Page 7 - ARUBA TODAY
P. 7
U.S. NEWS A7
Friday 29 December 2017
California pot shops roll out hoopla as sales set to start
By ELLIOT SPAGAT Golden State Greens “budtender” Olivia Vugrin, right, waits on a customer in San Diego, Calif. for legalization back in the
Associated Press Dozens of California shops have cleared a final hurdle to sell marijuana for recreational use starting ‘60s,” said Sean Luse, chief
SAN DIEGO (AP) — Live mu- Monday, Jan. 1, 2018, and regulators will work through the weekend to grant more licenses. operating officer. “But
sic. Free T-shirts. A “Fwee- you’re also going to see a
dom” celebration with (AP Photo/Elliot Spagat) more mainstream group of
mystery prize boxes worth people who were waiting
up to $500, and a shot at a The Palm Springs area had for the green light.”
behind-the-scenes tour. nine of the state’s first retail Harborside is planning
Marijuana legalization ar- licenses, including seven in brass bands at its locations
rives Monday in California Cathedral City, population in Oakland and San Jose,
with lots of hoopla, but only 54,000. with flags and T-shirts for the
a handful of cities will initial- San Diego had eight. San- first 100 people in line.
ly have retail outlets ready ta Cruz and San Jose had A few outlets with recre-
to sell recreational pot. four each and others were ational licenses are passing
By Thursday afternoon, Cal- scattered around the San on the hoopla.
ifornia had issued only 42 Francisco Bay Area and Golden State Greens, with
retail licenses. Another 150 the state’s northern reach- a modest storefront amid
applications were pend- es. An outlet known as Cali- car repair shops and bud-
ing and regulators planned va in San Jose is promoting get hotels in San Diego,
to work a second straight the “Fweedom” celebra- houses a bustling business
weekend to review them. tion Monday with the prize that has sold marijuana for
Los Angeles and San Fran- boxes and exclusive tours medical purposes since
cisco were late to approve of its growing areas, along 2015. It will open its doors
local regulations, meaning with massages, acupunc- at 7 a.m. Monday, like it
no recreational pot shops ture, waffle desserts and does every other day of
there will open their doors music with “mellow beats.” the year.q
Monday. A county supervisor will at-
The lucky few outlets with tend a 7 a.m. ribbon-cut-
licenses — mainly in San Di- ting ceremony at KindPeo-
ego, the San Francisco Bay ples in Santa Cruz. Its chief
Area, Palm Springs area executive, Khalil Mout-
and Santa Cruz — think awakkil, said weed has
they have an edge being long been “a huge part” of
first out of the gate. the culture of the ocean-
But excitement about Cali- front college town.
fornia joining the growing Berkeley Patients Group,
list of states and Washing- which opened as a medi-
ton, D.C., with legal recre- cal marijuana dispensary
ational weed is tempered in 1999 and has received
with the stresses of ensuring a permit for recreational
shelves are stocked in the sales, expects lines around
face of uncertain demand. the block to mark opening
The state issued its first 20 day. The mayor of the city
retail licenses two weeks that includes the Univer-
ago and an additional 22 sity of California, Berkeley
trickled out since, some for campus is expected at a
already established medi- ribbon-cutting ceremony
cal marijuana businesses at 6 a.m.
that have thrived in Califor- “You’ll see the people who
nia for two decades and have been consumers for
will continue. decades and they were
Alex Traverso, a spokesman
for the California Bureau
of Cannabis Control, said
a dozen employees were
vetting applications to “is-
sue as many licenses as we
can” in the coming days.
The temporary permits rep-
resent just a sliver of the
thousands of licenses ex-
pected to eventually be is-
sued for retail recreational
sales. Local permits are a
prerequisite for the state li-
censes, 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.
