The first customers of the newly opened recreational pot shops lined up in Colorado on Wednesday to purchase marijuana, kicking off an experiment focused on the former illegal substance that will be followed closely by the rest of the world.
Customers were entertained with live music during the opening day of America's first legal recreational marijuana stores to open its doors. Crowds were given funnel cakes and doughnuts while a glass-blower created smoking pipes. Some of the curious tourists came riding in a limousine, eager to get dibs on the pot but not enthusiatic to be spotted buying for themselves.
When the doors opened and sales began, customers who purchased the drug exited the marijuana shops with their receipts proudly held high and their sealed shopping bags in hand.
"I'm going to frame the receipt when I go home, to remind myself of what might be possible: Legal everywhere," cheered 28-year-old musician, James Aaron Ramsey, who had spent time in the slammer for weed possession back in Missouri.
This is the goal of activists fighting for the drug's legalization, along with the hope that the marijuana experiment in Colorado will be the solution to the expensive American-led drug battle.
Activists are hoping that the experiment will become successful enough to produce the expected sales income calculated by state officials and will save the government expenses in arresting and jailing drug offenders.
Just on the first opening day of the pot stores, prices of pot in some areas clmbed to more than US$500 per ounce while a few shops declared they would be closing early due to short supply by mid-afternoon.
Washington state will be the next location for the pot experiment, as the it will opening its first pot stores later this year. As the first ones to regulate the production and sale of marijuana, the pot industries will be closely monitored by officials in other U.S. states, activists and other countries.
A few other countries have also lifted their ban on the drug, among them is the Netherlands which lets citizens buy and sell pot, though growing and processing the plant still remains illegal.
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