On Jan. 22, the Arizona Department of Health Services approved licenses for 73 recreational marijuana dispensaries in the state, in accordance with Proposition 207.
The voter-approved ballot initiative from November legalized marijuana for personal consumption and possession and sale at certain locations. The referendum reserves licenses for businesses that had already been licensed for medical marijuana. Two of the licenses went to businesses in the Verde Valley — Bloom in Sedona and Harvest in Cottonwood.
By Friday afternoon long lines had formed at both locations, with waits of up to 45 minutes. While they shortened slightly after the first weekend, they never got short.
“I came in at 12:30 [p.m.] and it’s been busy all day,” a cashier at Bloom said on Wednesday. “We probably expect it to be open until about 8 o’clock, and I’m sure the line will stay just as long until 8.”
While the demand is especially high right after legalization and may decline after the initial rush, employees at Bloom have suggested that Sedona’s marijuana business is likely to gain in popularity as tourists pour into the area in the spring.
Dispensaries are offering several varieties of marijuana products, including the traditional plant parts — often referred to as “flower” — vaporizer cartridges, concentrates or “dabs,” and edible concoctions. Sales of recreational marijuana are taxed at 16% in addition to whatever municipal sales taxes are in place, but that has not slowed down demand yet, with Harvest by Monday beginning to run out of certain types of edibles and Bloom rationing some popular edibles to avoid running out.
Beyond the dispensaries themselves, the sale of marijuana in the area has meant additional business for local smoke shops that sell paraphernalia. Although the shops operated long before cannabis was legal, they have seen an increase in customers, many of them first-time users seeking the tools needed — bongs, pipes, vaporizers, rolling papers, etc. — in order to make use of flower.
“New people are like, ‘Wow, I can buy it legally, so I can do it for the first time,’” said Nicole Vanderploeg, who along with her husband operates Hawaiian Honey Island Smoke Shop in Cottonwood, just down the street from Harvest. “You’ve got to spend more time to explain things. Things take a little bit longer, because people want to understand better, and as time goes on that will be less.”
The shift in the status of the drug also brings with it a shift in law enforcement.
Yavapai County Sheriff David Rhodes said that just a small handful of charges brought by YCSO in years when the drug was illegal were marijuana-related — he estimated annually just around five out of several thousand bookings per year.
However, it will mean changes for how law enforcement operates — officers are used to being able to search vehicles when they smell weed, and drug-sniffing dogs that are trained to find marijuana cannot easily be untrained. In some Verde Valley communities, police are already treating stolen marijuana products like
other property and returning recovered marijuana back to their proper owners.
Rhodes said that before the election, he had opposed Proposition 207, concerned that it might lead to increased traffic accidents and other issues, but now that the law has changed, he will ensure that his deputies follow it.
“The will of the voters was that marijuana is going to be legalized,” Rhodes said. “This is a law enforcement agency and we’re going to enforce the will of the voters, period. At the time I was against it, but it’s passed. I think it’s going to really shift law enforcement into different directions.”
