Now Washington lights up: First customer buys recreational marijuana from pot shop as state becomes second to legalize weed
- Washington stores began selling weed today as soon as they were allowed
- Cale Holdsworth, 29, from Kansas was the first person to buy legal pot in the state
- In November 2012, Washington and Colorado legalized pot for adults
Washington has become the second US state to allow people to buy legal recreational marijuana, as customers lined up outside pot shops to snap up samples.
Nearly two years after the state voted to legalize marijuana, 29-year-old Cale Holdsworth became the first person to buy the herb there.
‘This is a great moment,’ Holdsworth said, beating the crowd to pick up two grams of pot from Bellingham’s Top Shelf Cannabis.
Top Shelf Cannabis is one of two Bellingham stores that started selling the drug as soon as it was allowed under state regulations.
Before it opened, several dozen people lined up outside the shop in this liberal college town of about 80,000 north of Seattle.
Holdsworth, wearing salmon-colored shorts and a brown sweatshirt jacket over a tie-dyed T-shirt, was first in line, along with his girlfriend, Sarah Gorton, and her younger brother. They showed up at 4am.
Gorton said the trio was in Bellingham for her grandfather’s 84th birthday.
‘It’s just a happy coincidence and an opportunity we’re not going to have for a long time,’ said Gorton, a 24-year-old with dreadlocks and homemade jewelry.
‘I’m really thrilled to be a part of something that I never thought would happen.’
The start of legal pot sales in Washington marks a major step that’s been 20 months in the making.
Washington and Colorado stunned much of the world by voting in November 2012 to legalize marijuana for adults over 21, and to create state-licensed systems for growing, selling and taxing the pot. Sales began in Colorado on January 1.
Washington issued its first 24 retail licenses Monday.
An Associated Press survey of the licensees showed only about six planned to open Tuesday: two in Bellingham, one in Seattle, one in Spokane, one in Prosser and one in Kelso.
Some were set to open later this week or next, while others said it could be a month or more before they could acquire marijuana to sell.
It’s been a bumpy ride in Washington, with product shortages expected as growers and sellers scrambled to prepare.
Pot prices were expected to be higher than what people pay at the state’s unregulated medical marijuana dispensaries.
That was largely due to the short supply of legally produced pot in the state. Although more than 2,600 people applied to become licensed growers, fewer than 100 have been approved — and only about a dozen were ready to harvest by early this month. Colorado already had a regulated medical marijuana system, making for a smoother transition when it allowed those dispensaries to start selling to recreational pot shops January 1.
The rules include protocols for testing marijuana and requirements for child-resistant packaging. Officials also had to determine things like how much criminal history was too much to get a license, and what types of security systems pot shops and growers should have.
Washington law allows the sale of up to an ounce of dried marijuana, 16 ounces of pot-infused solids, 72 ounces of pot-infused liquids or seven grams of concentrated marijuana, like hashish, to adults over 21.
A crowd waits to purchase legal recreational marijuana outside Cannabis City
Customers and media browse products at recreational marijuana store Cannabis City
Ryan Hutchen of Columbia, South Carolina, looks at different cannabis strains at Cannabis City
The first customers at Cannabis City hold up their purchases
Brian Kost, a 45-year-old Bellingham man, was among the first in line at Top Shelf Cannabis, in an industrial area off Interstate 5. He said he hadn’t smoked marijuana in 17 years because he didn’t like the hassle of trying to find it on the illegal market.
‘With the chance to buy it legally, I just couldn’t pass it up,’ Kost said. ‘I never thought I’d see the day.’
Gorton said she, her brother and boyfriend planned to head back to their relatives’ house and sample their purchase.
‘We’re probably going to break open a bottle of wine, sit on the porch and enjoy this,’ she said.
Article source: UK Daily Mail
