California

200 California Businesses Seek Licenses to Legally Sell Recreational Marijuana From Jan. 1

Recreational marijuana use will become legal in California in about two weeks, and there's already a flurry of activity to get stores licensed in time.

So far, 200 businesses have applied for licenses to legally sell recreational week starting on New Year’s Day – and nearly half of those requests are from businesses in the Bay Area.

With 16 days to go before recreational pot can be sold legally in the state, the Bureau of Cannabis Control has issued the first 20 licenses. It expects more to be given out before Jan. 1.

Buddy’s Cannabis, of San Jose, picked up two licenses for medicinal and adult use. Kind Peoples in Santa Cruz got six licenses, including for medicinal and adult use, and licenses for distribution.

These are temporary licenses, good for 120 days.

California officials only launched the online licensing system last week. Since then, 1,900 users registered with the bureau of cannabis control.

The 200 who applied for licenses had to submit business plans, financial information and labor agreements. They also detailed how they planned to transport and inventory the marijuana as well as their plans for quality control and security.

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