Island Cure Collective, Vashon’s only marijuana dispensary, has closed after the owner received a warning letter Saturday from the county’s prosecuting attorney directing him to close his business or face civil or criminal action.

Under new legislation that was signed into law in April 2015 calling for unlicensed medical dispensaries to be closed by July 1 of this year, the dispensary is now illegal because it lacks a retail license from the state.

The letter came just more than a month after the July 1 deadline for all medical marijuana stores to either abide by the same strict licensing and regulatory measures required of recreational stores or close down.

Kevin Bergin, Island Cure Collective’s owner, said that before Saturday, he never received a letter and was never told to close. He continued to operate because closing down and complying would have meant leaving his patients with nowhere on-island to get their medical marijuana products.

“Many of my members have serious illnesses, which prohibit them from getting on and off the island easily to find a recreational store in Seattle or Tacoma,” he said. “Closing Island Cure hurts the people who need it most in our community.”

Before the law (SB 5052), medical growers and retailers were not licensed by the state, and did not have to be, while recreational businesses were required to pay many taxes and abide by strict regulations. The law, called the Cannabis Patient Protection Act, is the state’s attempt to regulate the medical market and, in the process, close the previously legal, unlicensed medical marijuana dispensaries.

After the law was passed, the state Liquor and Cannabis Board (LCB) allowed medical dispensaries to apply for recreational licenses, which have $266 application fees and multiple restrictions on location and regulations for product testing and tracking. But not all businesses that applied would receive a license. The law created a tier system, meaning first priority would go to dispensary applicants who applied for a marijuana retail license prior to July 1, 2014, operated or worked at a collective garden prior to January 1, 2013, have maintained a state and local business license and have a history of paying state taxes and fees.

LCB spokesman Mikael Carpenter said Monday that medical dispensaries interested in retail licenses had one year to pursue a license, and hundreds applied.

“There was an abundance of applications,” he said.

A total of 222 of those applicants, who met the requirements mentioned above, were granted retail licenses. The others have been closed.

The LCB is also no longer accepting retail marijuana license applications from anyone.

Bergin opened Island Cure Collective in 2014 and has never applied for a retail license. At the time he opened the dispensary, he said he planned to stay in business “as long as there’s a legal medical marijuana market in Washington,” but wasn’t interested in moving into the recreational marijuana market because of the high taxes.

Asked last week about his dispensary’s fate, he said that if it were possible, he would get a retail license to stay open, but that is not possible due to the LCB no longer accepting license applications and the fact that the building is within 1,000 feet of Creative Preschool, which is run out of the Presbyterian Church across the highway. All marijuana stores must now follow the retail regulations, and stores are prohibited to open within 1,000 feet of schools, child care centers and parks.

According to the letter sent to Bergin by the King County prosecuting attorney, even if Bergin hoped to become licensed by the Washington Liquor and Cannabis Board and found a proper location, he would still have to cease operations now.

“Washington law allows the retail sale of marijuana only if a business has obtained a license from the state Liquor and Cannabis Board (LCB),” the letter indicates. “Island Cure Collective lacks such a license, and thus the business is unlawful and must immediately close down.”

The letter was sent just one day after an Aug. 10 article in The Olympian reported Bergin’s illegal shop.

Reached last week, Dan Donohoe, spokesman for the county prosecuting attorney, said the office is “aware of (Bergin’s shop) now.”

Donohoe said the office had been sending out letters to illegal businesses over the past year and closed at least 15 unlicensed medical marijuana businesses in unincorporated King County.

But Bergin said he never received a letter about closing his business. He said he asked a deputy on the island two days prior to the July 1 closure deadline about what he was to do.

“The Sheriff’s Office had no knowledge of imminent closure or any involvement in the process,” Bergin said.

King County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Cindi West said that the sheriff’s office does usually work with the prosecutor’s office to close illegal businesses.

The LCB said that Bergin’s shop was not on its radar because it is unlicensed, and it only deals with licensed businesses.

“He decided not to close, and he’s not licensed by the state, so it’s not under our purview,” LCB spokeswoman Gigi Zenk said. “There was a lot of press (about the July 1 deadline). (Bergin) needs to comply.”

With the shop now closed, islanders have no place to obtain medical marijuana. LCB records show one retail-only license on Vashon held by Living Well Enterprises. The address is listed as being in the Sheffield Building, but no store is open yet. Reached on Monday, Living Well Enterprises’ Ekalo Teklehaimanot said that he has a license, but cannot open in the Sheffield Building space.

Teklehaimanot, who lives in Seattle, said that if he finds a good place for a store on Vashon, he will open, otherwise he will set his sights off-island.

No one at the King County Department of Permitting and Environmental Review was available Monday to comment on the specifics of the location and why he was unable to open, but the Vashon-Maury Cooperative Preschool is near the Sheffield Building, and because of the 1,000 foot-buffer rule, Bergin said that is likely why Living Well Enterprises is not allowed to operate there.

Even if Teklehaimanot could find a location, his shop may not serve the medical marijuana need on Vashon. Due to the new law, recreational stores interested in carrying products intended for medical use and training staff about marijuana as a medicine need to seek a medical endorsement. He is licensed for retail-only operation, meaning that his shop would focus on recreational products.

For Bergin and medical marijuana users and activists, the dispensary’s closure is a loss for a community in need.

“While state regulators intend Vashon patients to patronize recreational stores, it is unlikely that we will have a recreational store on the island any time soon, and for now, the true medical products are still scarce in recreational stores,” Shango Los, director of the Vashon Island Marijuana Enthusiasts Alliance said.