Before sunrise on New Year’s Day, cashiers welcomed the first legal sales of recreational marijuana in California, launching a new industry expected to bring in billions of dollars while accepting new regulations and taxes.

“Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;” 1 Peter 1:13 (KJV)

EDITOR’S NOTE: I have no problem with making marijuana legal, to me it’s the smoke equivalent of alcohol. If you make one legal, then it is only fair to make the other legal as well. But the problem that comes in is sobriety. Remember those grainy, old videos of people celebrating the repeal of Prohibition way back in 1933? They were ecstatic to get legal alcohol back again. Then American and the world watched as legal alcohol created legions of alcoholics that grew with each passing decade. Legal pot? If that’s your thing, enjoy it. But the Bible calls us to be sober in these last days, not drunk or high. And you can’t smoke pot and stay sober. 

The day has been long anticipated by cannabis advocates who pushed for voters to pass Proposition 64 in November 2016, largely decriminalizing marijuana and allowing — starting Monday — for the commercial sale of products to adults 21 or older.

In Berkeley, Mayor Jesse Arreguin and Democratic state Sen. Nancy Skinner joined a couple dozen people outside the Berkeley Patients Group for the first sales.

“I’m stoked about this historic moment not just for Berkeley but for the state of California.” Arreguin said. “This is a long time coming.”

The first sale happened at 6 a.m. Chris Conrad and Mikki Norris, longtime marijuana advocates, bought three joints as the crowd cheered “Happy New Year!”  They spent $45.37 on the three joints, weed named after Jack Herer, their friend and now decreased advocate for legalized marijuana.

Some people stayed up all night to get a spot in line. Others went to bed early to get there before 6 a.m.

Anthony Moraga, 28, drove from Merced on Sunday so he could be in line at 4 a.m. — the first customer in line at Berkeley Patients Group. But he was the second to make a purchase. The store had selected longtime activists Conrad and Norris to be first.

He spent $120 on marijuana flowers or buds, and with a $32 tax added on the total came to $152 dollars.

“It’s historic,” he said “it’s the first time we can come out in the public … Paying taxes on our legal purchase.”

Moraga said he felt like it was a huge weight off his shoulders to be a legal recreational buyer. He said it’s time to demonstrate responsible healthy use, “rather than the party crowd we have been demonized as.”

The handful of shops making recreational sales on Monday acquired both local and state licenses. They included Harborside, Purple Heart and Blum in Oakland; Berkeley Patients Group and Cannabis Buyers Club of Berkeley; 7 Stars Holistic Healing Center in Richmond; Mercy Wellness in Cotati; and SPARC and Solful in Sebastopol.

Former federal attorney Henry Wykowski bought one gram of the Neville’s Purple strain from Harborside in Oakland for $20.01 after Harborside founder and longtime cannabis activist Stephen DeAngelo proclaimed, “We’ve been waiting a long time for this.”

The dispensary staff cheered as hundreds stood in line outside the club, waiting to shop and celebrate.

Additional locations are expected to offer recreational marijuana in coming days and weeks, including outlets in San Francisco. But many cities are expected to bar the sales altogether.

At some shops, the coming-out party was expected to feature live music, coffee and doughnuts, prizes for those first in line and speeches from supportive local politicians — a far cry from the days when the cannabis trade operated in the shadows.

Marijuana remains illegal by federal standards. But several states, including Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Nevada, and now California, have legalized both medicinal and recreational use.

As of November 2016, California law allows adults 21 or older to possess and transport up to one ounce of cannabis flower, as well as up to eight grams of extract or infused foods. Smoking in public is still prohibited.

Medical marijuana will continue to be available through existing dispensaries to those with a valid I.D. and a doctor’s recommendation.

But as of Monday morning, all customers buying cannabis products will pay a 15 percent state excise tax, which is expected to eventually bring in $1 billion or more a year for marijuana research, addiction prevention and boosted law enforcement, among other things.

Recreational customers must pay sales tax as well, unlike those with a state-authorized medical identification card. In addition, cities can choose to impose local cannabis taxes.

