When it comes to legal weed, the waiting has always been the hardest part.

There were the hours spent in line, through a cold night that turned cool but pleasant after the sun came up — just for the chance to be one of the first customers.

“I thought maybe I got here too early,” said Daniel Garcia, the first in line at the RISE Dispensary in Paterson at 3:30 a.m.

There were the 14 months of waiting for the New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission to finally give the green light (pun fully intended), and the months before that while legislators bickered over the nuances of the legal weed laws demanded by more than two-thirds of New Jersey voters.

There were three years of “will they or won’t they” even before that, not to mention the years spent in courtrooms, jails and prisons fighting charges of marijuana possession and distribution.