California regulator admits to anxiety as legal pot nears

LONG BEACH, Calif. (KFSN) -- California's emerging marijuana industry is being rattled by an array of unknowns, as the state races to issue its first licenses to grow and sell legal recreational pot on Jan. 1.

Top state pot regulator Lori Ajax told an industry group in Long Beach on Thursday that "we all have anxiety."

It will probably be late November before the state issues regulations that will govern the industry, just about a month before legal sales kick off.

Growers and sellers are wondering how an industry can function when some operators will have licenses, but others might not.

And a patchwork of local regulations is emerging across the state.

Ajax says she doesn't know how many operators will come forward to seek licenses.

Proposition 64, which legalized recreational pot use for adults, takes effect next year.