Seattle’s first retail marijuana store to be legal under Washington’s Initiative 502 opened on Tuesday, July 8.
Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes, an I-502 sponsor, and Alison Holcomb, the primary drafter of the initiative and director of the I-502 campaign, attended the grand opening of Cannabis City, located at 2733 Fourth Avenue South in Seattle’s SoDo neighborhood.
“Just over three years ago I stood with Alison Holcomb in Seattle’s Central Public Library to announce the launch of what became Initiative 502, to legalize, regulate, and tax marijuana for adult recreational use,” Holmes said.
Holmes became the fourth person to make a purchase at Cannabis City: two 2-gram packages of “OG Pearl,” at $40 each.
“There will be other bumps in the road away from the failed War on Drugs toward a fully legal and regulated supply system, built from the ground up,” Holmes said. “The most important take away is that legally sanctioned marijuana sales are finally a reality today.”
Because the state has licensed only about one-quarter of the 2 million square feet it has allotted for farming, supply should remain short for a while and prices high, the Seattle Times reported.
The Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs (CAPAA) is involved in state agency efforts to inform the public about the new law and to prevent underage marijuana use. Radio and internet ads have been launched to inform the public.
CAPAA has also printed 2,000 copies each of a Marijuana: Know the Facts card in the following languages: Chinese, Korean, Lao, and Vietnamese (click on the languages to download a pdf). A Cambodian version is available, but CAPAA is working on addressing translation quality concerns. To inquire about physical copies, contact CAPAA at [email protected].
Additional online resources can be found here:
http://learnaboutmarijuanawa.
http://www.starttalkingnow.
For more on how marijuana affects the API community, visit:
Legal Marijuana Needs Accountability in Vulnerable Communities
Marijuana Industry: Asian Pacific Islander Business Owners, Users Keep an Eye Out
Co-ops: APIs Work to Break the Stigma of Medical Marijuana
Vietnamese Marijuana Growers Through the Eyes of their Defense Attorney
That’s Dope: Medical Marijuana Helps Relieve Man’s Gout
Green money: Hasegawa proposes state bank
