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 Roughly three dozen former medical marijuana dispensaries newly
cleared by state regulators to sell pot to consumers interested in
nothing more than its mind- and mood-altering properties began
welcoming customers as early as 8 a.m. MST (1500 GMT).
Hundreds of patrons, some from distant states and many huddling
outside in the bitter cold and snow for hours, cued up to be among
the first buyers.
"This is an historic moment," Jacob Elliott, 31, a defense
contractor from Leesburg, Virginia, near Washington, D.C., said in
line outside the 3D Cannabis Center in Denver. "I never thought it
would happen."
The highly-anticipated New Year's Day opening launched an
unprecedented commercial cannabis market that Colorado officials
expect will ultimately gross $578 million in annual revenues,
including $67 million in tax receipts for the state.
Possession, cultivation and private personal consumption of
marijuana by adults for the sake of just getting high has already
been legal in Colorado for more than a year under a state
constitutional amendment approved by voters.
As of Wednesday, however, cannabis was being legally produced, sold
and taxed in a system modeled after a regime many states have in
place for alcohol sales — but which exists for marijuana nowhere in
the world outside of Colorado.
Even in the Netherlands, where some coffee shops and nightclubs are
widely known to sell cannabis products with the informal consent of
authorities, back-end distribution of the drug to those businesses
remains illegal.
Customer No. 1 at Botana Care in the Denver suburb of Northglenn was
Jesse Phillips, 32, an assembly-line worker who had camped outside
the shop since 1 a.m.
ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH
"I wanted to be one of the first to buy pot and no longer be
prosecuted for it. This end of prohibition is long overdue,"
Phillips said.
A cheer from about 100 fellow customers as Phillips made his
purchase, an eighth-ounce sampler pack containing four strains of
weed — labeled with names such as "King Tut Kush" and "Gypsy Girl" — that sold for $45 including tax.
He also bought a child-proof carry pouch required by state
regulations to transport his purchase out of the store.
Back at 3D Cannabis, two patrons from Blanchester, Ohio, — Brandon
Harris and his friend Tyler Williams, both 24 — said they had been
waiting since 2:30 a.m. for doors to open.
"We wanted to be the first people from Ohio to buy it legally,"
Harris said.
Robin Hackett, 51, co-owner of Botana Care, said she expected
between 800 to 1,000 first-day customers, and hired a private
security firm to help with any traffic and parking issues that might
arise.
Two inspectors from the Colorado Department of Revenue were on site
as the shop was set to open. "We're just here to help with
compliance issues," one of them, Dave Miller said.
Hackett said she has 50 lbs (23 kg) of product on hand, and to avoid
a supply shortage the shop will limit purchases to quarter-ounces on
Wednesday, including joints, raw buds, cannabis-infused edibles such
as pastries or candies, and even infused soaps, oils and lotions.
Like other stores, Botana Care also stocked related wares, including
pipes, rolling papers and bongs.
Voters in Washington state voted to legalize marijuana at the same
time Colorado did, in November 2012, but Washington is not slated to
open its first retail establishments until later in 2014.
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TURNING POINT IN DRUG CULTURE
Still, supporters and detractors alike see the two Western states as
setting a course that could mark the beginning of the end for
marijuana prohibition at the national level.
"The era of marijuana prohibition is officially over in Colorado,"
said Mason Tvert, a spokesman for the pro-legalization Marijuana
Policy Project.
"Making marijuana legal for adults is not an experiment," he told a
news conference. "Prohibition was the experiment and the results
were abysmal."
He and other supporters of the change point to tax revenues to be
gained and argue that anti-marijuana enforcement has accomplished
little over the years but to penalize otherwise law-abiding
citizens, especially minorities.
Critics say anticipated social harms of legalization, from declines
in economic productivity to a rise in traffic and workplace
accidents, outweigh any benefits.
They also warn that legalizing recreational use could help create an
industry intent on attracting underage users and getting more people
dependent on the drug.
Cannabis remains classified as an illegal narcotic under federal
law, though the Obama administration has said it will give
individual states leeway to carry out their own recreational-use
statutes.
Nearly 20 states, including Colorado and Washington, had already put
themselves at odds with the U.S. government by approving marijuana
for medical purposes.
Comparing the nascent pot market to the alcohol industry, former
U.S. Representative Patrick Kennedy, co-founder of Project Smart
Approaches to Marijuana, said his group aims to curtail marijuana
advertising and to help push local bans on the drug while the
industry is still modest in stature.
"This is a battle that if we catch it early enough we can prevent
some of the most egregious adverse impacts that have happened as a
result of the commercialized market that promotes alcohol use to
young people," he said.
Under Colorado law, however, state residents can buy as much as an
ounce (28 grams) of marijuana at a time, while out-of-state visitors
are restricted to quarter-ounce purchases.
Restraint was certainly the message being propagated on New Year's
Eve by Colorado authorities, who posted signs at Denver
International Airport and elsewhere around the capital warning that
pot shops can only operate during approved hours, and that open,
public consumption of marijuana remains illegal.
(Writing and additional reporting by Steve Gorman;
editing by Dan
Whitcomb, Lisa Shumaker, Barbara Goldberg and Chris Reese)
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