VANCOUVER, Wash. (KOIN) — When Vancouver residents cast their primary election ballots in a few weeks, one of their options for mayor is the co-owner of the busiest pot shop in the state of Washington.
Main Street Marijuana owner Adam Hamide has lived in Vancouver his whole life but up until about three months ago, he hadn’t thought much about running for mayor.
He told KOIN 6 News that changed after he watched the city take four months to get a single tree planted in front of his store.
“As a business owner, if it took me four months to respond to anything that needed to get done, I’d be out of business,” Hamide said.
Main Street Marijuana is home to 75 full time, fully benefited employees. The business brings in more than $30 million a year and has paid more than $20 million in state taxes since it opened. Some of that money went directly back to the City of Vancouver, helping to hire 6 police officers.
Hamide hopes to parlay those achievements into the top job at city hall.
“I’m willing to give it a shot,” he said. “We’ve navigated everything here and we’ve been really successful and I think I can be successful being the mayor.”
Hadmide said if he’s elected, he’ll tackle high rent, transportation and communication issues.
“Our city council doesn’t get along right now with our own county,” Hamide said. “They don’t get along with officials in Oregon for trying to get the bridge going, so I want to bring everybody together.”
To do that, he’s willing to out the pot business on the back burner. The position of mayor is a part-time job in Vancouver, but Hamide says he’ll work at it full-time.
“Everything I do is 100% so if it takes 80 hours a week to be the mayor of Vancouver, that’s what you’re gonna get from me,” Hamide said.
Voters have two weeks to pick from the candidates, including current city councilor Anne McEnery-Ogle, Steven Cox, John Carroll and Greg Henderson. Two candidates will move on to November’s general election.