When will it feel normal to walk into one of Washington’s 334 legal marijuana shops?

Taken from Wednesday’s edition of The Dori Monson Show.

We’re starting to get some ideas about what legalized marijuana is going to look like here in Washington.

We learned last week from the feds that they are not going to intervene. They are going to ignore it, so legal marijuana will be the law of the state of Washington.

The Liquor Control Board, which is overseeing all of this, on Wednesday, released a revised set of proposed rules, that if enacted, will help govern Washington state’s producing, processing and retailing of recreational marijuana. They also released new info on the number of marijuana retail shops they will allow to open.

They say there will be opportunity for 334 retail pot stores in Washington.

How many each county gets depends on population. So King County is going to have the most. Sixty-one marijuana retailers will be allowed in King County. Snohomish County will have 35.

We’ve got over 100 stores that will be licensed here in Western Washington.

Officials are saying they don’t want any major operations. There was the former Microsoft guy a couple months ago who said he wanted to be the Walmart of marijuana. But it sounds like they’re not going to allow any individual company to get that big. They say only three outlets per owner max, so they’ll stay smaller.

Licenses will be issued in mid-December, stores will open next spring as we blaze a new trail for legal marijuana.

I just wonder how quick it’s going to feel normal. I remember the first week that hard liquor was at the grocery stores. I’d walk down that aisle and I’d be like, wow this is weird. And now it’s so normal and it seems so ridiculous that we had the old system.

I’m wondering how soon people are going to accept the new normal for marijuana, when this will just be part of everyday life.

Taken from Wednesday’s edition of The Dori Monson Show.

JS