Pubdate: Thu, 02 Jan 2014
Source: San Diego Union Tribune (CA)
Copyright: 2014 Associated Press
Contact:  http://www.utsandiego.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/386
Note: Seldom prints LTEs from outside it's circulation area.
Author: Kristen Wyatt, Associated Press

COLO. POT SHOPS SEE HOT START

Throngs Gather Outside Stores, Prices Jump As Legal Recreational 
Marijuana Industry Opens

DENVER (AP) - Crowds were serenaded by live music as they waited for 
the nation's first legal recreational pot shops to open. They ate 
doughnuts and funnel cakes as a glassblower made smoking pipes. Some 
tourists even rode around in a limo, eager to try weed but not so 
eager to be seen buying it.

And when the sales began, those who bought the drug emerged from the 
stores, receipt held high and carrying sealed shopping bags, to cheers.

"I'm going to frame the receipt when I go home, to remind myself of 
what might be possible: Legal everywhere," said musician James Aaron 
Ramsey, 28, who did some time in jail for pot possession in Missouri 
and played folk tunes with his guitar for those in line on Wednesday. 
Activists hope he's right, and that the experiment in Colorado will 
prove to be a better alternative to the costly American-led drug war, 
produce the kind of revenue that state officials hope and save the 
government costs in locking up drug offenders.

On the first day, prices in some places rose to more than $500 an 
ounce, and some shops closed by midafternoon because of short supply. 
It's too soon to say whether the price spikes and long lines will persist.

Washington state will open its pot industry later this year. Both 
states' programs will be watched closely - not just by officials in 
other states - but by activists and governments in other countries 
because the industries will be the first to regulate the production 
and sale of the drug.

Some countries have decriminalized the drug, and the Netherlands lets 
people buy and sell it, but it's illegal to grow or process it.

Just as shops opened Wednesday, the Denver Police Department tweeted, 
"Do you know the law?" and linked to city websites on state and local 
laws that include bans on public consumption, driving under the 
influence, taking marijuana out of state and giving pot to anyone 
younger than 21.

Denver police said one person was issued a summons for public 
consumption. The Colorado State Patrol reported no pot-related 
incidents. No pot-related incidents were reported at Denver 
International Airport, where signs warned travelers they can't take 
the drug home.

At least 24 pot shops in eight towns opened. In Denver, pot users 
welcomed the new year and the new industry by firing up bongs and 
cheering in a cloud of marijuana smoke at a 1920s-themed "Prohibition 
Is Over" party - a reference to the 1930s-era law that outlawed marijuana.

Shopper Jacob Elliott said he wrote reports in college about the need 
to end pot prohibition, but never thought it could happen in his lifetime.

"This breaks that barrier," said Elliott, who traveled to Colorado 
from Leesburg, Va., to be among the first to buy legal weed.

Preparation for the retail market started more than a year ago, soon 
after Colorado and Washington voters in 2012 approved legal pot 
industries. Uruguay passed a law in December to become the first 
nation to regulate pot, but the regulatory system isn't in place.

The price for high-quality weed at some shops was around $400 an 
ounce. That's about four times what smokers are paying on the black 
market in Colorado, according to crowd-sourced Internet surveys.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom