By Justin Runquist
The Columbian

Southwest Washington’s newest pot shop opens on Saturday, and in a sense, it’s like nothing you’ve seen before.

It’s been a long and bumpy road to the store, both literally and figuratively. Sitting all the way out in sleepy North Bonneville, the place is about a 45-minute drive from civilization in Vancouver.

Finally getting to the point of even being able to open the business has been quite a hassle for the folks involved. I’ll spare you the gritty details. Just read my latest story about it, if you’re curious.

The place is called The Cannabis Corner. And it’s definitely not the name that makes it so different. It’s that The Cannabis Corner is the first city-owned pot shop. Ever. Not only in Washington, but the whole country.

For the record, Mayor Don Stevens hoped the place would be called “Best Dam Pot Shop” as a throwback to the Bonneville Dam. But that wasn’t his call to make. It was up to the North Bonneville Public Development Authority, a government-owned corporation set up to oversee operations at the store.

The city set the place up to make some money on the industry while keeping a closer eye on operations. If the experiment works, it’s possible some other cities could eventually follow in North Bonneville’s footsteps, said Brian Smith, a spokesman for the Liquor Control Board.

So there’s a novelty factor to the place, but why would anyone in Vancouver actually care to drive all the way out there to buy some marijuana? Well, Stevens has an idea.

“If they go to the local store, they might see their mom or their brother, their pastor,” he said.

Hm…True. So, if the stigma of legal weed still has you stuck to the couch, The Cannabis Corner might be the store for you.

The place carries a variety of product. As Tim Dudley, the chairman of the store’s governing board, likes to say, “We wanted to have the Dollar Tree inexpensive stuff to the Nordstrom high-end stuff, and everything in between.”

So far, the shop carries dozens of strains from about five growers, including CannaMan Farms, Agrijuana and W.O.W Weed, store manager Robyn Legun said. Some of the familiar names from Agrijuana, for instance: Blue Dream, Blue City Diesel, and a new release called White McWidow.

“We’re carrying a huge variety of flower,” Legun said. “Basically, it’s anything from a really strong, put-me-to-sleep indica to a really speedy sativa that will kind of get you running around.”

Flowers will go for about $15 to $20 per gram at this point. Packs of edibles range from $10 to $60.

In the display case, you’ll also notice some high-end Belgian chocolate edibles. They come from a Bellingham company called Crescendo Chocolate. Varieties include chocolate mango truffles, dark chocolate coconut, chocolate peanut butter and mint chocolate.

“Good, good stuff,” Legun said.

Like any other store, The Cannabis Corner also carries all sorts of vaporizers, pipes, flavored rolling paper and other knick knacks. At this point, all the pipes are from Mary Jane’s House of Glass.

As with any pot shop, The Cannabis Corner also has its own vibe.

On the outside, the building looks like an old barn covered in slabs of sheet metal. It’s bright blue, and you can see it as you pass by on Highway 14.

But inside, the walls are lined with photos of scenic landmarks from the Columbia River Gorge. That was an important touch, Legun said.

“We were trying to kind of keep it simple,” she said. “We want to just make sure that you get at least a partial feeling of the area.”

Legun said the store will be open seven days a week from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.