Washington state's first marijuana auction brought in about $600,000. Fireweed Farms of Prosser sold about 300 pounds of pot to state-licensed processors and retailers Saturday.
Bidding
took place under a black tent fronted by tall heaters, and the event
was monitored by at least two representatives of the Washington Liquor
Control Board. Bidders could smell plastic bags of buds before offering a
bid.
The marijuana was planted in May and harvested between late
September and mid-October. Fireweed Farms owner Randy Williams had sold
some of his marijuana to recreational processors earlier this year, but
the auction represented the bulk of his harvest.
He said he held
the auction to "get rid of it all quick" so he could spend time with
his grandson instead of packaging marijuana. The harvested and dried
marijuana was priced by the gram and auctioned by the strain in lots
ranging from about half a pound to five pounds.
Williams said he planned to donate proceeds from three lots, totaling $14,000, to local schools.
Lt.
Jeremy Wissing, an officer with the state Liquor Control Board who
monitored a portion of Saturday's auction, said it appeared to be well
run.
"I'm seeing a well-organized event," Wissing said outside
the Fireweed Farms grow area. "It isn't a circus. I'm not seeing open
consumption of marijuana."
Williams initially hoped to make $1
million through the marijuana fire sale, but said during the auction
that he'd be happy with $600,000 or $700,000.
The purchased
marijuana was to remain under video-monitored quarantine at Fireweed
Farms overnight Saturday, Wissing said. Buyers could either retrieve
their marijuana Sunday or arrange for it to be delivered to their
business by Williams.
Although Saturday's auction was the state's first, Wissing doesn't expect it to be the last.
"It's just a different way of moving his product," Wissing said.
Interest
in the marijuana auction was so intense that Williams commissioned the
use of a parking lot across the street from his property to accommodate
the visitors.
Buyers were provided with a detailed list of
strains and lot sizes that provided a complete potency profile, labeling
requirements and the date the batch was tested by Confidence Analytics,
a state-certified laboratory. The auction attracted about three dozen
potential buyers from across the state.
Nazareth Victoria, a
50-year-old licensed marijuana processor from Seattle, left
empty-handed. He came because he was interested in seeing what was
available, but ultimately wasn't sure about the quality, he said.
"I
was just interested in the whole process," Victoria said. "To me,
smoking the product is the ultimate test to tell you the quality." Sampling the product was strictly forbidden Saturday.
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Monday, November 17, 2014
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