On the 1st of January, 2014 marijuana was legally sold in Colorado. Anyone 21 years of age and over is welcome to visit their nearby cannabis club and purchase marijuana. This marks the start of the green revolution and Washington will soon follow suit. One thing is for sure, it seems that marijuana has become a brand long before it was legal. At least judging by queues upon queues of people waiting to witness this historical moment and actually buy some weed.
Rules & Regulations
Still, lets be fair. You can buy it but you’re not allowed to smoke it in public. The first day left a bitter taste for some as the price of weed has risen up to $400 per ounce. That’s almost a quadruple increase of the black market price but black markets don’t have taxes in the range of 25%. The government and police monitoring will be strong in this one as all eyes are on Colorado at the moment. Everybody wants to make sure no slip-ups happen that would turn the legalization movement into a PR nightmare. In the 24 shops that opened that day, Colorado hasn’t reported one single incident. Well, there was a guy who was caught smoking it outside but that was quickly taken care of by the police.
If you’re not from Colorado, don’t worry, you can still buy weed but you just cant carry it back to your state with you. The regulators are the one responsible for packaging the drug while the state of Colorado managed to come up with a tracking system that would allow them to monitor where the weed truly ends up, who does the testing and regulates potency, etc.
A Historical Moment
The cameras were rolling as some of the first sales went down. A musician from Missouri, James Ramsey, was among the first people to buy some bud. He celebrated the purchase quite cheerfully, mainly because he spent some time in jail for pot possession. He said he’d frame the receipt and put that very first bud in a vault or something. He’s even thinking about offering it to museums as it will definitely one day be regarded as a vital part of history. Another customer stormed out of the coffee shop before the cameras got a good look at him. He seemed to be very fond of buying the actual plant but somehow still uneasy to share that moment with the rest of the world.
Weed Control
The point is to keep the weed away from the black market and the hands of minors. This is the tricky part. If they succeed here, they would open doors for legalization in other states as well. And we would like to avoid another California. Of course, the police patrols are at an all time high, presuming people might burst into flames if they smoke too much weed. Airport warnings and similar measures are being emphasized as well.
However, there is another side to this coin – the fact that recreational marijuana is currently being supplied from the medical marijuana stash. Naturally, that didn’t click well with medical marijuana patients. You know, people who literally wouldn’t be alive without the drug. With that in mind, they were advised to replenish their stash because a huge wave of stoners is coming their way. Hopefully, this will be settled soon. Congratulations to Colorado. Go make us proud.
