Invited guests wait in line outside of Rainforest Farms Second Street store to buy the first legal marijuana in Juneau on Wednesday, Nov. 23, 2016. The store is open to the public today.

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Even the mayor was there.

On Wednesday night, Rainforest Farms made the first legal sale of marijuana in Juneau and the first in Alaska off the state’s road system. The sale took place at an invite-only opening for Juneau’s first retail marijuana shop, but when more than 50 smiling people walked through the doors starting at 5:30 p.m., it felt more like a grand opening than a test run.

The first public marijuana sales in Juneau will take place today, when the store on Second Street opens to everyone over age 21.

Tera Ollila arrived at the store Wednesday night to support her daughter, who just started work at Rainforest Farms, but when she bought 1 gram of marijuana for $21, it was the store’s first sale to someone other than a store employee or this reporter.

“I was just curious,” she said of her thoughts when she stepped into line and now, into local history.

Marijuana might be legal in Alaska — it’s been permitted in private homes for almost 40 years under an Alaska Supreme Court decision — but Ollila was reluctant to be named because she works for the state and wasn’t sure if it was allowed.

Shawn Calhoon, another state employee, triumphally declared, “I got some marijuana, man!” after exiting the store’s front door but admitted some trepidation about how his purchase might be seen by others.

In the crowd within the store was Juneau Assemblyman Jesse Kiehl, who works as an aide to Sen. Dennis Egan, D-Juneau. As far as he knows, there’s no rule prohibiting most state employees from buying marijuana legally. Ferry system employees and snowplow drivers are tested for marijuana, but ordinary workers aren’t.

After his explanation, Kiehl walked over to the other side of the shop to shake hands with Rainforest Farms co-owner Giono Barrett, and the two men posed for pictures.

Kiehl was following in the steps of Juneau Mayor Ken Koelsch, who had done the same just minutes before. Koelsch said he wanted to be at the store on opening night to welcome a new business to the community.

He said he wasn’t planning on buying anything.

“I haven’t tried it yet,” he said.

Wednesday night marked the culmination of a two-year process for Giono and James Barrett, the principal figures behind Rainforest Farms, which includes a marijuana farm as well as the retail store. A commercial kitchen for marijuana edibles is in the works.

Minutes before the doors opened, the Barretts were still pricing products and hanging items on the walls.

“We’ve got to make sure we follow the laws,” James said as he pounded a nail into the wall so he could hang a state-mandated warning sign.

Two years ago, the Barretts were practically a two-person operation. Now, they have 16 employees. Among them is manager Andrea Lim, who moved to Juneau two months ago.

Lim is from Singapore and attended Reed College, where she wrote an undergraduate dissertation about the marijuana legalization process in Alaska.

During her research, she met and interviewed Giono Barrett. When she finished her studies, he offered her a job.

Through the first half-hour after the doors opened, the line moved steadily and happily as customers exchanged cash for sealed white paper bags containing sealed plastic bags of marijuana.

Thanks to federal banking restrictions, the marijuana industry operates on a cash-only basis. On opening night, 1 gram sold for $20, an eighth of an ounce for $60 and a quarter-ounce for $110, and individual purchasers commonly put down hundreds of dollars apiece.

Rainforest Farms is the first marijuana retailer to open in Juneau, but it won’t be the last. A second store is expected to open on Front Street in early 2017, and a third store is in the permitting process for Mill Street in the Rock Dump district.

Five more stores are in the planning process.</s>More than half of the United States allow marijuana use of some kind after voters in eight states passed legalization laws following the 2016 presidential election. Since then, cannabis advocates in other states have been pushing even harder for marijuana reform, and some states have already hopped on the legalization bandwagon and started considering making changes to weed laws in Texas, Virginia, Ohio and Tennessee.

Legislators in Texas filed several requests to decriminalize marijuana in the Lone Star state on Nov. 5, the first day of bill filling for the 2017 legislative season, according to reports. When state officials meet in Austin in January, they will consider reducing charges for marijuana possession and replacing them with a civil infraction, resulting in a $250 fine instead of jail time and a criminal record.

The state does offer medical marijuana for those suffering from intractable epilepsy and other chronic disease after passing the Compassionate Use Act in June 2015. However, those caught using or distributing marijuana without the proper identification can still face charges for carrying even the smallest amounts of weed.

Currently in Texas, persons found with less than two ounces of marijuana can face a misdemeanor charge and up to 180 days in jail. Perpetrators caught with between two and four ounces of pot may be sentenced to at least a year in jail, while those caught with more than four ounces of marijuana face felony charges and jail sentences between two and 99 years.

While states were voting to legalize medical and recreational laws on Election Day, decriminalization laws passed in several cities in Ohio. The state voted to reduce charges for marijuana possession, which will allow people caught with less than 200 grams of pot to avoid fines and jail time. Since the 1970s, people caught with more than 100 grams of weed faced misdemeanor charges, $250 fines and 30-days behind bars. Now residents in Bellaire, Logan, Newark and Roseville caught with marijuana will receive a ticketed offense without the chances of jail or a fine.

Decriminalization laws went into affect in Toledo a year ago, and Columbus is expected to make changes next. The state already has a medical marijuana program, which was inducted back in May. However, the medical laws have yet to actually take effect in the state.

In Tennessee, penalties in two cities have also been reduced. In October, Memphis adopted new ordinances allowing people to pay a $50 fine or perform community service if they’re caught with small amounts of pot instead of facing charges or jail time. The city’s decriminalization law came just one month after Nashville legislators made the same amendments to marijuana laws.

Tennessee could potentially continue their reform efforts and vote to legalize medical marijuana in some capacity when the 2017 legislative season starts. State Rep. Marc Gravitt told WDEF-Local 12 news recently that legislators were currently working a bill to legalize medical marijuana with hopes of combating the state’s opioid epidemic.

Virgina could be up for decriminalizing and potentially legalizing marijuana in 2017, as well. Gov. Terry McAuliffe has said in various interviews that he’d like to make medical marijuana legal for patients in 2017, and in early November, State Senate Majority Leader Tommy Norment told local news media that he hopes to propose a decriminalization bill by 2018 after having the Virginia Crime Commission conduct a study on the plant and it’s connection to crime within the state.
• Denver Allows Social Marijuana Use, Restricts Smoking In Bars
Legal sales of recreational-use marijuana, authorized by Alaska ballot measure 2 in 2014, begin in Juneau, the state capital of Alaska.