In Colorado, Black Friday 2014 means more than just big sales on gaming systems and televisions, it also means deep price cuts on the newly legal marijuana.
Cannabis sellers in the state are preparing big sales for what is traditionally the biggest shopping day of the year by offering sales of their own. Some of the deals include $1 joints and deep discounts on bulk sales.
“We have really high expectations,” Ryan Fox, owner of the Grass Station in Denver. “Now we’ve got the legal means for people to give marijuana as a gift, and that’s never really been something that was feasible in the past.”
The Green Friday sales come at a time that is still tricky for marijuana sellers. The federal government still does not recognize pot sales as legal, though they have declined to enforce it after Colorado and a handful of other states legalized the drug.
There is also uncertainty when it comes to which products marijuana stores can sell. There has been talk that edibles, an important part of the pot industry, could come under stricter regulation or even be banned.
According to KUSA , the health department may crack down on these sales:
“To allow the production of retail marijuana edibles that are naturally attractive to children is counter to the Amendment 64 requirement to prevent the marketing of marijuana products to children. The intent of the Amendment and subsequent laws and rules was to decriminalize the use of retail marijuana, not to encourage market expansion within the marijuana edibles industry that subsequently create potential consumer confusion or mixed messages to children.”
For many marijuana sellers, the uncertainty has put a damper on holiday sales.
“We haven’t spent much time thinking about the holidays,” Fox said. “We spend our time focusing on compliance.”
But pot buyers in Colorado will have at least Black Friday to pick up their favorite marijuana items. Many Green Friday sales are focusing on edibles, which at least for the time are still on store shelves.