It took mass TWO years to get two stores open.

I doubt the DEA and the pharmaceutical industry are going to give up that easily - too much $$$$ at-stake, both for the for-profit incarceration industry, as well as what widespread legalization/decriminalization would do to sales of pain-killers, anti-anxiety meds, etc.

Big Pharma has the resources to take over Marijuana, and the good ole USofA DO Love a Monopoly, don't she?

Question: Can we keep Monsatan the fuck out?

PS -- speaking of bigphuckinpharma, the Drugs Pusher Corps peeps who shoved their highly-addictive massively-profitable Oxycontin down America's loverly naive throat is finally facing Criminal charges. Yippee!

Thanks for the Opoid Crisis, Purdue Pharmaceuticals! Oh, and Enjoy your plush Cells! (hope you get to work in the Laundry. I hear it's real Nice in winter)!

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/10/30/the-family-that-built-an-empire-of-pain

"Today is the first time recreational pot has ever been sold east of the Mississippi"

Except for DC. Once again crack research by The Stranger, looks like Lester Black has trouble unless he is copying C is for Crank.

A majority of Americans have lived west of the Mississippi River since the 1980s:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mean_center_of_the_United_States_population#/media/File:US_Mean_Center_of_Population_1790-2010.PNG

Speaking of piling on, when did fucking Maine secede?

Okay,l my bad -- you cannot buy it in Maine.
But you can fucking Grow it.

As you can in ALL states where it's Legal.*

*it's a Stranger fact: you can NOT grow it here.

So fucking stupid -- unless Ca$h is your sole fucking criteria.

Gosh, this researchy thing, it's Addictive!

From Rolling Stone:
"If you don’t have your medical card, there are still options for obtaining weed. Many weed delivery services have popped up since 2016, although these businesses walk a very thin line of operating legally. Technically, they are giving the weed away for free, since the law does not currently allow for people without an medical card to purchase marijuana in a legal way. Known locally as gifting companies, they charge only for delivery (a fee which is on par with typical weed prices in Maine)."

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/the-rolling-stone-guide-to-legal-pot-maine-630646/

I'm a little surprised to see Massachusetts talked about like it's freaking backwoods Mississippi. Has the writer ever been to Boston, Cambridge, Allston, Brighton, Northampton, Newburyport, Berkshires? The place is quite famously a liberal bastion. Not Mississippi or even Texas.

Remember too that it famously was the one and ONLY state out of 50 to vote against Nixon in '72, among other awesome factoids about the state.

@2 I can't imagine how any sane person can watch the last 10 years of progress on marijuana legalization and still think "big pharma and the DEA" can and will just put the brakes on whenever they feel like it. To state the obvious, the time to stop this was 2010-2012. If they couldn't or wouldn't then, they certainly can't/won't now: the cat is out of the bag and the momentum is too great. Assuming essentially unlimited corporate nalign power in the face of robust evidence to the contrary is just lazy, substituting cynicism for realism.

I think the one thing that holds “legal weed” back the most is the horrifying image of hipster dudes in sports coats with “man buns” taking over the world high on the Devil’s Lettuce.

"...people will see just how beneficial it is to treat cannabis sensibly."

Too bad "sensible" doesn't mean 'reasonable tax burden'. From time to time, I ponder that 47% we pay here in WA - nearly doubling the price we pay. I predict the black market will bounce back if only to serve those sick of financing WA state. Not a big fan of sin taxes, but after paying 47% for so long here is my new cause: taxing the living fuck out of every damn thing that could be filed under "non-necessity". Look for my "Tax That Shit 47%" campaign, coming to a place near you. My platform will be 47% tax on candy, doughnuts, soda, extra shots in lattes, fancy wheels for the car, extra large TV screens, etc. Anything people like but don't really need. 47%.

"From time to time, I ponder that 47% we pay here in WA - nearly doubling the price we pay."

Uh, maybe put down the joint and go to a math class.

@10 The Northeast is not liberal when it comes to drugs. More liberal than Alabama? Sure. But not liberal at all compared to the West Coast and the West. Think Michigan, Wisconsin level of drug liberalism, not California. That's why this is a significant breakthrough.

@11:

They can and will - not stop altogether, but do everything they can to impede nation-wide legalization - because the DEA still, despite mounting evidence the contrary (which for nearly a century the agency has systematically attempted to block as well), lists it on the same schedule as highly addictive drugs such as Heroin, Quaaludes, and methamphetamines. They have literally been "putting the brakes on" since Harry Anslinger's crusade to eradicate cannabis use going back to the 1930's. You think they're going to throw in the towel now, regardless of how many states push back? And the pharmaceutical industry has a huge vested interest, because of the simple fact that cannabis is a plant: it can't be patented, and they can't control its cultivation, so they can't make $$$$ off it in the same manner they could with a chemically-synthesized compound.

Legal pot does not always make friends. I voted to legalize, even though I myself am not a pot smoker and have no interest in being one. Unfortunately, I have no choice now, because I am forced to smoke it secondhand through the ungrateful generosity of pot smokers who are more or less free to flout the part of the law that makes it illegal to smoke weed in public. If you asked me what I think about legal recreational marijuana today, I’d say: it sucks for non-users. You’re welcome.

There still a puritan streak in New England, of course, but dear god do you have any idea how many college campuses there are in MA, and what that's done to the place over the past half-century or so? By now even the blue-bloods have three generations passing the joint around out behind the Carriage House at the holiday get-togethers.

@15 I get what you're saying but Michigan did just legalize recreational cannabis.

Jesus, Jeebus, we don't pay 47% in taxes on our fair weed --
it's only 46%!

Wow.

Okay, I'm with you -- 47% on Big Soda, Big Donut (sorry,
Coppers), et friggin' Cetera. Let's get this Tax ball a' rollin'!

(Where's Tim fucking Watchman when ya really Need 'im?)

@19 touche/exactly!

@5 I'm a DC resident. The only legal cannabis sales taking place in the District are medical. We approved a ballot measure legalizing cannabis four years ago, but Congress refuses to approve spending the money to license recreational dispensaries. Maybe soon, though:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/democratic-house-flip-may-mean-full-legalization-of-marijuana-in-nations-capital/2018/11/07/ae3762d0-e2ba-11e8-b759-3d88a5ce9e19_story.html?utm_term=.65e632bb2ac6

You may not be well-positioned to criticize Lester's "crack research" on this topic. Maybe stick to the lower-hanging fruit like his not knowing the difference between "discrete" and "discreet," or using "chomp" rather than "champ at the bit." Also, feel free to call him out on his casual ageism (Non-Millennials are "boring-looking" and "accountants," 50-year-olds are "retirees.")