The Arizona Department of Health approved 73 dispensaries for adult-use marijuana sales, including two dispensaries near downtown.
Sales officially began on Jan. 22 to adults over the age of 21. Arizonans can now purchase up to an ounce of weed and up to five grams of marijuana concentrate, which includes edibles.
Curaleaf, a national cannabis company, is among one of the companies approved to recreationally sell marijuana. The company has eight Arizona locations including two near downtown: One located on Central Avenue and Thomas Road and the other on Central Avenue and Victory Street.
Adult-Use #Cannabis is now available for sale in #Arizona at all @Curaleafaz locations! This is a huge step forward: AZ consumers can now legally purchase cannabis products for recreational use. We look forward to serving all of our future customers there. https://t.co/3vQFWyTDWD
— Curaleaf (@Curaleaf_Inc) January 22, 2021
Freedom Palomino, 25, was one of many in line to purchase legal cannabis on Saturday. Palomino went to the Curaleaf location on Camelback and 12th Street and said Curaleaf was having people place their orders online and then wait in line to pick it up.
“It’s only like, 10 minutes from my house, so I went home, went on the website, put in my order, waited like an hour, and then I went back and the line was maybe 10 people at that point,” Palomino said.
Elena Kalina is a “budtender” at Oasis Cannabis in Chandler, a dispensary that also opened their doors for recreational marijuana sales on Monday.
“Throughout the day there was definitely more recreational users coming in…recreational users were mostly excited to be in the dispensary,” she said. “They felt like a kid in the candy shop.”
Recreational/Adult-Use Sales begin at all 3 Oasis Locations today! Stop in and for affordably priced carts, gummies, and flower! (21+ with valid ID) More information can be found here: https://t.co/ZtQMV5qqXe pic.twitter.com/Ji6u1LxAS7
— Oasis Cannabis (@OasisMMJ) January 25, 2021
Kalina also said that the budtenders had to apply for a facility agent card in order to sell recreationally.
When purchasing for the dispensary at Oasis, all customers went through the process of waiting in line and then going in to purchase cannabis products.
One major difference between medical sales and recreational sales is the 16% adult-use tax.
“I only ended up buying like $100 worth of stuff and it was a $15 adult-use tax, and honestly I don’t really mind. Especially if me sitting around getting stoned playing video games on the weekend might help like fund schools or something like that I’m all for it,” Palomino said.
Palamino said he hopes the legalization will change attitudes around smoking.
“It’s on the same level as alcohol at this point. Like you have to be 21 for recreational just like if you were going to go buy a bottle of vodka from Safeway,” Palomino said. “They’re somewhat on the same level. Hopefully, that kind of removes a little bit of the stigma, pressure and changes certain people’s ideas about it.”
Contact the reporter etutora@asu.edu.
Elinor Tutora is a staff reporter at Downtown Devil. She is currently a sophomore at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
