Pubdate: Mon, 30 Dec 2013
Source: News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Copyright: 2013 The News-Herald
Contact:  http://www.news-herald.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/305
Author: Kristen Wyatt, Associated Press

LEGAL MARIJUANA SALES BEGIN AMID UNCERTAINTY IN COLO.

DENVER (AP) - A gleaming white Apple store of weed is how Andy 
Williams sees his new Denver marijuana dispensary.

Two floors of pot-growing rooms will have windows showing the 
shopping public how the mind-altering plant is grown. Shoppers will 
be able to peruse drying marijuana buds and see pot trimmers at work 
separating the valuable flowers from the less-prized stems and leaves.

"It's going to be all white and beautiful," the 45-year-old ex- 
industrial engineer explains, excitedly gesturing around what just a 
few weeks ago was an empty warehouse space that will eventually house 
40,000 square feet of cannabis strains.

As Colorado prepares to be the first in the nation to allow 
recreational pot sales, opening Jan. 1, hopeful retailers like 
Williams are investing their fortunes into the legal recreational pot 
world - all for a chance to build even bigger ones in a fledgling 
industry that faces an uncertain future.

Officials in Colorado and Washington, the other state where 
recreational pot goes on sale in mid-2014, as well as activists, 
policymakers and governments from around the U.S. and across the 
world will not be the only ones watching the experiment unfold.

So too will the U.S. Department of Justice, which for now is not 
fighting to shut down the industries.

"We are building an impressive showcase for the world, to show them 
this is an industry," Williams says, as the scent of marijuana 
competes with the smell of sawdust and wet paint in the cavernous 
store where he hopes to sell pot just like a bottle of wine.

Will it be a showcase for a safe, regulated pot industry that 
generates hundreds of millions of dollars each year and saves money 
on locking up drug criminals, or one that will prove, once and for 
all, that the federal government has been right to ban pot since 1937?

Cannabis was grown legally in the U.S. for centuries, even by George 
Washington. After Prohibition's end in the 1930s, federal authorities 
turned their sights on pot. The 1936 propaganda film "Reefer Madness" 
warned the public about a plant capable of turning people into 
mindless criminals.

Over the years, pot activists and state governments managed to chip 
away at the ban, their first big victory coming in 1996 when 
California allowed medical marijuana. Today, 19 other states, 
including Colorado and Washington, and the District of Columbia have 
similar laws.

Those in the business were nervous, fearing that federal agents would 
raid their shops.

That same year, the Justice Department told federal prosecutors they 
should not focus investigative resources on patients and caregivers 
complying with state medical marijuana laws - but the department 
reserved the right to step in if there was abuse.

In Colorado, the industry took off. Shops advertised on billboards 
and radio. Potgrowing warehouses along Interstate 70 in Denver grew 
so big that motorists started calling one stretch the "Green Zone" 
for its frequent skunky odor of pot.

The city at one point had more marijuana dispensaries than Starbucks 
coffee shops, with some neighborhoods crowded with dispensary 
signwavers and banners offering free joints for new customers. Local 
officials have since ratcheted back such in-yourface ads.

But the marijuana movement didn't stop. Voters in Colorado and 
Washington approved recreational pot in 2012, sold in part on 
spending less to lock up drug criminals and the potential for new tax 
dollars to fund state programs.

The votes raised new questions about whether the federal government 
would sue to block laws flouting federal drug law. Colorado Gov. John 
Hickenlooper famously warned residents not to "break out the Cheetos 
or Goldfish too quickly," and activists predicated a legal showdown.

That didn't happen. In August, the DOJ said it wouldn't sue so long 
as the states met an eight-point standard that includes keeping pot 
out of other states and away from children, criminal cartels and 
federal property.

Colorado law allows adults 21 and older to buy pot at 
state-sanctioned pot retail stories, and state regulations forbid 
businesses from advertising in places where children are likely see 
their pitches.

Only existing medical dispensaries were allowed to apply for 
licenses, an effort to prevent another proliferation of pot shops. 
Only a few dozen shops statewide are expected to be open for 
recreational sales on New Year's Day.

Legal pot's potential has spawned businesses beyond retail shops. 
Marijuana-testing companies have popped up, checking regulated weed 
for potency and screening for harmful molds. Gardening courses charge 
hundreds to show people how to grow weed at home.

Tourism companies take curious tourists to glass-blowing shops where 
elaborate smoking pipes are made. One has clients willing to spend up 
to $10,000 for a week in a luxury ski resort and a private concierge 
to show them the state's pot industry.

Dixie Elixirs & Edibles, maker of pot-infused foods and drinks, is 
making new labels for the recreational market and expanding 
production on everything from crispy rice treats to fruit lozenges.

"The genie is out of the bottle," says company president Tripp Keber. 
"I think it's going to be an exciting time over the next 24 to 48 months."

It's easy to see why the industry is attracting so many people. A 
Colorado State University study estimates the state will ring up $606 
million in sales next year, and the market will grow from 105,000 
medical pot users to 643,000 adult users overnight - and that's not 
counting tourists.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom