Legal recreational marijuana begins selling in California

SANTA ANA, CA (FOX 11) - Prop 64 was approved by voters in 2016, but it wasn’t until the first day of January 2018 that anyone could buy it legally. And, there weren’t many places to do that.

In Santa Ana, the city council approved an ordinance that would allow 16 dispensaries in its community to sell legal weed. West Hollywood’s four dispensaries will do the same on the 2nd because its city council did the same thing and created temporary permits until the permanent ones are completed.

A co-author of Prop 64, Lynne Lyman, was frustrated she couldn’t buy it in Los Angeles on day #1. That wasn’t possible because of the slow permitting process in LA which doesn’t begin until the third day of January. So, she and a few friends trekked to Santa Ana to a dispensary to buy her first joint. It was a banana-strawberry flavored one.

She told FOX 11 she knows there are hitches in the roll-out and the federal law that makes cannabis illegal still has some feeling uncomfortable about  buying, but she says people would try to normalize it adding, “if you don’t mind your children seeing the wine you buy then you shouldn’t feel uncomfortable with them seeing your weed.”

We found at three dispensaries we went to that with all taxes combined (State, City etc) the cost for an ounce was between $300 and $400. That, of course, is based on the grade. Taxes amounted to about 30%. Most people who were buying cannabis seemed to be purchasing amounts in the area of an 8th of an ounce for $40 or $50.

Copyright 2018 FOX 11 Los Angeles: Download our mobile app for breaking news alerts or to watch FOX 11 News | Follow us on Facebook, Twitter , Instagram and YouTube.