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." - --- MAP posted-by: Matt