Ten years ago I felt positive California would be the first US state to fully legalize marijuana. Though, ultimately, ten years ago I wouldn’t have believed where we are now. Eight states and Washington D.C have fully legalized the adult use of marijuana, with my home state of Colorado being the first to implement a recreational marijuana industry for adults 21 and older to buy weed legally.
Each of these states – Alaska, Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, and Washington D.C. – has had to simultaneously manage their way through federal law while defying it by the will of state voters, creating a complex, federally illegal, and regionally dynamic legal cannabis industry full of a variety of marijuana dispensary companies.
Part vacation, part cannabis tour, the following chronicle follows my Northwest cannabis trek spanning twenty-two nights in three different cities all with their own flavor of canna-rich history. Starting in Portland, Oregon then proceeding to Vancouver, British Columbia and ending in Seattle, Washington, the adventure allowed me to buy weed in various forms, consuming hundreds of milligrams of edibles, several grams of hash oil, and a number of joints and bountiful nugs of freshly grown cannabis by the end of what may be called the Northwestern Green Tour.
Along the way, I visit some local marijuana dispensaries and have some brief, yet insightful conversations with budtenders and other marijuana workers at the various marijuana dispensaries or lounges I visit. I talk with international travelers, and local enthusiasts on topics such as marijuana law, the political or legal environment, and industry changes they’d like to see made.
Click Here For Part 2: Portland
Article By: Joey Wells
