California launches legal sale of cannabis for recreational use
California will launch the world's largest regulated commercial market for recreational marijuana on Monday, as dozens of newly licensed stores catering to adults who enjoy the drug for its psychoactive effects open for business up and down the state.
It becomes the sixth U.S. state, and by far the most populous, venturing beyond legalized medical marijuana to permit the sale of cannabis products of all types to customers at least 21 years old.
Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Alaska and Nevada were the first to introduce recreational pot sales on a state-regulated, licensed and taxed basis. Massachusetts and Maine are on track to follow suit later this year.
With California and its 39.5 million residents officially joining the pack, more than one-in-five Americans now live in states where recreational marijuana is legal for purchase, even though cannabis remains classified as an illegal narcotic under U.S. law.
The marijuana market in California alone, which boasts the world's sixth-largest economy, is valued by most experts at several billion dollars annually and is expected to generate at least a $1 billion a year in tax revenue.
(Score: 2) by Pslytely Psycho on Wednesday January 03 2018, @03:00AM
Ah, yes, I can only comment on the laws here, but recreational doesn't require anything other than showing your ID in exactly the same manner as buying cigarettes or alcohol. No record kept. Medical required a database, but we pretty much eliminated medical. You only need a medical card to grow. I wish we had adopted growing with recreational, but hey, we were the first and it was a bitch implementing it the first year, too few stores and too many grow licenses, that caused a glut. It has since stabilized.
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