Everyday at Life’s RX Holistic Apothecary, a medical marijuana dispensary on Northeast Fourth Street in Renton, they serve between 40 and 75 clients, providing medical marijuana to patients with a variety of conditions.

But with the passage and signing of a new state law this year and a move on the horizon by the Renton City Council and administration, that could all change in the very near future.

“We’ll see what it looks like,” co-owner Konner Rose said this week. “I hope we can continue to help people.”

Life’s RX is one of a handful of medical dispensaries presently open in Renton, though because of SB5052, passed and signed into law in the this year’s legislative session and designed to merge the unregulated medical industry with the recreational stores created by Initiative 502, they are now technically illegal.

Because of that, many other municipalities in the area, such as King County, have begun shutting down the medical facilities.

In Renton, the City Council on Sept. 14 is expected to approve a new ordinance that would require any and all marijuana retailers in the city to have a state-issued license, which medical facilities presently do not have. All current businesses will have to apply for one of the new retail licenses – a lottery for which is expected to open this fall – at the earliest opportunity, with a legal deadline of July 1, 2016.

“We’re basically saying we’re not permitting it now and we’re certainly not going to permit it henceforth,” City Attorney Larry Warren said, but added that any business that first gets a state license – and then obeys all city zoning – will be issued a city business license.

“We expect the businesses in Renton to follow state law,” Mayor Denis Law said. “We are not going to sanction any kind of illegal business.”

However, Law said he is sympathetic to the medical marijuana cause and said his personal feeling is that the shops provide a benefit to their customers and should be accessible, as the voters wanted.

“Legitimate medical marijuana providers have been providing a valuable service,” he said.

However, because of “helter-skelter approach” by the state, the current system lacks checks and balances and is a “recipe for all kinds of problems.”

Because of that, though the city has not officially sanctioned or licensed any medical marijuana business, they are also not pursuing an aggressive enforcement policy.

Councilman Randy Corman, who chairs the city’s Planning and Development Committee, also called the matter a state issue and while he said there was “compelling testimony” last year during a public hearing on a moratorium on medical dispensaries, he said the Renton City Council was not the place to re-argue state law.

Corman called the city’s approach “sensible” and reiterated his view that this issue will have to once again be addressed by the state legislature and that anything they do now may end up changing again in the near future.

“Given how the state’s been wrestling with this … I wouldn’t be surprised if the state Legislature came back around again,” he said.

Corman also said that he understands there are differences in the chemical make-up between various strains of recreational and medical marijuana and their effects and hopes any new laws passed by the legislature takes that into consideration.

Councilman Armondo Pavone agreed that this was not an issue for the Renton council and approved of the policy that all businesses be licensed in the state.

“I think we should line up with the state,” he said. “Medical right now is just a way to skirt the law.”

As of now, the city is not issuing any letters to dispensaries or taking any action to close those businesses already open, hoping they will either get a state license or close down. But they are leaving the door open following the council’s review and decision on the policy, expected as part of the next meeting Sept. 14.

Up at Life’s RX, Rose said he has been in contact with the city and his shop will hope to get one of the new licenses, preferably with one of the newly created medical endorsements so they can continue to help their patients.

“That’s where out hearts are at,” he said of the medical endorsement.