Colorado Celebrates Five-Year Anniversary of Cannabis Legalization

Five years ago, Coloradans voted Amendment 64 into reality. The “legal cannabis experiment” has been going on for half a decade now, and rather than increasing crime and death, as some predicted, the state has experienced an economic boom and marked the birth of a whole new industry.

“Colorado has been brilliant in spearheading the movement to make marijuana a legitimate mainstream industry,” said Kevin Gallagher, executive director of the Cannabis Business Alliance in a press release. “Since Amendment 64 passed in 2012, our state has witnessed a wealth of positive affects: Our economy is thriving, unemployment is the lowest it has been in four decades and cannabis education in our school systems has contributed to a decline in teen use. While many opponents were wary at the start, we can safely say that over the last five years Colorado has pioneered and instituted a fully regulated, compliant cannabis industry, and that we have done so with success.”

Since the plant was initially legalized, cannabis in Colorado has come a long way. One of the cannabis community’s initial hurdles was a concern that tourists couldn’t publicly smoke cannabis when visiting. Now, Denver is planning to allow for the social use of cannabis in approved areas, so cannabis clubs and smoking lounges will become the norm in bigger cities throughout the state.

Sales are also consistently climbing each year, with revenue already exceeding $1 billion in 2017. It only took eight months for the state to reach this milestone this year, as opposed to the 10 months it took last year.

Despite the current political climate in Washington D.C., it looks like cannabis legalization in places like Colorado isn’t slowing down anytime soon. It keeps growing by leaps and bounds, and it’s only a matter of time before the entire country follows suit.