The Cellar - Smoke 'em if ya Got 'em

LINK

It's called the "Walmart of Weed."

This newest big-box store is devoted to selling marijuana-growing equipment.

Its biggest outlet yet is to open Wednesday in Phoenix, where Arizona voters approved medical cannabis last fall.

The weGrow Store will be the first outside California, where medical weed has long been legalized. None of the chain's three stores sell the drug. Instead, they unabashedly promote medical marijuana by offering "everything -- from supplies to services -- that cultivators need to grow it," the company says.

What sets weGrow apart from the mom-and-pop stores selling the growing supplies is that weGrow openly states its hydroponic equipment is intended for pot, a spokeswoman said.

The smaller stores often claim the hydroponic equipment is used for growing indoor tomatoes and often kick out a customer if they broach the subject of medical cannabis, said weGrow spokeswoman Melissa DiGianfilippo.

While 16 states and the District of Columbia now allow for some sort of medical marijuana, there remains ambiguity about whether U.S. authorities would ever enforce federal laws against marijuana distribution, though 90% of hydroponics revenue is from cannabis growers, DiGianfilippo said.

In fact, the state of Arizona filed a federal lawsuit last week asking the courts to determine whether the voter-approved initiative legalizing medical marijuana is, indeed, legal.

Calling itself "the nation's only hydroponics franchise that openly talks about medical marijuana," the Oakland, California-based weGrow sees a boom in Arizona and projects 100,000 Arizonans acquiring state medical cannabis cards, DiGianfilippo said.

So far, about 4,000 Arizonans became state-authorized marijuana users after the state began issuing the cards on April 15, DiGianfilippo said.