In Oakland, taxes for most customers will increase from 14.25 percent to 34.25 percent, according to Harborside officials. Bulk buys are not allowed, with state law limiting daily purchases to one ounce of cannabis flower, eight grams of concentrated cannabis, and six immature plants per customer. source

They lined up by the hundreds hoping to be part of Sin City history. Under the bright lights of the Strip, fireworks shot off the roof of Reef Dispensaries in celebration as strobe lights lit up the night sky.

EDITOR’S NOTE: As we continue our headlong rush into the end times, the lid is coming off the underworld and the night creatures are crawling out into public view. People who object to things like legalized public pot consumption are seen as the “enemies to progress” by the mad throngs forming lines around the block at pot dispensaries. One can only imagine what’s going to be legalized next. 

“Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” Isaiah 5:20 (KJV)

Giant speakers roared with reggae beats. Limousines and party buses — several lined with green light-emitting diode lights — ushered tourists and locals to the revelry outside Reef Dispensaries, a marijuana shop a few steps behind the Fashion Show Mall, where the sea of customers stretched down and around the 165,000-square-foot building.

“I’m excited!” shouted 24-year-old Las Vegan Majanae Brown as the minutes ticked toward midnight. “I can’t wait.”

At Euphoria Wellness, there were no party buses, no fireworks or strobe lights. The only music to be heard played lightly from the cellphone of a customer near the door. But hundreds stood in a line that stretched around in the strip mall building in the south valley suburbs.

Las Vegas marijuana dispensaries gear up for extra business:

“This is larger than 4/20. This is the largest I’ve ever seen,” Euphoria Wellness co-owner Larry Doyle said. (4/20 refers to the counterculture holiday celebrating marijuana on April 20.)

When Friday finally turned to Saturday, Nevada’s green rush was on as the state joined Colorado, Washington, Oregon and Alaska in allowing people to buy marijuana for recreational use.

Nevadans voted 54-46 in November to legalize adult-use marijuana.

On Saturday, less than eight months after the ballot measure passed, more than 40 stores across Southern Nevada were authorized by the state to begin selling marijuana to adults 21 and older without the need of medical cannabis card. Five dispensaries in Henderson did not get authorization because the city put a six-month moratorium on recreational marijuana licenses, which expires in August.

Las Vegas 1st Day Of Recreational Marijuana 2017:

GRAPHIC WARNING: This video is raw footage of the scene on the streets in Las Vegas on the first day of legal pot sales. Watch with caution.

Despite the large crowds at dispensaries across the valley, police reported no issues with Saturday’s rollout of marijuana sales. Although it’s now legal for adults 21 and older to buy and possess up to an ounce of marijuana, consuming it in public remains illegal. There were no signs of use at the dispensaries Saturday, and a Strip walk in the afternoon found just one open user, who wouldn’t talk to a reporter. He wouldn’t say who he was or whether he’d bought his weed legally.

Marijuana is still considered illegal federally. But for many, Saturday’s legalization in Nevada brought a lawful avenue to get something they were previously forced to buy from the black market.

“You don’t have to hide in the corner anymore and feel bad about it,” said Pam Mateo as she walked out of Euphoria at 1:30 a.m. with her purchase — “just a few joints” inside an opaque white plastic bag. source

The Denver Police Department cautioned parents about marijuana edibles on Halloween in a video posted to its YouTube page Monday

In the video, Patrick Johnson, owner of Urban Dispensary, says that edibles, or candy coated in habiscus hash oil, account for anywhere from 20 percent to 30 percent of his gross sales, and are indistinguishable from regular candy.

Manufacturers typically infuse knockoff candy bought in bulk, so Johnson said parents should toss any candy that isn’t in familiar packaging or in a tampered package.

“Once that candy dries, there’s really no way to tell the difference between infused and candy that’s not infused,” Johnson said. “Some of these products look so similar to candy that’s been on the market that we’ve eaten as children that there’s really no way for a child or a parent or even anybody, even an expert in the field, to tell you whether or not a product is infused or not.”

Manufacturers typically infuse knockoff candy bought in bulk, so Johnson said parents should toss any candy that isn’t in familiar packaging or in a tampered package.