Our island needs two things: increased industry of export goods and a thriving city center that serves the local community.

Thankfully, we have a city center where a family can park their car and get all of their diverse needs met on foot. A bustling, thriving ambiance feels successful and increases customer confidence and spending. There’s nothing worse for business than silence and emptiness.  Let’s fill the vacancies in downtown Vashon before we go making more vacancies elsewhere.

Meanwhile, we need industry and strong exports.  Establishing our island as an exporter of a newly marketable commodity with enormous growth potential is good for the local economy.

Medical marijuana rocks! My little old mother-in-law used to rub a homemade tincture of marijuana soaked in vodka on her hands and elbows. It worked better on her arthritis than Big Pharma drugs, was cheaper and left her clear-headed. Many islanders today use marijuana-infused salves and lotions, oils and tinctures for their untreatable pains and conditions. I’d be proud to say that our island was contributing to this new array of treatments.

Today, you can enjoy a flute of champagne on New Year’s Eve without fear of condemnation on an island with its own distillery. Eighty years ago, at the end of Prohibition, what would the reaction have been? Can’t we predict an ongoing change in attitude toward marijuana and be progressive about this?

The current proposal for building a “Vashon apothecary” next door to the Vashon Distillery has the potential to create consistent, local jobs and a powerful export economy. A development plan for K2 that will succeed is one with real business acumen. Large-scale export that captures a new market is smart business.

Full disclosure: No drugs in high school, no marijuana since college and I dislike alcohol.

— March Twisdale