New Year’s Day opening launches market eventually expected to gross $578m annually.
The world’s first state-licensed marijuana retailers legally permitted to sell pot for recreational use to the general public opened for business in Colorado today with long lines of customers, marking a new chapter in the US drug culture.
New Year’s Day opening launches market eventually expected to gross $578m annually.
Roughly three dozen former medical marijuana/cannabis dispensaries newly cleared by state regulators to sell “pot” to consumers who are interested in nothing more than its mind- and mood-altering properties began welcoming customers as early as 8am local time.
The highly-anticipated New Year’s Day opening launched an unprecedented commercial cannabis market that Colorado officials expect will ultimately gross $578 million (€420 million) in annual revenues, including $67 million in tax receipts for the state.
Possession, cultivation and private personal consumption of marijuana by adults for the sake of just getting high has already been legal in Colorado for more than a year under a state constitutional amendment approved by voters.
But as today, cannabis was being legally produced, sold and taxed in a system modeled after a regime which many states have in place for alcohol sales - but which exists for marijuana nowhere in the world outside of Colorado.
Source: irish Times, 02/01/2013
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