Pubdate: Mon, 07 Jul 2014
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2014 The New York Times Company
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: Kirk Johnson

STILL-DIVIDED WASHINGTON READIES FOR START OF RECREATIONAL MARIJUANA SALES

VANCOUVER, Wash. - John Larson, a recently retired high school science
and math teacher, hopes to be in the first wave of legal recreational
marijuana salespeople opening shop here in Washington State this week.

Mr. Larson, 67, who was talked into the venture by his children, said
he had never tried marijuana, and, in fact, voted against legalizing
it in 2012. But as a business idea - well, that's different.

"If people were dumb enough to vote it in, I'm all for it," he said
over a cup of coffee near his shop here in southern Washington, just
across the Columbia River from Portland, Ore. "There's a demand, and I
have a product."

After nearly two years of anticipation, excitement and dread by
still-divided Washington residents, the first licenses for legal sale
of recreational marijuana will be issued Monday, state officials said.
Sales are to start about 24 hours later.

But the rollout is not unfolding as anyone quite expected it to, from
the seemingly unlikely businesspeople like Mr. Larson who are leading
the charge to the downright odd pattern of where the first shops will
open.

Seattle, for example, with a population of 652,000 the state's largest
city and perhaps most marijuana-friendly, will have only a single
store initially, and a tiny one at that: 620 square feet, called
Cannabis City. But Vancouver, about one-fourth Seattle's size, in a
largely conservative county that has tried to slow or stop marijuana
businesses with strict land-use rules, could have three shops. Tacoma,
also in a county that has tried to block marijuana businesses, may
have four.

The pattern came down to chance and circumstance, said Mikhail
Carpenter, a spokesman for the Washington State Liquor Control Board,
which wrote the regulations and administers the system. With multiple
inspections and requirements to meet, "a lot of people weren't ready,"
Mr. Carpenter said.

Only about 20 licenses out of 334 authorized by the regulations will
be granted in this first wave, Mr. Carpenter said, with many would-be
operators slowed by financing troubles, inspection questions or other
issues. Mr. Larson, for example, applied for three licenses in three
cities, and two were denied, in each case because state inspectors
said the boundary line was too close to a licensed day care center.

He disagreed, but quickly gave up: "You can't argue with the
state."

And even the shops that open will not have that much to sell, because
marijuana growers got their licenses only in March, not enough time to
produce a big crop. Mr. Larson expects to have perhaps two pounds,
which he expects could be gone in hours, and no edible products at
all, since no state-licensed marijuana food producers are up and running.

Some retailers said they planned to ration supplies in the early days,
allowing customers to buy only a small fraction of the ounce that the
law allows for adults over 21.

Low supply in turn means high prices, at least at first, with an ounce
- - should anyone even be able to buy one - expected to cost at least
$400. That is much more than a buyer would typically pay on the black
market here in Washington, according to The Price of Weed, a website
that surveys marijuana prices by state.

But in some ways, people like Mr. Larson put the most distinctive
stamp on Washington's halting first steps. Voters in Colorado approved
marijuana legalization at the same time that Washington did in 2012,
but then went down a much different regulatory path that pushed things
faster, with stores open since January.

Colorado also created the first recreational marijuana shops from the
medical marijuana dispensaries that were already in business, which
meant that many of the first wave of operators were already in the
marijuana trade.

Washington, by contrast, started from scratch, throwing open the
application process and giving medical marijuana dispensary operators
no edge in the competition for licenses.

In the little town of Prosser, population 5,800, in south central
Washington, for example, two chiropractors formed a partnership and
hope to open this week. In Seattle, a former restaurant and bar owner
is expected to get the first license.

Ramsey Hamide, a manager of Main Street Marijuana, a shop here in
downtown Vancouver that plans to open Wednesday, came into the
business from the concert ticket industry. He and the other manager,
Chris Stipe, are setting up shop in a former jewelry store after
visiting more than 20 shops in Colorado to look for ideas.

"We saw what to do - and also what not to do," Mr. Hamide said.
Anything that felt confining in particular - security doors and
waiting areas for access into the product displays, a common setup for
medical dispensaries - was rejected, he said.

"Keep it light, open and friendly," he said of their design
plan.

And while many of the new business operators are brimming with
optimism about the new market, others say the road ahead might be
harder than people want to believe. Protesters in Prosser, for
example, have been regularly picketing the chiropractic office of Tim
Thompson, a co-owner of the town's marijuana shop, Altitude, carrying
signs with slogans like "God Judges Sin."

Initiative 502, which legalized recreational marijuana, passed with 55
percent of the vote statewide, but lost in much of central and eastern
Washington.

"They camp out in front of my office every day," Mr. Thompson said in
a telephone interview.

Mr. Larson, who said his son had also gone into the business, as a
grower, is also braced for a legal fight even as sales begin. His shop
has a Vancouver address, and the city has been accepting marijuana
businesses, he said, but the shop is on the boundary with an
unincorporated area of Clark County, where different rules apply. So
Mr. Larson said he planned to be ready go to court on the opening day
of business to fend off any efforts to close him down.

Whatever happens, though, he said, will certainly make for an
interesting adventure, and after 35 years of teaching he said he was
ready.

"My retirement date is when they close the lid on my coffin," he said.
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MAP posted-by: Matt