The smell of weed and profit were equally potent at Top Shelf, a marijuana retail store in Bellingham, Wash., that sold the state's first legal marijuana this past Tuesday. The store was one of six lucky businesses chosen in a citywide retail license lottery. Store co-owner John Evich said his location was open from 8 a.m to 10 p.m. and they sold a total of five pounds of pot to an eager 1,200 customers for over $30,000 in sales. Each person bought a two gram bag for $19.82 plus a hefty 33.7% sales tax of $6.68 equaling $26.50 per customer. As it turned out the alleged dearth of retail marijuana in Washington proved false at Top Shelf with Evich having more than enough on hand for the throngs of people. Whether or not Evich and other retail marijuana locations will lose customers to illegal weed sales remains to be seen. However, Evich for one believes the combination of buyers wanting to bypass any potential legal problems and the more varied strains available at retail shops will trump illegal weed sellers' lower prices. How would the police know whether or not a person's pot was legally or illegally purchased? If a person was pulled over or stopped for something else and happened to have marijuana on them how would the police know where they got the pot from? A receipt? The packaging? The strain? How many of the 1,200 customers that passed through Top Shelf were already regularly buying marijuana illegally versus people who never or rarely bought pot illegally? If it was the latter then the black market is likely going to stay alive and well. sources: http://bit.ly/Uby5hB http://bit.ly/1oXtDy6 http://bit.ly/1reQus9

• published: 15 Jul 2014
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