Sean C. Morgan
Customers came in an unbroken stream Friday, the second day Going Green was open to the public last week as it shifted from medical to recreational marijuana sales.
The shop is the first recreational outlet to open in Sweet Home. Two others have received conditional use permits but have yet to receive approval from the state. They are Modern Forest, which proposes to operate in the formerEconowash building at the intersection of Main Street and Pleasant Valley Road, and La Mota, which proposes to open in the Fallon Building, 1025 and 1027 Main St.
In March, Going Green received a conditional use permit from the City of Sweet Home to operate as a recreational marijuana shop. It has taken since then for Going Green, previously approved by the Oregon Health Authority as a medical dispensary, to complete the approval process with the Oregon Liquor Control Commission.
After the conversion was finalized Thursday, the shop had 33 customers, said owner Dustin Pomeroy. By 3 p.m. Friday, it had another 33, and in the next hour nine more. As a medical dispensary, the shop averaged about five customers per day.
Under a measure approved by voters statewide in 2014, shops may sell recreational marijuana to adults age 21 or older. No one younger than 21 is allowed to enter the shops. The shops must meet regulatory requirements set by the OLCC, which include filtering to eliminate odors and security systems that include surveillance as well as surveillance of the surveillance system and storage of footage on and off site.
Customer Richard Parker said he was happy to have a local recreational shop open.
He said he has used medical marijuana for back pain related to a broken back, but for about a year, he has not been able to afford to renew his medical card, which costs $200 and the price of a visit to a doctor.
“It’s good for the town because of the tax,” Parker said. “That made it really nice. I had to go out of town to get it before.”
Kitt Pomeroy, a Going Green employee, said the tax is 20 percent. Of that, 17 percent goes to the state, and 3 percent goes to the city.
The state also shares revenue among cities statewide from its portion of the tax. Sweet Home received about $28,000 from a distribution in October.
The demand has been high, Dustin Pomeroy said. “This summer, we turned away easily three times people we’ve been able to help.”
It was highest during the Ore-gon Jamboree, when the store turned away 325 people, Pomeroy said. That doesn’t count the people who turned back after hearing from other customers that Going Green could not sell recreational marijuana or those who saw the signs on the front of the store.
Sportsman’s Holiday was also busy the same way, Pomeroy said.
As a medical dispensary, the door to the sales room was locked. Only persons with medical marijuana cards were allowed in the room. Today it stands open. The staff continue to ask for ID and sign up customers as they enter.
Inside, jars of flowers and trim from 50 to 60 strains of marijuana sit on shelves behind a room-length glass case. The case contains oils, vaping cartridges and hard candies, while a refrigerated display unit contains marijuana-infused drinks.
“We’ll be getting in a lot more stuff as soon as our transcript is approved,” Kitt Pomeroy said. The OLCC must approve shipments prior to delivery.