Last fall, nearly three quarters of island voters approved Initiative 502, the measure that legalized marijuana in the state. On liberal Vashon, we weren’t too surprised at the high margin. However, now that the state and county are considering what the legal sale of marijuana will look like in Washington, we wonder how many islanders who checked yes last year imagined a marijuana shop opening at a storefront in town or fields of the plant growing next door to their homes.

Under recently proposed regulations, marijuana could have a significant presence on the island. In fact, some have suggested that Vashon and other parts of unincorporated King County will be ideal for establishing marijuana growing operations because of their large swaths of land zoned as agricultural. A new map shows that most parts of the island would be eligible to hold businesses or growing operations. What’s more, the Washington State Liquor Control Board has suggested that to avoid a marijuana black market, it would like new businesses to be accessible across the state. This could mean that if no businesses open on the island, the state may step in and assign someone interested in opening a business do so on Vashon rather than somewhere else.

We have concerns about what such a presence of drugs — albeit legalized drugs — could have on Vashon, an island many live on for its small-town, set-apart feel and a place that also benefits from its tourist appeal. Our youth already use controlled substances, including marijuana, at rates higher than the state average, a trend volunteers have been working for years to combat. We wonder what highly visible marijuana businesses could mean for youth access to pot or the reported perception among many youth that drug use is acceptable.

Vashon isn’t the only community struggling with these questions. Towns across the state will undoubtedly see marijuana’s legalization impact their commercial areas and neighborhoods. But we still have some control over how this law will play out. The county’s permitting department is already revising its recommendations based on public comments it received earlier this month, as is the state liquor control board, and both are still taking comments. While public comment periods can sometimes seem like formalities that make little difference in the end, this time it seems that officials are truly listening. In this uncharted territory, they want to implement rules that residents can support and that will actually work — avoiding potential difficulties that could occur if new rules are pushed through without careful thought.

Read this week’s front-page story on how proposed regulations could play out on Vashon, and for more information, see the websites of the state liquor control board and the county’s Department of Permitting and Review. It’s possible that marijuana business could operate without issue in our community. But we also suspect that not everyone who approved the legalization marijuana will be happy with the proposed regulations. Perhaps the state and county could make some adjustments that would minimize the new businesses that would crop up here. In uncharted territory, those who speak up, it seems, are helping chart the course.