In November 2000, Colorado voters approved an amendment to the State Constitution to allow the use of marijuana for approved patients with written medical consent. Under the law, patients can possess up to two ounces of medical marijuana and may cultivate no more than six marijuana plants.

Fast forward to November 2012, and the State’s Constitution was further amended outlining a state-wide drug policy for cannabis. The amendment addressed the personal use and regulation of marijuana for adults 21 and over, as well as commercial cultivation, manufacture and sale. The commercial sale of marijuana to the general public began on January 1, 2014, at establishments licensed under a regulatory framework.

By April 2016, 62 of Colorado’s 271 cities and towns have adopted some form of recreational marijuana regulation with one notable absence – the state’s second most populous county and city of Colorado Springs where we are currently staying.

Visitors and tourists to Colorado can use and purchase marijuana, but face prosecution if found in possession in any adjacent state. Colorado’s biggest airport in Denver has banned all possession of marijuana but admits it has not charged a single person with possession nor has the airport seized any marijuana since the ban went into effect.

In the first year of implementation, Colorado’s legal marijuana sales reached $700 million.