Pubdate: Thu, 28 Dec 2017
Source: Chicago Tribune (IL)
Copyright: 2017 Chicago Tribune Company
Contact:  http://www.chicagotribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/82
Author: Elliot Spagat

CALIFORNIA POT SHOPS ROLL OUT HOOPLA AS RECREATIONAL SALES SET TO
START JAN. 1

Marijuana legalization arrives Monday in California with lots of
hoopla, but only a handful of cities will initially have retail
outlets ready to sell recreational pot.

By Thursday afternoon, California had issued only 42 retail licenses.
Another 150 applications were pending and regulators planned to work a
second straight weekend to review them.

Los Angeles and San Francisco were late to approve local regulations,
meaning no recreational pot shops there will open their doors Monday.

The lucky few outlets with licenses -- mainly in San Diego, the San
Francisco Bay Area, Palm Springs area and Santa Cruz -- think they
have an edge being first out of the gate.

But excitement about California joining the growing list of states and
Washington, D.C., with legal recreational weed is tempered with the
stresses of ensuring shelves are stocked in the face of uncertain demand.

The state issued its first 20 retail licenses two weeks ago and an
additional 22 trickled out since, some for already established medical
marijuana businesses that have thrived in California for two decades
and will continue.

Alex Traverso, a spokesman for the California Bureau of Cannabis
Control, said a dozen employees were vetting applications to "issue as
many licenses as we can" in the coming days.

The temporary permits represent just a sliver of the thousands of
licenses expected to eventually be issued for retail recreational
sales. Local permits are a prerequisite for the state licenses, and
many cities -- including Los Angeles, San Francisco and Long Beach --
have yet to issue any local rules, putting huge swaths of the state on
the sidelines for opening day.

The Palm Springs area had nine of the state's first retail licenses,
including seven in Cathedral City, population 54,000.

San Diego had eight. Santa Cruz and San Jose had four each and others
were scattered around the San Francisco Bay Area and the state's
northern reaches.

An outlet known as Caliva in San Jose is promoting the "Fweedom"
celebration Monday with the prize boxes and exclusive tours of its
growing areas, along with massages, acupuncture, waffle desserts and
music with "mellow beats."

A county supervisor will attend a 7 a.m. ribbon-cutting ceremony at
KindPeoples in Santa Cruz. Its chief executive, Khalil Moutawakkil,
said weed has long been "a huge part" of the culture of the oceanfront
college town.

Berkeley Patients Group, which opened as a medical marijuana
dispensary in 1999 and has received a permit for recreational sales,
expects lines around the block to mark opening day. The mayor of the
city that includes the University of California, Berkeley campus is
expected at a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 6 a.m.

"You'll see the people who have been consumers for decades and they
were for legalization back in the '60s," said Sean Luse, chief
operating officer. "But you're also going to see a more mainstream
group of people who were waiting for the green light."

Harborside is planning brass bands at its locations in Oakland and San
Jose, with flags and T-shirts for the first 100 people in line.

A few outlets with recreational licenses are passing on the hoopla.

For them, excitement at being first out of the gate is tempered with
the stresses of complying with new regulations.

Golden State Greens, with a modest storefront amid car repair shops
and budget hotels in San Diego, houses a bustling business that has
sold marijuana for medical purposes since 2015. It will open its doors
at 7 a.m. Monday, like it does every other day of the year.

After California voters approved recreational weed last year, the shop
changed its name from Point Loma Patients Consumer Cooperative,
reflecting its ambitions for a broader clientele.

"We're planning for the worst and hoping for the best," said marketing
director Alex Leon. "There are a lot of unknown factors but we're prepared."

Gary Cherlin, chief executive of Desert Organic Solutions Collective
in North Palm Springs, received holiday news of his recreational sales
permit as he devised promotional packages with hotels aimed at
tourists who come for warm winters. He said being among the first
shops to sell recreational pot means less competition.

"I don't know how many more are coming but they don't have a lot of
time left," he said.

Mount Shasta Patients Collective, which opened three years ago in the
northern part of the state as a medical dispensary, has already turned
away people coming for recreational pot.

Others with medical marijuana cards have been stocking up ahead of
price increases expected after recreational weed is legal.

"We'll have all hands on deck," general manager Austin Freeman said of
opening day. "It could be really hectic."

Associated Press writers Janie Har in San Francisco and Amanda Lee
Myers in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
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MAP posted-by: Matt