By Jonathan Kaminsky
OLYMPIA, Wash., March 5 (Reuters) – Marijuana regulators
issued Washington state’s first business license for
recreational cannabis on Wednesday to a grower who said he
expects to have blooming pot plants ready to harvest within
eight weeks.
Washington state and Colorado residents alike voted to
legalize personal possession and consumption of marijuana for
adults in 2012, with Colorado getting a jump on opening
state-licensed retail stores, which also were permitted to grow
their own.
Colorado beat Washington to the punch in part because it
already had a system in place for licensing medical marijuana
suppliers, and they became the first group of outlets allowed to
enter the newly created recreational pot market in January.
Medical marijuana was already legal in Washington as well,
but the state had no formal regulation of its supply and
distribution.
Washington plans to launch its retail network in June, and
already has received some 7,000 applications from prospective
pot entrepreneurs. But unlike Colorado, Washington is keeping
its marijuana cultivation and processing facilities separately
located and licensed from its retailers.
Spokane resident Sean Green, the recipient of Washington’s
first recreational pot business license of any kind, accepted it
before a cheering crowd at the headquarters of the State Liquor
Control Board.
Already a grower and seller of medical marijuana with about
5,000 square feet of cultivation space, he has now been licensed
to raise 21,000 square feet of recreational-use pot in a rented
warehouse.
“We are living the American dream today here, right now,”
Green said.
Under state rules, Green has 15 days to register existing,
non-flowering plants or seeds with the state, and he plans to
start moving plants into his recreational pot facility soon, he
said.
Green also is now licensed to process marijuana, and plans
to use some of the pot he grows to make candy and concentrated
edibles, he said. The bulk of his first round of recreational
pot plants will be sold to other growers soon entering the
market, said Philip Dawdy, a pot activist helping represent
Green.
Liquor Control Board officials said they expect to issue a
handful of additional pot-growing licenses in the coming days.
Green said he hopes one day to oversee a national chain of
marijuana growers and processors, though he acknowledges that
such an enterprise is not feasible under existing federal law.
The U.S. government still classifies marijuana as an illegal
narcotic, though the Obama administration issued guidelines in
August giving states new leeway to experiment with legalized
cannabis.
A total of 20 states, along with the District of Columbia,
currently allow marijuana use to treat various health ailments,
but Washington and Colorado are the only two that permit
cannabis use by adults for the sake of just getting high.
(Reporting by Jonathan Kaminsky; Editing by Steve Gorman and
Ken Wills)
