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In 2012, Washington and Colorado voters made history when they approved measures to legalize recreational marijuana. Washington Initiative 502 “authorizes the state liquor board to regulate and tax marijuana for persons twenty-one years of age or older.”Since the vote in Washington, the Liquor Board has written a complex set of rules for the state’s new, legal recreational cannabis marketplace. The agency has also set limits on the amount of marijuana that can be grown. And the Board has begun to license growers, processors and retailers.For now, the Obama administration has signaled it will not interfere with Washington and Colorado’s legal pot experiment, unless there is evidence that legal pot is “leaking” to other states or children are getting access to the legal product. The feds are also watching to see if criminal organizations exploit the legal market.The first marijuana retail stores in Washington opened in July 2014.Recreational marijuana is also set to become legal in Oregon on July 1, 2015 after voters approved Measure 91 in November 2014.

Oregon Retail Pot Sales Start October 1 -- But Not Everywhere

Starting October 1, adults in Oregon will be able to walk into a medical marijuana dispensary and buy pot for recreational use. But not in dozens of communities across the state, where local officials have banned such sales.

Across the street from a KFC in La Grande, Oregon, you can buy marijuana -- if you know where to look.

"There's no marijuana leaves, there's no any of that. We just have an open sign and a green cross in the window,” said Rona Lindsey, the owner of Highway 30 Cannabis. The medical marijuana dispensary has been open just over a year. And despite the low-key storefront, she says business is brisk.

It’s a victory of sorts for Lindsey, who was arrested along with her husband on drug charges in 2006 after police raided their home. All of those charges were dropped. Lindsey says the fact that the city allowed her to open a dispensary is a sign that her name was finally cleared.

Still, she said she could reach even more customers if given the chance.

"We get probably 40 phone calls a day and I don't know how many people walking in a day asking if they can come in and buy recreational,” Lindsey said.

Local bans on recreational pot

The answer to that is "no." And it will stay "no" even after October 1 -- unless the buyer has a state-issued medical marijuana card. The legislature also gave towns the chance to opt out of recreational sales. And that's what the La Grande City Council did. They join more than two dozen other cities and counties around Oregon that have banned retail sales of recreational marijuana.

La Grande Police Chief Brian Harvey said he agrees with that decision.

"When you do the commercial component of it, where you've got a store that is no different than a grocery store, you can walk in there and get your marijuana, what message does that send to your kids?” Harvey said. “And how much more does that put out onto the street?"

Harvey said the council's decision reflects the will of local voters. Union County voted 59 percent against last year's measure that legalized recreational marijuana in Oregon.

"We have a more conservative populace in eastern Oregon,” Harvey said. “I don't think that's lost on anyone."

I spent an hour on a downtown La Grande street corner, and only one person I talked to supported the ban on retail sales. And she didn't want to speak on the record. Everyone else I met, from a college student to a retiree, told me they didn't think marijuana was a big deal.

Marie Balaban said she thinks city leaders will eventually change their minds.

"Well, I would expect that over time they'll change their opinion because of the income that that business would generate,” she said. “And because in other places in the state it will be sold recreationally.”

'If they're going to get it, they're going to get it'

I asked Lindsey where she thought people will have to drive to in order to purchase recreational marijuana. Will it be Bend? Portland? Maybe Washington state?

"The nearest place is going to be on the street, is where they're going to go to get it,” she said. “And where they are now purchasing it. If they're going to get it, they're going to get it, whether it's in a shop or in a street."

Lindsey said she thinks the real reason behind the ban on retail sales is that despite marijuana's legalization, there's still a stigma associated with the drug.

"They think everybody's going to be the reggae, with dreadknots, and smoking on the streets and all that stuff,” she said. “But that's really not how it is."

And Lindsey herself doesn't fit the stereotype of someone who sells marijuana, either. When she's not overseeing her dispensary, Lindsey heads down to her day job: She's an administrative assistant at the Union County Chamber of Commerce.