Pubdate: Wed, 09 Jul 2014
Source: Honolulu Star-Advertiser (HI)
Copyright: 2014 Star Advertiser
Contact: 
http://www.staradvertiser.com/info/Star-Advertiser_Letter_to_the_Editor.html
Website: http://www.staradvertiser.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/5154
Author: Gene Johnson, Associated Press
Page: A5

SEATTLE'S FIRST LEGAL POT SHOP OPENS TO SCORES OF BUYERS

Surrounded by thousands of packages of marijuana, Seattle's top
prosecutor sought some advice: Which one should he buy? A new day,
indeed. Twenty months after voters legalized recreational cannabis for
adults over 21, Washington state's first few licensed pot shops opened
for business Tuesday, catering to hundreds of customers who lined up
outside, thrilled to be part of the historic moment.

The pot being sold at four stores in Seattle, Bellingham, Prosser and
Spokane was regulated, tested for impurities, heavily taxed and in
short supply - such short supply that several other shops couldn't
open because they had nothing to sell.

Pete Holmes, Seattle's elected city attorney and a main backer of the
state's recreational marijuana law, said he wanted to be one of the
first customers to demonstrate there are alternatives to the nation's
failed drug war.

"This is a tectonic shift in public policy," he said. "You have to
honor it. This is real. This is legal. This is a wonderful place to
purchase marijuana where it's out of the shadows."

Dressed in a pinstripe suit, Holmes stood inside Seattle's first and,
for now, only licensed pot shop, Cannabis City, south of downtown.
The shop was sweltering. He fanned himself with a state-produced
pamphlet titled "Marijuana Use in Washington State: An Adult
Consumer's Guide."

Unsure what to buy, he asked the owner of the company that grew it,
Nine Point Growth Industries of Bremerton, who recommended OG's Pearl.
The strain tested at 21.5 percent THC, marijuana's main psychoactive
compound.

The shop's 26-year-old twin salesmen, Andrew and Adam Powers,
explained its benefits to Holmes: mainly, that the taste is not too
"skunky" to turn off the occasional user.

Holmes noted it had been quite some time since he smoked pot. He
paraphrased a line from the "South Park" cartoon series: "Remember,
children, there's a time and place for everything. That place is college."

He spent $80 on 4 grams, including $20.57 in taxes.

Washington is the second state to allow marijuana sales without a
doctor's note. Voters in Colorado also legalized pot in 2012, and
sales began there Jan. 1.

Washington's Liquor Control Board began working right away to develop
rules governing just about every aspect of the industry, from what
fertilizers can be used to how extracts are produced.

But the board has been overwhelmed: Nearly 7,000 people applied to
grow, process or sell pot, and those licenses are being reviewed
glacially by the board's 18 investigators.

Fewer than 100 growers have been approved, and only about a dozen were
ready to harvest in time for the market's launch. As for the stores,
most first had to get lucky in state-run lotteries for 300-plus retail
licenses being issued. Then they had to strike deals to buy product
from the growers - in many cases at exorbitant prices.
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MAP posted-by: Matt