After two years of politicking and legal wrangling, the first week of legalized retail sales of marijuana turned out to be sort of a buzzkill.
Hundreds of Clark County residents who enjoy consuming it, or who use it for medical reasons, turned out to celebrate the first legal sales at two Vancouver stores last week. Meanwhile, the hundreds of thousands of Clark County residents who don’t use marijuana stayed home.
The first store, Main Street Marijuana, opened Tuesday morning with Vancouver Mayor Tim Leavitt cutting a green ribbon. Leavitt didn’t become the store’s first customer, but said “I would put it at better than 50-50 that I would” buy a legal marijuana product someday. That didn’t seem to faze anyone, which is in itself evidence that the time for legal marijuana has arrived.
There was a lot of fanfare, but by evening the line to get to the pot counter had died. Folks at a pizza place across the street supped on the sidewalk, and residents of the Hough neighborhood could be seen walking their dogs and doing other typical Tuesday things.
On Wednesday, New Vansterdam opened its store in the Vancouver Heights to a slightly smaller crowd. Business was steady all day, the owners reported, and both firms told Columbian reporter Sue Vorenberg they were generally satisfied with their first few days in business.
In other words, the marijuana business will soon be business as usual. There will be problems with supply chains — by Monday, both stores were temporarily without inventory — invoicing, filling out all the tax forms correctly, finding and retaining good employees and the many other challenges that face entrepreneurs.
And there’s nothing wrong with that. By legalizing pot with Initiative 502, Washington residents acknowledged the reality that marijuana consumption is a normal activity for a certain percentage of society.
What is also evident is that marijuana businesses aren’t going to be an immediate blight on our cities. Law enforcement agencies didn’t report any significant problems with store openings, here or around the state. Much like the old state-controlled liquor stores, the businesses will be there for their customers, but not in the faces of those who abstain. Local jurisdictions, including the Clark County commissioners, should watch and learn from the operations of the first stores, and drop their legal fight to zone away pot sales. As voters have realized, banning marijuana is an expensive way to accomplish not much.
It also appears marijuana will provide a good source of tax revenue for state and local government, but probably not a windfall. Statewide, the Liquor Control Board estimated $150,000 in state excise taxes were paid during the first three days of sales. Annualized, that’s less than $20 million per year, considerably short of the half-billion promised in 2012 by proponents of Initiative 502. That number will certainly fluctuate as more stores open, but also as the novelty of legal sales wears off.
So it’s also clear that, at least at first, legal marijuana won’t be the only solution to major state funding problems, such as the state Supreme Court mandate to fully fund basic education at an estimated additional annual cost of billions of dollars.
So, here’s to the new era of legal marijuana sales. Or, maybe not. Either way, it seems destined to soon be a minor part of most people’s lives.
