Annie’s in Central City, Colo., located 35 miles west of Denver, won the world’s first recreational marijuana sales license on Wednesday.
The recreational sale of marijuana will be legal January 1 in Colorado. Although the sale of marijuana in “coffee shops” throughout the Netherlands has occurred since the 1970s, marijuana sales are actually illegal in the country, which is why Annie’s license is significant. And although medical marijuana sales were legal in many countries at one point, it’s believed that a business has never before obtained a license to sell marijuana specifically for recreational use.
Owned and operated by Strainwise, a company that currently operates eight marijuana dispensaries in Colorado, Annie’s has been selling medical marijuana for years, along with groceries and liquor. But in keeping with the recreational sales regulations, Annies may have to separate its grocery section from the marijuana section since snacks cannot be sold with marijuana products.
In accordance with Colorado’s recreational marijuana legalization legislation, companies that were currently operating as medical marijuana dispensaries can apply for recreational licenses for three months before any other person or organization can apply for one.
In some cities like Denver, that head start was extended from three months to Feb. 1, 2016, to give those dispensaries that are already operating “protection from competition.”
According to a press release from Strainwise, the license was issued and delivered to the operators of Annie’s by the chief of police, who didn’t have to travel far to deliver the license, since Annie’s shares a wall with the city’s police station.
Although Annie’s was the first medical marijuana dispensary in the state to be approved for recreational sales, it is not the only dispensary to be approved for a recreational sales license, nor was it the first to apply for a recreational license.
Talking to Denver’s Westword, Strainwise’s Erin Phillip’s said the company expected its Denver-based dispensary, the Grove, to be the first in the state to obtain a recreational sales license since it was the first to have a recreational-sales hearing, but said Central City processed the application a lot faster than any other city.
Although Phillips said the license is “the same old bureaucratic piece of paper,” the company “might put it in a fancy frame.”
In response to the historic news, Mason Tvert, director of communications for the Marijuana Policy Project, who co-directed the Amendment 64 campaign to legalize and regulate marijuana like alcohol, released a statement saying that “Colorado is moving forward and leaving marijuana prohibition behind.
“For the first time in history, those who sell marijuana are receiving licenses from the state instead of rap sheets. Marijuana will be sold to adults by legitimate, taxpaying businesses instead of drug cartels in the underground market.
“Colorado is proving to the rest of the world that marijuana can be regulated like alcohol. It will not be long before voters and lawmakers in other states decide to adopt similar policies. Marijuana is objectively less harmful than alcohol, and it is finally starting to be treated that way,” the statement read.
Perks of recreational sales: Revenue
When the sale of recreational marijuana becomes legal on January 1, many expect recreational sales will generate about $67 million in state revenue, since the street value of marijuana is currently $300-$400 an ounce, which is one of the cheaper black market prices in the nation. That money will largely be used to fund school construction projects.
According to a report in PolicyMic, it’s estimated that current underground marijuana sales range between $10 billion to more than $120 billion per year.
Brewed beverages on the other hand, like beer, generate a little more than $100 billion annually, which is why some studies estimate that marijuana is the biggest cash crop in the U.S. and is more valuable than corn ($23.3 billion) and wheat ($7.5 billion).
Colorado is reportedly the third largest marijuana consumer in the U.S., following Alaska and Vermont, with estimates that about 15 percent of Coloradans consume the substance.