Buying marijuana in the United States for recreational (read: fun) purposes may be legal in two American states now but for some it is far from acceptable as security guard Mike Boyer learned to his cost.
Boyer (30), from Spokane in Washington, stood in line for almost 20 hours waiting to become the first customer on “Green Tuesday” to buy recreational marijuana in one of 334 retail dispensaries licensed to sell grass. The shops opened this week two years after voters in the Pacific North West state voted to approve its sale.
Local television news stations rushed to cover the landmark moment featuring Boyer high-fiving customers as he walked out of Spokane Green Leaf shouting “first customer!” with his purchase – four grammes of Sour Kush marijuana – on his way home.
“His high was quickly brought low,” the New York Daily News reported: his employers, having spotted him on the TV, requested a urine analysis and fired him for smoking pot. “I don’t regret it,” Boyer told the Big Apple tabloid newspaper. “I’m sad it happened but I got the title: I’m No 1. I regret nothing.”
Others in the Washington community are equally unconcerned about marijuana purchases. Seattle’s city attorney Pete Holmes, an elected official who had campaigned for the legalisation of recreational marijuana, was the fourth customer at Seattle’s first pot shop, Cannabis City, when it opened its doors last Tuesday.
He bought two two-gramme bags of OG Pearl weed, one “for posterity” and one for “personal enjoyment”, he said. The announcement was a bold move for a public official and in contrast with Denver city attorney Scott Martinez who told The Cannabist website that he hasn’t bought weed since pot shops opened in January in Colorado, the first state to let everyday customers enjoy a legal high.
Source: Simon Carswell, Irish Times, 12/07/14
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