Golden State tokers rejoice. The biggest legal recreational marijuana market in America is finally ready to open its doors.

-------------------It’s been more than a year since California voted to legalize adult-use cannabis sales in the country’s most populous state by passing Proposition 64, but actual legal recreational weed sales have been on hold while state lawmakers decided on the regulatory framework for the new legal market. While medical marijuana has been legal in California for two decades—accounting for roughly $2 billion in annual sales—state residents must wait until January 2018 before they are able to legally buy marijuana in California without a doctor’s approval---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------California will soon join states like Colorado, Oregon, and Nevada that have already expanded into adult-use marijuana markets (in total, seven states and the District of Columbia have legalized recreational marijuana). In some of those states, eager consumers celebrated the first day of legal recreational pot sales by lining up at their local dispensaries in order to be among the first to participate in the newly-legal marijuana economy-----------------

Here’s what you need to know about the start of legal recreational marijuana sales in California:

--------------When and where can you buy recreational marijuana in California?
California’s new recreational marijuana laws will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2018, but that doesn’t mean you’ll be able to go straight from your New Year’s Eve party to a local dispensary. First of all, state rules will dictate that cannabis not be sold until 6 a.m. or after 10 p.m. And, while the state’s Bureau of Cannabis Control is issuing temporary licenses to dispensaries this month that will be effective starting Jan. 1, it remains to be seen exactly how many California dispensaries will eligible for those licenses from the get-go------------------

--------------Some of the roughly 1,000 existing medical marijuana dispensaries statewide, which also must apply for new state licenses, are likely to be among the first to land new licenses for both medical and recreational cannabis sales. But, entrepreneurs hoping to land their own licenses will also have to make sure that they have the approval of their local county or municipality, and the Los Angeles Times notes that most of the cities in California have still not approved recreational marijuana sales. The San Diego Union-Tribune puts the number of California cities and counties that have banned either the sale or cultivation of cannabis at higher than 70%--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

California is among 29 states where pot is legal, either for medical or recreational use.

Los Angeles has long been an unruly frontier in the pot industry, where hundreds of illegal dispensaries and cultivators proliferated.

Earlier this year, L.A. voters endorsed another attempt to regulate the local pot businesses, leading to the new rules.

The legal marketplace is seen as a way to impose order, hopefully squeezing out illegal operators while raising a cascade of new taxes for City Hall.

In the background is widespread uncertainty about whether the Trump administration will attempt to intervene in states where marijuana is legal.

Because marijuana is illegal in the eyes of the federal government, many major banks are leery to do business with dispensaries and growers, so much of the business is conducted in cash.

#source: http://fortune.com/2017/12/28/california-recreational-adult-use-marijuana-jan-1/
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