Cash or card, age limit, amount restrictions

PROVIDENCE – Before sunrise Thursday, a new day dawned in Rhode Island, as the once nefarious act of scoring some marijuana became as legal as buying a six-pack. 

After generations of clandestine street purchasing and years of legislative debate, the first day of legal weed sales is to be marked with early celebrations and ribbon-cuttings as five medical marijuana dispensaries flip the switch to selling the drug for adult recreational use, too. 

What time were dispensaries to open Dec. 1?

Joseph Pakuris, co-owner of Mother Earth Wellness, in Pawtucket, planned to host the state’s first sale of recreational marijuana by opening his new Esten Avenue dispensary an hour early, at 7 a.m., and giving away marijuana treats. 

RI recreational pot:Dispensaries start to sell legal cannabis: Guidelines and more

Mother Earth Wellness in Pawtucket.  Retail marijuana sales start in RI on Dec. 1

But not to be outdone, RISE Dispensary of Warwick, formerly known as the Summit dispensary, had festivities at the Jefferson Boulevard business booked for 5:45 a.m., complete with steel-drum performances and a balloon archway. 

RISE, a national company founded under Green Thumb Industries of Chicago, has had plenty of experience in grand openings with 77 retail cannabis stores in 14 states, said spokeswoman Colleen Crawford. 

“We’re excited to be in Rhode Island for adult use,” she said Tuesday. 

At Providence’s Thomas C. Slater Compassion Center, on Corliss Street, in 2013 the state’s first medical marijuana dispensary to open, a 96-year-old World War II veteran, Joseph Maraia, was to be the first recreational-use customer. 

Medical dispensaries are first to sell retail pot in RI

Retail sales are the second part of a law passed in May, making Rhode Island at that time the 19th state to legalize adult use of marijuana since Colorado became the first in 2012. Since Rhode Island enacted its law, two other states have legalized. 

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