PORTLAND - At 10 a.m. Thursday, the doors of the Pure Green dispensary opened for the first time to recreational sales, with staff ushering in customers waiting outside who could choose from two dozens strains of pot, and receive a free joint along with their first purchase. Pure Green is one of 119 medical dispensaries scattered across Portland that as of Oct. 1 can sell marijuana to anyone over the age of 21. These dispensaries turn the city into a recreational pot mecca, where such outlets outnumber those that sell hard liquor, according to state regulatory agencies. [continues 718 words]
PORTLAND - Matt Price sells 100 different kinds of edibles, tinctures, buds and other marijuana offerings to the patients who frequent Cannabliss, the medical dispensary he opened up in a historic brick building that once served as a fire station. Unlike in Washington, Price's medical-marijuana business is licensed by the state, and all the pot he sells is subject to mandatory testing and labeling. The 28-year-old entrepreneur says he's ready for his next step - an expansion into recreational marijuana if Oregon voters pass a measure this fall that would legalize pot sales to anyone 21 years of age or older. [continues 1128 words]
BLAINE - The post-Sept. 11 vigilance along the Canadian border has yet to yield any terrorists trying to sneak into the United States. But federal officials say increased security and staff helped lead to two big drug busts this month. Border Patrol officials in Western Washington, whose ranks have been boosted by the temporary assignment of 20 new agents, on Wednesday snagged a cocaine-filled backpack left in a ditch east of Blaine. The 76 pounds of cocaine presumably were left for a courier to pick up and whisk north to Canada. With an estimated street value of $800,000, the cocaine seizure was the agency's largest for the Washington border zone. [continues 1031 words]
