Ex-Microsoft Employee Promising Nation’s First “Premium” Cannabis Retail Stores

Fox Business News is reporting the intentions of Jamen Shively, ex-Microsoft employee, to open a chain of “premium” retail stores where customers in Washington, Colorado, and any other state to legalize adult use of cannabis can browse among the top strains of artisan growers.  Shively is quick to caution, however, that governmental regulations will likely delay the opening of the first store for at least a year.

In an ironic twist, Shively and Fox Business host Lauren Simonetti take a couple of moments to banter about the hassle of complying with the bureaucratic red tape inherent in opening such a store – not least of which is the uncertainty over what, if anything, the Obama administration will do to stop such businesses from opening.

Shively may be overly optimistic. In the interview, he claims that the US illegal recreational pot industry is already valued at $100 billion, and that fully legal cannabis will be a $200 billion market domestically; but these numbers don’t align with the best available data.  According to Marijuana Legalization: What Everyone Needs to Know by Caulkins, Hawken, Kilmer, and Kleiman (2012), the retail market for illegal marijuana in the US is more likely in the range of...  Read More at source : )