Pubdate: Wed, 09 Jul 2014
Source: Baltimore Sun (MD)
Copyright: 2014 The Baltimore Sun Company
Contact:  http://www.baltimoresun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/37
Author: Maria L. La Ganga, Tribune Newspapers
Page: 8

WASHINGTON TAKES IT SLOW ON DAY 1 OF LEGAL POT SALES

SEATTLE - The first customer to buy legal pot - for recreational, not
medicinal reasons - here in Washington state's biggest city was a
retired 65-year old woman who overnighted on a sidewalk to ensure her
place in hemp history. Deborah Greene accidentally bought two times
more marijuana Tuesday than she'd originally planned.

Cannabis City's second customer was the American Civil Liberties Union
attorney who drafted the initiative legalizing weed in Washington
state. Alison Holcomb bought two 2gram bags of O.G.'s Pearl, a strain
with a particularly high level of THC, after declaring that Washington
was "moving marijuana out of the shadows."

The third customer was the interesting one. Before he opened his
wallet, City Attorney Pete Holmes said he was "buying the marijuana to
use it. Let's just leave it at that."

And after his transaction had ended? Holmes decried the "failed war on
drugs." By selling marijuana in the open, he said, "we're going to
shift this to a legal, regulated and completely daylight system."

"This is how we'll have better ways for controlling youth access," the
lawyer promised. "This is how ... the message about the cultural shift
about responsible use by adults is going to get across."

Washingtonians have been waiting for this day since they resoundingly
approved Initiative 502 nearly two years ago. The measure created a
marijuana economy from scratch, along with a system to regulate it.
More than 300 official stores and hundreds of licensed growers and
producers are expected statewide.

But legal retail sales arrived with a whimper, not a bang. Only 25
stores have been licensed so far, and only about 30 percent of the
expected pot plants have been approved for cultivation.

About half a dozen retailers opened their doors Tuesday, and the lines
stretched to the hundreds - not thousands, as expected.

James Lathrop had planned to open Cannabis City at "high noon." But at
11:40 a.m., he and Holcomb grabbed a pair of out-size scissors and
snipped away at the police tape that festooned the store's low-key
entrance.

"I declare this war over," he said, grinning. "It's time to free the
weed."

Greene, Lathrop's first customer, had planned to purchase two bags,
one for consumption and one for posterity.

She walked out with four, about $160 poorer. For a woman who says she
smokes "about a bowl a month," her new supply will last a long time.

"I'm really excited, relieved and happy," Greene said. What she liked
best about legalization, she said, were "the choices. It's the
quality. It's like a candy store, like chocolates.

"You can never get enough."
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MAP posted-by: Matt