Former nursery taken over to sell new kind of plant

Marijuana is still illegal in Idaho, but Moscow residents 21 and older now need only travel a mile west to Washington to purchase pot under the state's legal protection.

Floyd's Cannabis Co., Whitman County's latest recreational marijuana retailer, opened its doors to the public July 1 at the intersection of Highway 270 and Pullman Airport Road, and manager Stephanie Olson said business is booming.

"I've seen a lot of Montana driver's licenses, a lot of Idaho, California," Olson said. "There's been quite an out-of-state presence, definitely."

Whether the store's placement concerns county officials is mostly a moot point, according to Whitman County Commissioner Art Swannack. The fact that Floyd's remains within county limits and meets state guidelines and regulations means there would be no way to stop the business from forming in the corridor in the first place, he said.

If the location concerns any Pullman Police Department officers, their concerns were not officially taken into consideration before the store opened, Pullman Police Chief Gary Jenkins said. That is because the store, though holding a Pullman mailing address, is not located within Pullman's city limits, Jenkins said.

Olson said the store's close proximity to Idaho was not necessarily a deliberate choice - it was merely an open piece of property at the time. The building used to be a nursery before the cannabis company took over. Floyd's has another location in Sedro-Woolley, Wash.

But store management has certainly not disregarded its unique location altogether. Its Facebook page, "Floyd's Cannabis Pullman/Moscow 21+," advertises for the Moscow region in its name. Olson said the Facebook page name does not necessarily target Moscow so much as exemplify the store's location on the "Pullman-Moscow Airport Road," which is actually called Pullman Airport Road.

A new Instagram account not including Moscow in its title was also recently created for the store, after its original Instagram account was taken down. Olson said the original account was flagged by another user, likely a competing pot shop in the area engaging in "friendly competition," though Olson said the page did not violate any regulations.

"We were told when we came in here that we were going to have a hard time with social media and competitors," Olson said.

Olson said every social media post the store makes includes a warning about marijuana's "intoxicating effects," which "may be habit forming" and reminds followers they must be at least 21 years old to use.

But the placement does demonstrate stark differences in state laws and politics, separated by invisible borders.

Were the shop not blocked by a hill to the east, customers would see just down the road to Idaho, regarded by many as one of the toughest states in the nation in terms of marijuana laws.

Tuesday morning, several cars displaying a mixture of Washington and Idaho license plates sat in the Floyd's parking lot.

"Obviously we're not excited about it because it's so close to the border, but I'm not surprised," Latah County Chief Deputy Tim Besst said.

He said the department has done nothing to increase patrol in the nearby vicinity since the store opened and neither has the Moscow Police Department, according to Chief James Fry.

Olson said her store does what it can to make sure customers are following the law. Not allowing them to light up on store property is a huge rule, Olson said. Any opened marijuana packaging found in the store's trash could mean a fine.

But Olson is not watching out the store window to see whether customers make a left turn into Moscow at the intersection light outside the shop.

"Whatever they buy, if they take it right across the border, there's nothing we can do," Olson said.

Taylor Nadauld can be reached at (208) 883-4630, by email to tnadauld@dnews.com and on Twitter @tnadauldarg.