Recreational marijuana sales begin in Massachusetts, first on the East Coast
By Dan Adams, Michael Levenson and Felicia Gans GLOBE STAFF NOVEMBER 20, 2018
NORTHAMPTON — Daquaan Hamilton wasn’t about to let a little sleet stop him from making history. On Tuesday morning, the 22-year-old UMass Amherst student and hundreds of other people from around New England rose hours before dawn, bundled up in warm clothing and rain jackets, and made a pilgrimage to this progressive enclave for one reason: to be among the first to legally purchase recreational marijuana in Massachusetts.
“The legalization of marijuana is a huge step forward for all of us, and I wanted to be a part of that,” said Hamilton.
He waited outside the New England Treatment Access, also called NETA, cannabis shop in a bone-chilling wintry mix beginning at 12:30 a.m., and was first in a long line when sales began amid a chorus of cheers at 8 a.m. Customers also gathered outside Cultivate, a pot store 45 miles away in Leicester that opened at the same time.
By day’s end, NETA estimated it had about 2,000 customers. Cultivate said Tuesday evening it had more than 1,000 customers.
After emerging from NETA with a vape pen and a package of marijuana edibles, a grinning Hamilton told a mob of reporters that he felt like he was “on top of the world” — and reflected on voters’ decision in 2016 to repeal the state’s century-long prohibition on the drug.
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