Recreational pot sales begin in Santa Rosa

Cannabis connoisseurs and newcomers can now buy pot in Santa Rosa, and all they need is cash and proof they’re age 21 or older.|

Cannabis connoisseurs and newcomers can now buy pot in Santa Rosa, 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 Sonoma County’s largest city began Thursday morning, a milestone John Garcia wanted to observe, on none other than his 51st birthday, at SPARC’s North Dutton Avenue dispensary.

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.”

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

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.

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

There was little fanfare Thursday when SPARC’s location in Santa Rosa

Formerly called Peace in Medicine,

SPARC dispensary on North Dutton Avenue opened at 9 a.m. and was the first of the city’s three dispensaries 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, and the retailers then had to secure state licenses. Two of the three have done so.

Sonoma Patient Group on Cleveland Avenue will begin recreational sales Friday when the dispensary opens at 10 a.m.

“We’ve had to turn away some and have been getting a lot of phone calls since the first of the year,” said Sonoma Patient Group founder John Sugg. “The demand is there.”

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

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

So far, 173 cannabis dispensaries across California have received state licenses to begin recreational sales, which could start Jan. 1. In Sonoma County, Mercy Wellness in Cotati and two dispensaries in Sebastopol, SPARC’s Sebastopol Avenue location and Solful on Gravenstein Highway South, opened doors the first day of the year to any adult 21 or older.

In Santa Rosa, Garcia spent just under $100 on cannabis flowers, a strain called chocolope from a batch grown outside in Mendocino County, which he hoped would be energizing for a day playing his favorite video game, Battlefield 1.

“I’m staying home, I’m going to treat myself,” Garcia said.

Check back for updates.

You can reach Staff Writer Julie Johnson at 707-521-5220 or julie.johnson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @jjpressdem.

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