Marijuana dispensaries in Washington state began legally selling recreational weed on Tuesday morning, joining Colorado by officially becoming the second state in the country where adults can lawfully purchase pot.
Customers formed lines outside retailers in the Evergreen State early Tuesday as select shops prepared to open their doors for the first time ever.
On Monday, state officials handed out licenses to 25 proprietors, clearing the way for recipients to begin selling weed 24 hours later. Early Tuesday, local media outlets were showing that some prospective buyers had begun lining up outside of dispensaries with the intention of being among the first Washingtonians to legally buy marijuana.
About 50 people now in line at Top Shelf Cannabis waiting for store to open at 8am. pic.twitter.com/zrLFYNQVpw
— Adam Mertz (@AJMertz) July 8, 2014
Although federal officials still consider pot to be a Schedule 1 narcotic, residents in Colorado and Washington voted in November 2012 to relax the national prohibition within state borders and allow adults without prescriptions to purchase pot from state-regulated dealers. Colorado shops officially began selling on January 1. Meanwhile, nearly half of the United States currently has provisions in place allowing for medicinal marijuana to be lawfully dispensed.
In Bellingham, WA, Kansas resident Cale Holdsworth was the first person to line up outside of Top Shelf Cannabis early Tuesday, a local FOX affiliate reported.
“We support the cause and we thought it would be great to come down and experience history first hand and just be a part of it and support. Not only that but you can’t really travel with the stuff being that it’s only legal in a few states so we just don’t have any with us,” Holdsworth told Q13 FOX.
Cale Holdsworth the first to purchase marijuana at Top Shelf Cannabis. He says "I'm absolutely thrilled" pic.twitter.com/xBgHGV5BNM
— Adam Mertz (@AJMertz) July 8, 2014
Adults in Washington state — including visitors like Holdsworth — can legally purchase up to an ounce of dried marijuana, 16 ounces of pot-infused solids, 72 ounces of pot-infused liquids, or seven grams of concentrated marijuana under the new law.
However, as RT reported previously, only a limited number of growers and dispensaries have so far received their licenses from the state, setting the stage for expected long waits and shortages across Washington.