others are hoping that the Blazing trail will be followed in other parts of the United States also, while tax collectors are eyeing the profits the newly-legalized trade will generate. Aspiring companies are even offering marijuana tours to cash in on tourists expected to be fascinated to a Netherlands-style pot culture — including in Colorado’s famous ski resorts.
Medicinal marijuana is already officially permitted and regulated in 19 US states, and has been permitted in some cases for the past 20 years. And in most of them, personal use of cannabis is not classified as a crime. But Colorado and Washington are creating an entertaining market in which local authorities will watch over growing, delivery and promoting all of it legal, for people to get high just for the fun of it. Both states legally recognized recreational consumption of marijuana in poll in November last year, but new policy coming into force on January 1 allow cannabis shops.
According to Arcview Market Research, which tracks and publishes data on the cannabis industry, the Marijuana market is huge: from $1.4 billion in medical marijuana in 2013 it will grow by 64 percent to $2.34 billion in 2014 with recreational pot added in Colorado and Washington, In Colorado, famous for its Rocky Mountain ski resorts, officials this week issued 348 retail marijuana licenses including for small shops which from January 1 can sell up to 28 grams of pot to people aged 21 or older. Washington state authorities have received applications for 3,746 marijuana business licenses, including 867 retail licenses, according to The Seattle Times newspaper, which urged caution in an editorial.
Michael Elliott, head of the Medical Marijuana Industry Group, noted that Colorado has licensed medical marijuana businesses since 2010, but said the influx of tourists for recreational use of pot could lead to shortages.
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