Eager customers lined up before dawn on Tuesday as Washington became the second U.S. state to allow the sale of marijuana for recreational use, although shortages and high prices were likely to accompany any euphoria, according to The Associated Press.

Store employees clapped and cheered at Top Shelf Cannabis in the northern city of Bellingham as its first buds were sold to a 29-year-old from Kansas, Cale Holdsworth, the AP reported.

"I'm happy to be a part of history," said Holdsworth, who was on vacation visiting family and took his place at the front of the line at about 4 a.m., according to the AP.

Shops started to open a day after 25 outlets were issued licenses under a heavily regulated and taxed system approved by voters in November 2012, the AP reported.

The nation, and the federal government, will be watching Washington's rollout as a broader trend of liberalization and pro-pot activism takes hold in the United States, according to the AP.

While Colorado has been raking in millions of dollars a month in tax since rolling out regulated retail sales in January, Washington has charted a glacial path to market, the AP reported. State regulators are still processing more than 300 license applications.

More than 100 people were outside Top Shelf Cannabis, in an industrial office park, when doors opened at 8 a.m., according to the AP.

Washington issued its first 24 retail licenses Monday, the AP reported. A survey of the licensees showed only about six planned to open Tuesday: two in Bellingham, one in Seattle, one in Spokane, one in Prosser and one in Kelso.

Some were set to open later this week or next, while others said it could be a month or more before they could acquire marijuana to sell, according to the AP.

Product shortages are expected as growers and sellers scrambled to prepare for the market, the AP reported. Pot prices were expected to be higher than what people pay at the state's unregulated medical marijuana dispensaries.