After 20 months since passage of the law, the first retail store licenses were issued today and sales begin tomorrow. This delay might be seen as a wise and cautious approach to de-prohibition, or as an example of bureaucratic and unnecessary overreach by the state government.
The Liquor Control Board sees it yet differently: since the first stores are forecasting a shortage of product, that’s proof they moved as fast as the market place could accommodate. So it’s not their fault.
Their spin ignores the fact that they controlled the growers as well, so they held the strings for both sides of the equation.