Recreational pot sales begin in Santa Rosa

Cannabis connoisseurs and newcomers can now buy pot in Sonoma County’s largest city, and all they need is cash and proof they’re age 21 or older. No medical marijuana recommendation required.

The start of recreational sales in Santa Rosa began Thursday morning at SPARC’s North Dutton Avenue dispensary, a milestone John Garcia wanted to not only observe, but participate in, on his 51st birthday.

Rain had canceled the construction job he had lined up for the day, so he decided to treat himself to a restful birthday - celebrated with about $100 worth of cannabis flowers, a strain called Chocolope from a batch grown outside in Mendocino County, and an afternoon at home playing his favorite video game, ?Battlefield 1.

“Can you believe this? This is incredible,” said Garcia, who lives in Petaluma. “Trying to get weed was a major ordeal years ago - waiting in dark alleys for a friend of a friend. Now we don’t have to do that anymore.”

California’s recreational cannabis marketplace commenced Jan. 1 when the state handed out hundreds of licenses to new cannabis businesses, including 173 dispensaries statewide permitted to open the first day of the year.

Santa Rosa is the third city in Sonoma County to allow businesses to begin selling marijuana to any adult age 21 or older.

In Sonoma County, Mercy Wellness in Cotati and two dispensaries in Sebastopol, SPARC’s Sebastopol Avenue location and Solful on Gravenstein Highway South, opened their doors Jan. 1 to any adults ?21 or older.

There was little fanfare Thursday when SPARC staff unlocked the door of its Santa Rosa shop at 9 a.m.

First in the door was Desiree Robinson, 41, of Santa Rosa. Robinson has a medical marijuana recommendation, and she wanted to get to the store early in case the store was flooded with new customers.

Industry experts have predicted dispensary shelves could lack some familiar items after Jan. 1, at least initially, while manufacturers scramble to change product labels and dosages to comply with new rules. Dispensaries also must get any new products in 2018 from businesses with state licenses, which also could cause a delay if a business is waiting for its state paperwork.

Robinson was in luck and was able to buy two kinds of smokable concentrated cannabis she likes, Gorilla Glue #4 and Blue Frost.

“I wanted to rush here before supplies run out,” she said.

About a dozen regular customers filtered in and out of the dispensary in the first two hours, buying flowers, vape pen cartridges, edible chocolates and other products they use for conditions such as insomnia and anxiety.

The first adult-use purchase Thursday was made by Brandon Gossett, 24, of Santa Rosa.

Gossett spent about $75, including new taxes, on one-eighth of an ounce of cannabis flowers, a strain called Sensei Star. Gossett said he’s familiar with the strain because family and friends have grown it. Thursday was only his second time buying cannabis at a dispensary.

He said the legalization of recreational cannabis in California, which arrived in 2016 when statewide voters passed Proposition 64, has changed his comfort using marijuana to help mitigate persistent insomnia.

“It has a more peaceful feeling now - not being paranoid about what people think,” Gossett said.

SPARC’s dispensary was the first of the city’s three cannabis retailers to begin sales to customers without medical recommendations. The city gave its three existing medical marijuana dispensaries permits to begin adult sales one week ago, but the shops then had to secure state licenses. Two of the three have done so.

Sonoma Patient Group on Cleveland Avenue will begin recreational sales today when the dispensary opens at 10 a.m. It’s been a long road for owner John Sugg, who has been involved with cannabis dispensaries in Sonoma County since about 2000.

“We set it up as fast as we could,” Sugg said of the new cash register systems and inventory rules with adult sales. “We’ve had to turn away some people and have been getting a lot of phone calls since the first of the year. We could judge the demand is there.”

Karen Kissler, owner of Alternatives health Collective on Hampton Way in the Roseland district, said she is still waiting for a temporary license from the state and expects it to arrive any day.

“The wait, it’s maddening, because we’re so excited,” Kissler said.