Pubdate: Tue, 08 Jul 2014
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2014 Los Angeles Times
Contact:  http://www.latimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/248
Author: Maria L. La Ganga
Page: A6

POT SELLERS GET GREEN LIGHT

Washington State Shops Receive Licenses, and at Least One Is Ready 
for Business.

SEATTLE - The jeweltoned bongs, each handcrafted from recycled glass, 
glowed in the soft lighting of the pristine little storefront. The 
"Grand Opening Event" banner was hung. The DJ was hired. The 
no-parking signs were posted along the busy street.

The only thing missing Monday afternoon was the marijuana. But 10 
pounds of prime, pesticide-free pot are scheduled to arrive just 
hours before Cannabis City flings open its doors at "high noon" on 
Tuesday, becoming the first legal recreational weed retailer in 
Washington state's biggest city.

At just after 1 a.m. on Monday, an official email landed in owner 
James Lathrop's in-box, confirming that the serial entrepreneur and 
pot enthusiast had been licensed to sell what was formerly contraband 
in every state in America but Colorado.

The electronic missive (and 24 others like it sent out to pot 
pioneers in the dark of night by the Washington State Liquor Control 
Board) was filled with bureaucratic boilerplate and official 
instructions. Its tone was far from celebratory. But it began with 
two magic words: "Dear Licensee."

Lathrop's Cannabis City was one of just 25 establishments licensed 
Monday by Evergreen State officials, as they kicked off the final 
stage of a grand experiment - building an industry from the ground up.

Colorado, which has allowed the sale of recreational pot since Jan. 
1, had an easier introduction; its highly regulated medical marijuana 
system was simply broadened, allowing registered owners to expand 
into party pot. Outsiders could not even apply for licenses to break 
into the business until last week.

Not all of Washington's newly licensed stores are expected to be open 
Tuesday, the earliest that retail pot purveyors can sell their wares. 
Long lines and product shortages are expected here, as the 
much-ballyhooed marijuana economy groans to life.

"We're going to run out on the first day," Lathrop said in a recent 
interview, as he fielded media requests, shooed away early-bird 
shoppers and put the finishing touches on his establishment.

What exactly does that mean, in terms of Day 1 customers? Cannabis 
City's first delivery "has been divided up into 2-gram packages," 
Lathrop said. "Ten pounds, 2-gram packages is around 2,200. So the 
first 2,200 people, which will probably be the first day."

Lathrop doesn't plan to ration the four strains of pot that he will 
be selling in his new venture: Opal O.G. Kush and Copper Kush, O.G.'s 
Pearl and Sweet Lafayette. Although consumers can legally buy an 
ounce of the high-THC weed, he's hoping they will limit themselves to 
a single bag.

"It'll be $15 to $20 a gram, that should be including taxes," the 
goateed pot purveyor said. "There are many people who are kind of 
blogging on the Internet that those aren't really reasonable prices, 
because they are twice as much or so as street prices or medical 
marijuana prices."

But his wares are "all organic," he said, tested by the Liquor 
Control Board, of certified strength and purity. And best of all, "it's legal."

Though demand is expected to be high, supply will probably be low for 
the foreseeable future. Alison Holcomb, the American Civil Liberties 
Union attorney who drafted the initiative that legalized marijuana 
here, said Monday that "less than 30% of the square footage" of 
marijuana plants that the state will allow has been licensed.

Although Cannabis City is tucked away on a busy thoroughfare in a 
slowly improving industrial neighborhood called SoDo, Lathrop has 
high hopes for his establishment's ambience. So what if a nearby 
recycling plant perfumes the back alley with eau de trash. Who cares 
if fast-food joints crowd in nearby, McDonald's, Arby's and KFC.

"We really wanted this to be a beautiful space," Lathrop said, and he 
put $40,000 into renovating a building that used to be "a hellhole." 
One wall is paneled with cedar. There are exposed beams and soft 
lighting. "SoDo is rough.... We wanted, when you come in here, for 
this to be a proper Seattle place."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom