Q&A: Buying legal pot in Washington state?

Washington state's first recreational marijuana stores open for business this week, more than a year and a half after voters decided to legalize, tax and regulate pot.

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The Associated Press answers some questions about how it will work.

Q: When can I buy legal weed?

A: The state's Liquor Control Board issued the first two dozen retail marijuana licenses in the early hours of Monday morning, and stores can open at 8 a.m. Tuesday if they're ready.

Once stores get their licenses, they can place their orders with the state's licensed growers, who have to wait 24 hours before they ship the marijuana.

It wasn't immediately clear how many stores planned to open Tuesday. Some, such as Bellingham's Top Shelf Cannabis, said it would be open at 8 a.m. PT ; others, such as Seattle's Cannabis City, planned to open at noon.

Q: Where can I buy legal weed?

A: By early Monday, the board hadn't released a list of all the stores being licensed in the first wave, but some of the shops have told reporters they've paid their fees, passed their inspections and are ready for their golden tickets.

The board said a few stores were prepared in Spokane, Tacoma, Bellingham and Vancouver, but only one is expected to open in Seattle.

Q: Will it be expensive?

A: Yes. Although some stores say they plan to sell some of their supply for as little as $10 or $12 a gram -- comparable to what it sells for at the state's unregulated medical dispensaries -- others expect it to go for $25 or more.

The issue is mainly supply. Relatively few growers have harvested -- the pot being offered for sale in the coming days was grown by only about a dozen producers statewide.

According to the two labs certified to check the pot for mold and other impurities, the samples they had tested by last Thursday represent a maximum initial statewide harvest of about 440 pounds.

Some growers are asking $4,000 per pound wholesale. The marijuana is heavily taxed -- 25 percent at wholesale and 25 percent at retail, at least, not to mention additional sales taxes. Officials don't expect prices to stabilize until after many more growers begin harvesting.

Q: How much can I buy?

A: State law allows the sale of up to an ounce of dried marijuana, 16 ounces of pot-infused solids, 72 ounces of pot-infused liquids or 7 grams of concentrated marijuana, like hashish, to adults over 21, whether you're a Washington resident or not.

But there isn't expected to be any infused food or drink available right away: As of last week, the Liquor Control Board had not issued any licenses to processors of those products, or approved any edibles for sale.

Some stores are talking about limiting customers to one 2-gram package apiece to make sure there's enough for everyone to buy some.

Q: What took so long to get the stores open?

A: Colorado already had a regulated medical marijuana system, making for a smoother transition when it allowed those dispensaries to start selling to recreational pot shops on Jan. 1.

Washington's medical system is unregulated, so officials here were starting from scratch as they immersed themselves in the pot world and tried to come up with regulations that made sense for the industry and the public.

The regulations include protocols for testing marijuana, what types of edibles should be allowed, requirements for child-resistant packaging, how much criminal history is too much to get a license, and what types of security systems pot shops and growers should have.

Ultimately, though, much of the delay can be attributed to overwhelming interest: The liquor board received nearly 7,000 applications from people who wanted to grow, process or sell marijuana.

Each of them needs to be vetted, with criminal and financial background checks, reviews to ensure they're not too close to a school or daycare, and approval of their business and security plans. It's time consuming work, and the board's 18 licensing investigators have been swamped.

Q: Where does the tax money go, and who's paying for programs to prevent problems?

A: The measure voters passed in 2012 directs 40 percent of the new revenues to the state general fund and local budgets, with the rest dedicated to substance-abuse prevention, research, education and health care. But tax revenue hasn't come in yet.

With sales about to start, the state Health Department scraped together $400,000 for a new radio and online advertisement campaign urging parents to talk to their kids about marijuana and visit www.learnaboutmarijuanawa.org .

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