Pot for posterity: Legal marijuana mementos head for Seattle museum

SEATTLE — The first recreational marijuana sold legally in Seattle will be put on display at the city’s Museum of History and Industry after a woman donated part of her purchase Tuesday.

Deb Greene, a 65-year-old retiree, waited all night to be first in line at the Cannabis City store when legal pot sales began in Washington on July 8. Cannabis City also donated items from its opening day, including the receipt of the first purchase.

Washington and Colorado stunned much of the world by voting in November 2012 to legalize recreational marijuana for adults over 21 and to create state-licensed systems for growing, selling and taxing the pot. Sales began in Colorado on Jan. 1.

Really, that’s a thing?
Cannabis-infused coffee. A pop-up cannabis museum on wheels. Machine-rolled marijuana cigarettes. A food truck selling only infused edibles. The massage of your life, via a marijuana-infused lotion. Yes, really, these are all real things.

The Seattle museum’s curator, Kristin Halunen, put on purple latex gloves to accept the donation of marijuana and other paraphernalia on Tuesday.

Greene had ordered 8 grams, which cost $160 including tax two weeks ago. She donated a 2-gram sealed package of marijuana, the T-shirt she wore as she waited hours to make the purchase and the book she read while in line.

Greene reached out to the museum to donate the items, and the owner of Cannabis City, James Lathrop, also contributed, museum spokeswoman Jackie Durbin said.

The museum has been collecting artifacts on Washington’s pot initiative and plans to display the items this fall. It is also hosting a traveling exhibit in April 2015 to explore prohibition, and marijuana will be incorporated into that exhibit, Durbin said.