Marty's Travels

My house has wheels

Pot: Washington

After a little data-handling glitch, Washington is now reporting that some 1000 outfits have applied for the special license that allows the state to hoover up the unlicensed medical marijuana establishments. The guess is that half of these applications are bogus, and half of the remainder will be disqualified on the rules.

The original goal was about 335 licensed retail establishments. There are now 260 in the state, but the additional places eligible for a license might be another 250. So, look for about 500 stores in Washington very soon now.

Contrast with Denver with around 1000, not to mention the rest of the state. It looks like Oregon will come in with around 1000 state-wide.

Eligible places will be able to show they took out appropriate business licenses, and paid local business taxes, as well as state sales taxes.

I’m having a hard time understanding why there would be so many people that set up a completely unlicensed and illegal store, then went around to set up tax accounts with the local authorities. Then actually paid their taxes on time.

The law and the regulators are playing loose here, but the feeling is that getting the black market sucked into the regulated system is worth overlooking some details here and there.

Overlooking details here and there is pretty much the theme with marijuana everywhere…..