Los Angeles won’t meet Jan. 1 deadline to start recreational marijuana sales

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Los Angeles’ recreational marijuana businesses won’t be allowed to open Jan. 1 when legal adult-use sales launch in California.

L.A. marijuana regulators said Friday they won’t begin accepting applications to sell legal recreational cannabis until Jan. 3 and it could take weeks before those businesses are properly licensed with the city and state.

“Come Jan. 1 in the city of Los Angeles, there are no legal, adult-use sales,” said Cat Packer, who heads the city’s Department of Cannabis Regulation.

“We are starting a process. This is something that is not going to happen overnight.”

The launch of legal rec MJ sales was widely anticipated in Los Angeles, which arguably will be the largest market in the world when it’s online.

In March, 80% of the city’s voters endorsed a measure that set in motion creation of the new adult-use marketplace.

But the city struggled for months to get rules in place to license businesses for legal sales, and they agreed to guidelines only earlier this month.

– Associated Press