I have a close friend who moved from Seattle to Vancouver 12 years ago to live with his girlfriend.
At the time Washington had yet to legalize recreational marijuana and Vancouver was known for its phenomenal cannabis. Iconic strains like BC Bud originated in Vancouver, and once it was postulated that there must be a grow house in every neighborhood throughout the dense city. But things changed here in Washington in 2012 when we became the second state in the nation behind Colorado to legalize cannabis for recreational use among adults over 21 years old. Now we have legal recreational cannabis dispensaries all over the state, with many of the best here in Seattle. I feel lucky that my apartment in Northgate is right next to a cannabis dispensary that has a 4.6 star rating on WeedMaps. I used to only consume cannabis flower products, but now I stick to dabbing cannabis concentrates. Some nights I’ll consume a large dab and then walk down the sidewalk toward Jackson Park to traverse the nature trails. Northgate ends at NE 145th St which runs east and west from Puget Sound to Lake Washington. I’m in the middle of a dense urban sprawl, but it’s nice to have water on both sides of the city. And with a cannabis dispensary right next door to my apartment building, there is little incentive for me to live elsewhere in Seattle. The rental rates are increasing and I’m already lucky enough that mine have only increased by 10% over the past three years. Some of my friends had to leave Seattle altogether because they couldn’t afford rent along with their cannabis expenses every month.