Washington becomes the second US state to allow people to buy legal recreational marijuana Monday July 07,2014

Washington has become the second US state to allow people to buy legal recreational marijuana, as customers lined up outside pot shops to snap up samples.

Washington and Colorado stunned much of the world by voting in November 2012 to legalize marijuana for adults over 21, and to create state-licensed systems for growing, selling and taxing the pot. 

Sales began in Colorado on January 1,2014

Washington issued its first 24 retail licenses Monday July 07,2014

 Two grams of a strain of marijuana named 'Sweet Lafayette' on display at Top Shelf Cannabis in Bellingham, Washington

Nearly two years after the state voted to legalize marijuana, 29-year-old Cale Holdsworth became the first person to buy the herb there.
'This is a great moment,' Holdsworth said, beating the crowd to pick up two grams of pot from Bellingham's Top Shelf Cannabis.
Cale Holdsworth (pictured) is the first person to legally buy recreational marijuana from a shop in Washington, the second state to allow people to buy marijuana legally in the US without a doctor's note

Mike Watson buys marijuana at Top Shelf Cannabis, a retail marijuana store in Bellingham, Washington as dozens of people wait in line

Kevin Nelson, of Bellingham, Washington, holds a sign that reads 'Drug War Ends Here' outside Top Shelf Cannabis on the first day of legal pot sales in the state

Note

• US Federal laws ban the use, sale or cultivation of marijuana
• But states can decriminalize cannabis if they have a regulatory system
• Colorado and Washington legalized recreational use after state referenda in 2012
• Similar ballot measures failed in Oregon and California
• The state of Maryland recently passed legislation that decriminalizes possession of 10g or less of cannabis 
• Colorado shops started selling weed on January 1,2014 and Washington began Monday July 07,2014