HELENA — Helena marijuana dispensaries have seen an uptick in sales on New Year's Day thanks to adult-use recreational marijuana being legalized.
"We've been cleaned out. We ran a really big Christmas sale that was definitely a contributor to that," said Nomad Big Sky co-owner Brett Flower.
With only a small supply of marijuana available, Flower says the business has been waiting to legalize recreational marijuana.
"Today's a day we've been looking forward to for a really long time with recreational coming up. I think it's a great opportunity for Montana. We had people at the front door as soon as we were opening their excited to buy their first legal marijuana," said Flower.
Flower hopes to have a restock in the next week.
Meanwhile, a downtown Helena dispensary has been preparing for Jan. 1 for weeks.
"We had to ramp up our edible production. We had to double up on cartridges. We had to hire new people, get, you know, familiarize new individuals with the industry," said Talia Hansen, lead budtender for Ganja Goddess.
Hansen says the days following the first sales day will still be busy.
"The first couple of days might be being kind of wild and kind of a lot, but fortunately, all of our systems were up and working. We have been pretty successful on that side getting, you know, sales made and moving through the day," said Hansen.
