From Initial Success to Declining Sales and Repeated Infractions

A cannabis shop owned by Jefferson County Commissioner candidate Greg Brotherton was cited October 10 for violating state marijuana regulations, marking the eighth citation issued against his store in the past four years, state data show. 

According to records from the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board (LCB), the most serious violations by Brotherton’s Sea Change Cannabis included a penalty of $1,500 or a 10 day suspension for, “sale or service to a minor,” along with, “allowing a minor to frequent a restricted area,” resulting in a fine of $600, according to LCB Communications Director Brian Smith. 

In an earlier offense, the store was cited and fined for failure to utilize and/or maintain traceability,” to track marijuana from seed to sale and faced sanctions for that violation. All three drug violations for which Brotherton’s store was fined were committed while he was a member of the Quilcene School Board. 

Brotherton’s store was also cited for multiple violations of state regulations involving advertising, maintaining required signage and selling “unauthorized product.” In each of these instances, Brotherton’s store was issued a verbal warning for the infractions, including the most recent violation. 

Among the citations are three, “advertising violations,” dating back to April, 2016, each of which resulted in a verbal warning. According to Smith, “The advertising complaints are closed due to the licensee being very cooperative.” 

A Rocky Start

The Jefferson County Department of Community Development voiced no objection to the 2014 application for a marijuana license for Sea Change Cannabis, which included two dozen named applicants along with Brotherton. The county provided formal notice of its decision to the LCB in a letter dated June 24, 2014 and one month later, Greg Brotherton and Sea Change Cannabis were in business. With a lean inventory of product, the store sold out during its July 25 grand opening in Discovery Bay. 

Less than three months later, Sea Change was in trouble. Brotherton’s store was fined after being cited on October 11, 2014 for failing to properly account for the traceability of product at his store, state records show. State law requires tracking marijuana products “from seed to sale.” The purpose of the regulation violated by Sea Change is, “to prevent diversion and to promote public safety.” It also serves to ensure that all marijuana products originate with and are processed by approved licensees, discouraging black market marijuana from entering the legal market. The LCB did not have any readily available information on the size of the fine.

Sales at Sea Change rose rapidly and peaked in August, 2015, with monthly sales of more than $145,000, according to the retail cannabis tracking website 502 Data. But by November, sales were down more than 24%. It was during this decline that Brotherton’s store was cited a second time by the LCB, this time for selling unauthorized products. He was issued a verbal warning for the violation. 

Sea Change sales stabilized during the first half of 2016 but sharply declined in autumn of that year, falling to less than $70,000 in November, a drop of more than 36% from the previous November. During this year of continued decline, Sea Change was cited on two separate occasions for advertising violations, the first citation issued April 14, 2016, and the second filed on December 2, 2016. Both violations, including the repeat offense, resulted in a verbal warning rather than a fine. 

The Year From Hell

2017 did not begin well for Greg Brotherton and Sea Change. With monthly sales now hovering slightly above $50,000, a problem with minors emerged for Brotherton’s store. 

Two months after being cited for a repeat advertising violation, the store failed a compliance check by LCB officers. Brotherton’s store was charged with “sale or service to a minor,” and hit with a fine by the LCB on February 7, 2017. The violation was more significant than previous citations issued against Sea Change because according to LCB spokesman Brian Smith, sale of marijuana to a minor is a felony. The problem is compounded by the fact that marijuana remains classified as a Schedule I drug under federal law, along with heroin, LSD and other drugs deemed to have, “a high potential for abuse.”  

The compliance check resulted in a second citation that day, this one for “allowing a minor to frequent a restricted area.” Faced with combined fines of $3,500 and a possible 10-day suspension, Brotherton was able to negotiate the sanctions with the LCB, which ultimately reduced the penalties to a $600 fine for allowing a minor into a restricted area, and a $1,500 fine for the charge of sale or service to a minor, according to Smith.

Smith noted in an email several mitigating factors associated with the two most serious violations, and that Brotherton and Sea Change agreed to,  “examine the identifications of customers purchasing cannabis who appear less than 40 years of age; Licensee actively monitors employees to ensure they are adhering to store policy regarding identification checking and selling cannabis responsibly; Licensee accepts responsibility for and takes violation seriously, and is committed to having no future violations,” among other actions. 

Brotherton and Sea Change were then faced with a third citation in as many days when on February 10, 2017, the store was found to be in violation of regulations regarding proper signs. Unlike the violations involving minors, the signage citation did not result in a fine and the LCB issued a verbal warning. 

Having negotiated a reduced penalty for citations involving minors, and receiving a verbal warning for improper signage, the problem of three violations within 72 hours was eclipsed in the early morning hours of February 15 when Sea Change was burglarized. Security camera video shows two individuals ransacking the store and filling what appears to be a duffle bag with a variety of product and drug paraphernalia. 

According to a report from the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, “Deputies responded to an alarm at the Sea Change cannabis store in Discovery Bay and found that the front door had been forced open. The store’s owner told deputies that approximately $4,000.00 worth of marijuana was stolen during the incident.” 

The dollar amount of the loss escalated in the days following the theft, with media reports of $20,000 – $25,000 in retail value stolen in the theft. In one media interview, Brotherton was quoted saying “It was embarrassingly easy,” for the suspects to force their way into his store. 

Twenty months later, the case remains an unsolved mystery. “They don’t have any leads and there are no suspects,” said Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office Records Officer Melissa Graff. While Graff said the case remains technically open, the dearth of evidence means investigators have virtually nothing to go on, with Deputy Brian Anderson heading the investigation at this time. The stolen goods were described as approximately five pounds of pre-packaged marijuana and a variety of edibles infused with cannabis, all of which can be removed from its packaging to be sold, untraceable, and avoiding all taxes on the black market. 

Continued Decline in Sales; More Violations 

Sales at Sea Change hovered between $50,000 and $60,00 per month for most of 2017, but began falling again later that year. By February, 2018, a year after the burglary and the string of three LCB citations in three days, Sea Change sales hit a nadir of less than $35,000 a month, a drop of more than 76% since the profitable days of 2015. Two months later, Brotherton announced his candidacy for a seat on the Board of County Commissioners, which pays an annual salary of more than $79,000 and provides benefits. 

By now, cannabis was being marketed in large letters on the storefront of Brotherton’s Discovery Bay market, which is adjacent to Sea Change but is not licensed to sell marijuana. The store’s website also spoke of the medicinal benefits of marijuana, with one store employee stating that the drug helps get people, “closer to God,” both of which are violations of state regulations. 

These marketing efforts led to the October 10, 2018 citation against Brotherton’s store for more advertising violations. It was the third advertising violation in two and a half years and the LCB issued a verbal warning. Today, the cannabis promotion painted on Brotherton’s market is gone; the website entries that illegally promoted the medical value of the drug have been removed. 

Response to the repeated violations of state marijuana regulations has been primarily limited to social media commentary. County commissioner candidate Jon Cooke, Brotherton’s Republican opponent in the race, said he initially, “was going to stay out of the issue because marijuana is legal in Washington state.” Cooke went on to say, “this lack of judgement from a position of leadership is very concerning to me.  On the Board of County Commissioners, we are an extension of the state government and there are rules and laws to which we must adhere.”

When contacted by telephone, Brotherton refused to answer any questions and had no comment other than to say, “it’s not really a story I want to participate in.” He also declined to say whether the 24 individuals listed in the 2014 application for a marijuana license were investors in Sea Change Cannabis.