittin' there on that sack of seeds
Y'all come back now, ya hear."

Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .

"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)
http://www.MoscowCares.com
  
Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"There's room at the top they are telling you still.
But first you must learn how to smile as you kill,
If you want to be like the folks on the hill."

- John Lennon
  
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