Recreational sales of marijuana can begin on Jan. 1 in Sacramento, as the city now has at least one store with the required city and state permits.

A Therapeutic Alternative on H Street in East Sacramento was the first shop to complete the permitting process.

City officials this week granted permits to seven Sacramento dispensaries that hope to sell recreational marijuana. The dispensaries also need state approval to start selling to adults 21 and over. The new year kicks off the start of legalized recreational weed in California, after two decades of state-approved medical marijuana.

Click to resize

Regulators at the state Bureau of Cannabis Control will be working through the weekend processing applications, and more Sacramento locations could receive approval before Jan. 1, said spokesman Alex Traverso.

“We just received the city’s list today and still have hundreds of other pending applications,” he said.

Voters approved legalized marijuana in November 2016, with a planned start date of New Year’s Day 2018 for retail sales. The process of permitting businesses has been complicated as the state and the city of Sacramento only approved regulations last month.

Sacramento pot czar Joe Devlin said the permitting process was also held up because most dispensaries didn’t turn in applications until the last couple of weeks. He has received applications from 23 of the city’s 30 medical marijuana dispensaries wanting to sell retail weed.

The dispensaries receiving retail permits from the city so far are: