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| Marijuana plants for sale are displayed at the California Heritage Market in Los Angeles, California July 11, 2014. REUTERS/David McNew |
By Steve Gorman
LOS
ANGELES (Reuters) - California adults not content to ring in the New
Year with the traditional fizz of champagne can look forward to
celebrating with the buzz of marijuana, purchased for the first time
from state-licensed retailers of recreational pot.
Dozens
of newly authorized marijuana stores are due to open for business
across California on Jan. 1, launching yet another chapter in America's
drug culture and the largest regulated commercial market for cannabis in
the United States - one valued at several billion dollars.
The
rollout is expected to be gradual and bumpy. The state only began
handing out licenses in mid-December, issued on a temporary basis
because implementing regulations were still under review.
Newly
permitted retailers will rely on a hodge-podge of marijuana producers
in the state's illicit "gray market" to stock their shelves for the next
six months, until state-licensed growers can harvest their first crops.
And
many jurisdictions, notably Los Angeles and San Francisco, will be
closed to business in the recreational pot sector for days or weeks
because of additional local approvals applicants must win.
Shops
in San Diego, San Jose, the Bay area-towns of Berkeley and Oakland, and
Eureka - the heart of Northern California's cannabis country - are
among those ready to go on Day One, said Alex Traverso, a spokesman for
the state Cannabis Control Board.
"The
market is going to be kind of rough getting started," said Jordan Lams,
chief executive of Moxie, a company based in the Los Angeles suburb of
Lynwood that specializes in making cannabis extracts, including oils
used in electronic vaporization, or "vape," devices.
He predicted supply shortages early on.
California
led the way in legalizing marijuana for medical purposes in 1996, and
more than 30 states have followed suit since then, though cannabis
remains classified as an illegal narcotic under U.S. law.
On
Monday, California will become the sixth U.S. state, and by far the
most populous, to legalize, regulate and tax sales of recreational
marijuana - a market catering to consumers wishing to buy the drug for
its mind- and mood-altering properties.
