Stoners, tokers, burners, blazers, hippies and pot heads rejoice! From this day forth, you can now lawfully purchase the stickiest, dankest, densest, most pungent marijuana product you want in the good ole state of Washington. Is it 4:20 yet?
Washington officially joins Colorado as the second state where buying recreational weed is legal. Such legislation by the two is unprecedented in American history and thus far has formed a foundation for other states – that’s right, I’m talking Massachusetts – to eventually follow suit.
On Monday, the Washington legislature issued 24 recreational marijuana licenses for dealers (does that term still apply?) to open up their stores statewide. Most licensees are expecting their preliminary stores of green to be gone not by the end of the day, but within hours of lighting up – their shop, that is.
According to the LA Times, one pot shop owner expects ten pounds of weed to be pushed out the door without any hestitation.
“Ten pounds, 2-gram packages is around 2,200,” James Lathrop, owner of Cannabis City told the Times. “So the first 2,200 people, which will probably be the first day.” Lathrop continued to note that the listing price for a single gram of pot will run between $15 to $20.
Washington’s Intitiative 502 passed as a ballot initiative in 2012, drawing an astounding 81.25 percent of registered voters to the polls. Colorado passed a similar measure at the same time, though recreational marijuana sales have been taking place since January 1.
While it’s great that such a monumental shift in cannabis culture has resulted in weed losing its longtime stigma, and that the voice of the people has been heard and abided to by state government, Washington’s budding legal pot industry offers something much more valuable.
As Massachusetts continues to determine the best way to administer medical marijuana, and Washington enjoys the beginning stages of a lucrative industry, we can juxtapose both processes against Colorado’s to see which works best and which doesn’t.
Colorado’s legislation, for example, allowed for medical marijuana dispensary operators to seamlessly segue into the recreational game months before outside license seekers were allowed to dip a toe in the pool. Licensing in Colorado therefore was expedited and allowed lawmakers to build upon a legislative foundation laid down by medical marijuana.
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is approaching medical marijuana cautiously, even painstakingly, to the point where we have to wonder what the hell is going on. After all, the Bay State’s medical marijuana ballot initiative was also voted on during the 2012 election year and we’ve already been lapped by Colorado and Washington.
As Massachusetts continues to whittle down the number of dispensary applicants, there are only 11 at this point and that number could shrink even more come the fall, Washington and Colorado will be banking revenue generated from both the recreational and medical marijuana industries. Washington granted 24 licenses for no-strings-attached ganja.
Granted, Colorado’s tax revenue from recreational marijuana has been slightly subpar and pales in comparison to that of the medical variety’s, but right now Massachusetts is lining its wallet with neither.
According to USA Today, “Washington state expects to collect $190 million over the next four years, according to government projections.” That’s an average of $47.5 million per year. The latest budget proposed by the Massachusetts legislature allots $18 million for substance abuse prevention.
So yeah, there’s a lot we could use that extra marijuana money for.
Of course, the recreational marijuana industry is far from an exact science and is more of a trial-and-error endeavor. The nation’s eyes will continue to be turned towards both Colorado and Washington to see how each fares with their respective legislations. Legalization advocacy groups like NORML have their eyes turned towards liberal Massachusetts to possibly rouse a 2016 ballot initiative the way Colorado and Washington did.
But judging by the extensive time in which Bay State officials are implementing current law – exponentially slower than the trailblazing states out west – it could be even longer before we see legal weed sales here in the Commonwealth.
Image via Shutterstock
