Page 7 - ARUBA TODAY
P. 7
U.S. NEWS A7
Wednesday 3 January 2018
American Living:
California starts recreational pot sales, clients jam stores
By BRIAN MELLEY a lot of work ahead to get Alex Traverso said. Jerred Kiloh of the United of marijuana, but it was
KATHLEEN RONAYNE the massive industry run- A flood of applications for Cannabis Business Associa-
Associated Press ning that is projected to shops in Los Angeles and tion, an industry group. not legal to sell it for recre-
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP)
— From a pot shop in San- ational purposes until Mon-
ta Cruz that hung a banner
proclaiming “Prohibition day.
is Over!” to one in San Di-
ego handing out T-shirts The signs that California
showing the first moon
landing and declaring a was tripping toward legal
“giant leap for mankind,”
the Golden State turned a pot sales were evident well
shade greener with its first
sales of recreational mari- before the stroke of mid-
juana.
Ceremonial ribbon cut- night.
tings marked the occasion
Monday as the nation’s California highways
biggest producer of illicit
marijuana moved from the flashed signs before New
shadows toward a regu-
lated market. Freebies and Year’s Eve that said “Drive
food greeted those who
waited in long lines to get high, Get a DUI,” reflect-
their hands on weed with
names like “Oh Geezus” ing law enforcement con-
and “Banana Breath.”
“I’m scared, I’m excited, cerns about stoned drivers.
I’m relieved,” exclaimed
Kimberly Cargile, director Weedmaps, the phone
of a Sacramento shop that
has sold medical pot since app that allows custom-
2009.
Cargile’s shop, A Thera- ers to rate shops, delivery
peutic Alternative, opened
at 9 a.m. with the celebra- services and shows their lo-
tory cutting of a red ribbon
— a symbolic gesture that cations, ran a full-page ad
could be seen as a nod to
those who cut through red Sunday in the Los Angeles
tape in time to open the
doors to a new era. Times that said, “Smile Cali-
First-day sales were brisk
in shops lucky enough to fornia. It’s Legal.”
score one of the roughly
100 state licenses issued so In shops where recreation-
far. But would-be custom-
ers in some of the state’s A customer, who declined to give his name, waits for his order to be filled at Harborside marijuana al weed was on the menu,
largest cities encountered dispensary, Monday, Jan. 1, 2018, in Oakland, Calif. Starting New Year’s Day, recreational
reefer sadness. marijuana can be sold legally in California. former medical marijuana
Riverside and Fresno out-
lawed sales and Los Ange- (AP Photo/Mathew Sumner) patients got in line with
les and San Francisco did
not act soon enough to au- pot-heads and hippies, as
thorize shops to get state li-
censes by New Year’s Day. bring in $1 billion annually San Francisco is expected It was not immediately well as first-timers willing to
California’s state and lo- in tax revenue within sev- after being approved lo- clear how many of those
cal governments still have eral years. cally. Because Los Angeles shops, if any, opened. give legal weed a chance.
Charles Boldwyn, chief is the biggest market in the “My patients are scared,
compliance officer of state, some of those shops my employees are scared,” Heather Sposeto, 50, who
ShowGrow in Santa Ana, will be licensed by the said Kiloh, who owns a dis-
which opened to retail cus- state more quickly than pensary in the city’s San is not a marijuana user,
tomers Monday, said he is others already in line, Tra- Fernando Valley area.
concerned that a delay in verso said. With sales starting around wanted to see the hype
local and state approvals The status of Los Ange- California, the most pop-
could create shortages of les shops highlights broad ulous U.S. state joined a around legal weed, so she
products for consumers. confusion over the new growing list of others, and
“We’re looking at ... hun- law. the nation’s capital, where went to Northstar Holistic
dreds of licensed cultiva- Los Angeles officials said so-called recreational mar-
tors and manufacturers they will not begin accept- ijuana is permitted even Collective in Sacramento
coming out of an environ- ing license applications un- though the federal gov-
ment where we literally til Wednesday and it might ernment continues to clas- with her boyfriend, who is a
had thousands of people take weeks before any li- sify pot as a controlled sub-
who were cultivating and censes are issued. That has stance, like heroin and LSD. daily pot smoker.
manufacturing,” Boldwyn led to widespread con- California banned what
said. “So the red tape is a cern that long-established it called “loco-weed” in She said it felt surreal to
bit of a bottleneck in the businesses would have to 1913, though it has eased
supply chain.” shut down in the interim. criminal penalties for use be in a shop with options
Bureau of Cannabis Con- Attorneys advising a group of the drug since the 1970s
trol regulators worked of city dispensaries have and was the first state to ranging from chocolate
through the holiday to try concluded those busi- legalize marijuana for me-
to process 1,400 pending nesses can legally sell me- dicinal purposes in 1996. edibles to the green flower.
license applications for re- dicinal marijuana as “col- California voters in 2016
tail sales, distribution, test- lectives,” until they obtain made it legal for adults 21 Sposeto was considering
ing facilities and other busi- local and state licenses and older to grow, possess
nesses, bureau spokesman under the new system, said and use limited quantities taking a toke now that it’s
not illicit.
“I come from the era
where it was super illegal,”
she said.
At San Diego’s Mankind
Cooperative, lines were
40 minutes long and buy-
ers from as far away as
Iowa, Kansas and Canada
waited with their California
cannabis brethren to ogle
offerings such as “Island
Sweet Skunk” and a partic-
ularly potent strain called,
“The Sheriff.”q
