How Seattle's biggest cannabis emporium is working for the greater good

No finer privilege or pleasure exists for a journalist than being dispatched to a new city or country, and plunging into its rich fabric of culture, politics and passions.

Six months have slipped by since I moved to Seattle, a city of rather smug Subaru drivers, and whose core activities shake the world through technology, philanthropy or global development.

Seattle is known for Amazon, Microsoft and the Gates Foundation, the largest private foundation in the world. It is also known for its cannabis shops, after Washington in December 2012 became the first state in the country to legalise the recreational use of marijuana.

Since then, it’s become a huge business. In 2017, the state earned $314m (£244m) in marijuana taxes. Such has been the rush to enter the industry that supply may have overstepped demand; some strains cost the consumer as little as $1 a gram.

So when cycling home recently – there are lots of smug cyclists here, too – it would have been journalistically irresponsible not to have stopped to visit one of the city’s most celebrated cannabis shops, established on a gentrifying block that a decade ago was known as a place where cops busted teenagers for smoking the stuff.

And what an emporium it was. There was nothing seedy or back alley about this shop. Rather, it was like entering the Harrods food hall, or a branch of Whole Foods, and seeing the tastefully displayed products from across the country.

On hand were enthusiastic, knowledgeable staff, who talked about the different variants with the vocabulary a sommelier might reserve for a prized Bordeaux. One pre-rolled product was called “Green Love Potion”.

This is not an article about a sad, middle-aged man getting stoned. Marijuana possession remains a federal crime, despite the best efforts of activists.

Rather, it’s a reminder of how quickly things can change, and for the better.

Activities that were once a crime can, in the space of five years, become part of a regulated, multi-billion dollar industry that the local government uses to help fund Medicaid, which provides health insurance to nearly 1.8 million low-income Washingtonians. It also uses the money to fund substance abuse education. How times have changed.

Yours,

Andrew Buncombe

Chief US correspondent