By Pat Jenkins The Dispatch Eatonville's ban of licensed marijuana sales will continue while differences over controls on the industry are sorted out. The Town Council voted June 22 to extend a moratorium on retail sales of recreational marijuana another six months. An original six-month ban approved by the council last December was scheduled to expire at the end of June. Town officials continue to follow the lead of court decisions in 2014 that gave local governments the authority to regulate or ban marijuana businesses despite a voter-approved state law (Initiative 502) that allows retail pot enterprises. No such businesses have been proposed in Eatonville since state-licensed recreational marijuana sales became legal. The ban on growing, processing and selling marijuana inside town limits will keep it that way while town officials await the outcome of legal tests of I-502. The town's Planning Commission last recommended land-use zoning that would let state-licensed retail operations could exist in Eatonville under tight restrictions. But the council decided close the door to pot businesses until local impacts are addressed. Cities and towns have been asking the state to share revenue from marijuana businesses in order to help pay for local enforcement. The Pierce County Council, citing conflicts between federal and state laws, has banned I-502-sanctioned marijuana operations in unincorporated areas of the county until Congress removes marijuana from the list of federally controlled substances. Council members recently have discussed lifting the ban, however. Court cases are pending in which the authority of local jurisdictions versus the state law are being debated.
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