Street marijuana sales won't stop even after retailers sell it legally, some say

Although pot will be legal next month, it will take the state more than a year to regulate retailers to sell and collect taxes on marijuana.

The owner of the Green Light Care Center medicinal marijuana shop in West Seattle, James Sloop, said he is already turning people away because they don`t have proper documentation to get medicinal pot, and he expects that will only increase now.

“It's going to give the medical industry a bad name,” Sloop said Thursday. “People are going to go in and buy bulk and try to (take) advantage and profit off of people who don`t have cards.”



Sloop said his staff will be more vigilant about documenting, limiting  and tracking their customers’ purchases.

“We are going to do our due diligence to find out who is doing and not doing it,” he said. “We would revoke them in a heartbeat, but it doesn't mean they can’t go somewhere else; they can easily go somewhere else and do what they want.”

Others are convinced that even after legitimate retailers are up and running, the black market in pot isn’t going anywhere.

“The street level is going to beat (the price of) whatever the store is (selling it for), just so they can move their product,” Sloop said.