Wash. Issues First Pot Shop Licenses
Source: AP
SEATTLE (AP) -- Washington state issued its first retail marijuana licenses on Monday with a middle-of-the-night email alerting bleary-eyed pot-shop proprietors that they'll finally be able to open for business.
"We're pretty stoked," said John Evich, an investor in Bellingham's Top Shelf Cannabis, in a 2:30 a.m. Pacific time interview with The Associated Press. "We haven't had any sleep in a long time, but we're excited for the next step."
Randy Simmons, the state Liquor Control Board's project manager for legal marijuana, said Sunday night that the first two dozen stores were being notified so early to give them an extra few hours to get cannabis on their shelves before they are allowed to open their doors at 8 a.m. Tuesday - an opening that's expected to be accompanied by high prices, shortages and celebration.
The issuance of the retail licenses marked a major step that's been 20 months in the making. Washington and Colorado stunned much of the world by voting in November 2012 to legalize marijuana for adults over 21, and to create state-licensed systems for growing, selling and taxing the pot.
Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_RETHINKING_POT_WASHINGTON
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"We're pretty stoked," said John Evich, an investor in Bellingham's Top Shelf Cannabis, in a 2:30 a.m. Pacific time interview with The Associated Press. "We haven't had any sleep in a long time..."
'Cause if what he is investing in ain't doin' the job... 
(If he is still awake he could drive to Spokane. We have the cure).
The state seems to be doing it's best to mess this up. Delays, dumb rules. The stores are reportedly going to charge twice or more of the street value. The larger crowd of buyers will continue on as they were, leaving that for tweakers and tourists.
They want to get rid of Medical Marijuana, (under the mistaken belief that people will flood to their state stores?) and have banned home grows by anyone who doesn't have "a medical marijuana card". Apparently they haven't noticed that
1) Most people don't want them to to jail folks over this
2) It's a weed.
There are tens of thousands of people growing their own cannabis in this state alone, indoors and outdoors, much less the nation, and a great number of those get some relief from it, seems cruel to keep hammering them. To enforce such a ban would require that they check every basement and closet in WA state, and then do it again 4 mos later. Couldn't enforce it then, can't enforce it now, and laws that are a joke hurt the enforcement of those that aren't.
It will be interesting to watch it shake out.
