As an outside observer, I’m bemused by Mayor Leanne Guier and the City of Pacific’s reasons for their moratorium on marijuana-based businesses.

You would think that a small town just getting over Cy Sun’s farcical mayoral tenure would be eager to demonstrate that its new leadership is capable of, well, leading. Instead, they are unequivocally stating that instead of creating precedent, they will follow it, just as soon as other jurisdictions show them how to govern on newly-legal recreational marijuana.

Washington voters approved recreational marijuana use, and the federal government has now officially stated that, for all intents and purposes, it will not interfere. What is there to be timid about? Surely, common sense and existing laws on liquor and cigarettes could be applied to pot at a municipal level for the time being, and changed later to comply with any additional rules from the state.

Come on, Pacific. Wouldn’t you be better served using this issue to help recover a little lost credibility?

– Al Eufrasio