Big crowd expected at relocated marijuana forum

Anticipating a large crowd at today’s forum on legalized marijuana rules, a state agency made an 11th-hour decision to move to a bigger room – the Spokane Convention Center.

The Washington State Liquor Control Board’s forum on its efforts to comply with Initiative 502 will be held at 6 p.m. today in the Spokane Convention Center. A spokesman for the board said agency officials feared the Spokane City Council Chambers wouldn’t be big enough.

The three previous forums all drew overflow crowds, spokesman Mikhail Carpenter said. More than 350 people showed up for the first forum in Olympia, about 500 attended the Seattle forum and about 400 were at the Vancouver forum.

The Convention Center ballroom will hold 450, and can be expanded if necessary.

The board announced new locations for other planned forums, and added new meetings to its schedule early last week. But the new location for Spokane wasn’t nailed down until late Friday. Because of that, a story in Sunday’s Spokesman-Review and three newspaper ads about the forum all had the old address.

Carpenter said the board hopes to post a sign at City Hall directing people to the Convention Center, which is several blocks east on Spokane Falls Boulevard.