SEATTLE — Washington state issued its first retail marijuana licenses Monday, a day ahead of the start of legal sales. And 21 hours before the only store licensed to sell in Seattle was set to open, a line already was forming.
At Cannabis City, where the owner wasn’t planning to open his doors until noon Tuesday, a 65-year-old retiree named Deb Greene showed up just before 3 p.m. Monday. She had a chair, sleeping bag, food, water and a 930-page book.
“I voted for it, and I’m just so excited to see it come to be in my lifetime,” she said. “I’m not a heavy user; I’m just proud of our state for giving this a try.”
The start of legal pot sales in Washington on Tuesday 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.
Sales began in Colorado on Jan. 1.
John Evich, an investor in Bellingham’s Top Shelf Cannabis, said they were “pretty stoked.” “We haven’t had any sleep in a long time, but we’re excited for the next step,” Evich said.
Randy Simmons, the state Liquor Control Board’s project manager for legal marijuana, said the first two dozen stores were notified early to give them an extra few hours to get cannabis on their shelves before they are allowed to open their doors at 8 a.m. Tuesday.
An AP survey of the licensees showed that only about six planned to open Tuesday.
State officials eventually expect to have more than 300 recreational pot shops.
As soon as the stores were notified Monday, they began working to place their orders with some of the state’s first licensed growers. As soon as the orders were received, via state-approved software for tracking the bar-coded pot, the growers could place the product in a required 24-hour “quarantine” before shipping it early Tuesday morning.
Pot prices were expected to reach $25 a gram or higher on the first day of sales — twice what people pay in the state’s unregulated medical marijuana dispensaries. That was largely because of 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.
At Cannabis City, despite the line already beginning to form, owner James Lathrop wasn’t planning to open before noon.
“Know your audience: We’re talking stoners here,” he said. “I’d be mean to say they need to get up at 5 a.m. to get in line.”
