Maywood's First Recreational Pot Shop Opens Tuesday
MAYWOOD (CBSLA/AP) – The first recreational marijuana dispensary in the city of Maywood opened Tuesday to major fanfare.
Cookies Los Angeles held its grand opening at 10 a.m. at 5815 Maywood Ave. On hand will be rappers Wiz Khalifa, B-Real and Berner, along with Maywood Mayor Ramon Medina.
The store expected upwards of 1,000 people to show up. A taco truck was set up outside offering free tacos between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m.
Cookies joins a handful of dispensaries in Santa Ana and West Hollywood that began selling recreational marijuana Jan. 1. The city of Los Angeles started accepting license applications Jan. 3.
Cookies claims that what differentiates it from other local dispensaries is that it is the first in the area to have a microbusiness license, which allows it to grow, manufacture, distribute and sell marijuana on site.
In November of 2016, California voters legalized recreational marijuana for adults 21 and older, making it legal to grow six plants and possess an ounce of pot. The state was given a year to set retail market regulations that are still being formalized and will be phased in over the next year.
Recreational customers in California can buy up to one ounce of marijuana per person and must pay a 25 percent tax.
Complicating matters, however, the Trump administration on Jan. 4 announced that it was lifting an Obama-era policy that kept federal authorities from cracking down on the pot trade in states where the drug is legal. Attorney General Jeff Sessions will now leave it up to federal prosecutors to decide what to do when state rules collide with federal drug law.
Sessions' action have threatened the future of the young industry, creating confusion in the seven states and Washington, D.C., where the drug is legal.
(© Copyright 2018 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
