It’s been 10 years since Colorado launched the first legal recreational marijuana market in the world and became a pioneer in drug reform.
But when it came to the nascent industry, the first sales on Jan. 1, 2014, were more a starting block than a finish line.
In the decade since legalization, Colorado has refined laws, catalyzed new ones and served as a litmus test for the rest of the country as states followed its lead. Today, cannabis is recreationally available for sale in 24 states — where more than half of Americans live.
Here are some of the notable local moments along the way.
2014
Jan. 1: Retail sales of marijuana begin across the state in cities, towns and counties that allow it, from Telluride to Denver. The newly legal industry opens after more than 55% of Colorado voters approved Amendment 64 on Nov. 6, 2012. The state already allowed medical marijuana.
January: The Colorado Department of Transportation replaces mile marker 420 along Interstate 70 in eastern Colorado with mile marker 419.99 to thwart those who had swiped the sign bearing the number signifying marijuana culture.
March: The Colorado Supreme Court approves a rule change allowing lawyers in the state to work with marijuana businesses without the threat of ethics sanctions.
April: Colorado’s third-largest city, Aurora, approves regulations for marijuana dispensaries that will allow 24 stores in the city.
May: Denver city officials ask the Colorado Symphony Orchestra to rethink its plans to hold bring-your-own-pot performances, fearing such an event could violate laws prohibiting public consumption of marijuana.
July: State regulators adopt rules regarding the potency, serving size and packaging of marijuana edibles. One rule requires that serving sizes be made easily distinguishable and be limited to 10 mg of THC to prevent overconsumption. Another requires that manufacturers put single-serving edibles in child-resistant packaging.
October: Colorado’s health department proposes a ban on sales of nearly all forms of edible marijuana at recreational pot shops — but then quickly backs off amid an outcry.
November: Owners of marijuana shops on Denver’s South Broadway corridor band together in a new marketing campaign, naming the cannabis-heavy district the “Green Mile.”
November: Monthly recreational cannabis sales ($29.5 million) outpace medical marijuana sales (nearly $29 million) for the first time.
December: Nebraska and Oklahoma file suit, asking the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down Colorado’s marijuana legalization law.
2015
January: In the first full year of recreational pot sales, Colorado reports that nearly $700 million of marijuana was sold in 2014. Medical marijuana accounted for a majority, but recreational sales would soon take over in annual figures.
January: The University of Denver’s Sturm College of Law adds marijuana business law — the nation’s first class geared toward representing marijuana clients — to its curriculum.
February: For the second time in two years, then-U.S. Rep. Jared Polis introduces legislation to effectively legalize and tax marijuana at the federal level. He later wins the Colorado governor’s election in 2018.
June: Employers’ zero-tolerance drug policies trump Colorado’s medical marijuana laws, the Colorado Supreme Court rules. The high court rules that businesses can fire employees for the use of medical marijuana — even if it’s off-duty. Many businesses also prohibit employees from using recreational marijuana.
October: The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City asks a federal judge in Denver to dismiss a lawsuit asking the court to force its hand and issue a master account to a credit union for marijuana businesses, saying that to do so would compel it to “facilitate criminal activity.”
2016
February/March: State marijuana regulators issue repeated recalls of large amounts of retail pot grown and allegedly treated with unapproved pesticides.
March: The U.S. Supreme Court declines to hear Nebraska and Oklahoma’s proposed lawsuit against Colorado’s legal marijuana laws.
April: The Denver City Council passes new industry limits that cap the number of marijuana storefronts and cultivation facilities in the state’s largest market, while providing new protections for saturated neighborhoods.
June: A security guard is fatally shot at an Aurora dispensary.
June: Englewood bans social-use marijuana clubs, saying it has no regulations on the books to deal with them.
July: A study from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus finds that emergency room visits and poison-control calls for children 9 and younger who consumed pot in Colorado jumped after recreational marijuana stores opened.
November: Denver voters pass Initiative 300, which allows social marijuana use at some businesses.
2017
January: Fewer travelers visit Colorado in 2016 and the Colorado Tourism Office cites waning interest in legal weed.
March: A new monthly record for sales of marijuana in Colorado is set. With nearly $132 million in revenue, March bests the previous high of $127.8 million set in September 2016.
April: The first drive-thru cannabis store — called the Tumbleweed Express — opens in Parachute.
April: Organizers of the annual Civic Center 4/20 marijuana rally in Denver catch flak after piles of trash are left in the park following the weed celebration.
2018
January: Colorado politicians on both sides of the aisle lambast U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ decision to end an Obama-era policy, known as the Cole Memo, that allowed for marijuana legalization to spread in U.S. states despite pot being federally unlawful. Enforcement never occurs.
February: A study from researchers at the University of Colorado at Boulder finds that alcohol is much more damaging to the brain than marijuana.
November: Tiny Edgewater, west of Denver, puts $3 million from marijuana tax revenues toward building a $13 million municipal complex with a library, police station, fitness center and city offices.
December: Boulder County health officials report increasing cases of cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome, a vomiting condition tied to chronic users of marijuana.
2019
January: Denver announces it will help thousands of people clear low-level marijuana convictions from their criminal records through an online program and a series of clinics.
February: Sales of cannabis in Colorado top $6 billion since legalization took effect five years earlier.
June: Colorado surpasses $1 billion in tax revenue from marijuana sales since recreational use was legalized.
September: Public health experts scramble to determine what’s causing a mysterious and sometimes fatal lung disease among people who use e-cigarettes with THC-infused oil.
2020
March: Customers rush Denver marijuana shops after then-Mayor Michael Hancock issues a stay-at-home order intended to stop recreational sales in light of the burgeoning COVID-19 pandemic. He walked back the order’s applicability to the industry mere hours later.
August: The first vending machine selling cannabis products debuts in Colorado.
November: Colorado dispensaries sell more marijuana in the first 10 months of 2020 than they did during the entire year in 2019, itself a record-setting sales year. Sales receive a huge boost from pandemic-induced lockdowns and mandates.
December: Aurora becomes one of the first Colorado cities to permit marijuana delivery.
December: The Democratic-controlled U.S. House approves a bill to decriminalize and tax marijuana at the federal level. But to date, no legislation has reached the president’s desk.
2021
January: Marijuana hits $10 billion in sales since legalization.
June: Gov. Polis signs into law HB21-1317, the most substantial marijuana regulatory measure since legalization. It aims to crack down on youth access to high-potency THC products.
August: A former University of Denver student cited for possessing marijuana in Wyoming becomes the first applicant in Denver for a marijuana retail store license under the city’s new social equity program.
September: The Aurora City Council turns down a cannabis hospitality licensing program in a 5-5 tie vote that doomed it to failure. It would have permitted smoking lounges, tasting rooms and touring cannabis buses in Colorado’s third-largest city.
December: Colorado records its highest-ever sales for marijuana since legal commerce began in 2014 — more than $2.2 billion was spent by cannabis consumers in 2021. The record presages a crash to come over the next two years.
2022
April: JAD’s Mile High Smoke, Colorado’s first marijuana “bar” where patrons can drink a non-alcoholic, THC-infused beer and order a gram of pot served with a side of rolling papers, opens in Adams County.
June: Moffat, a 120-person town in the San Luis Valley, considers changing its name to Kush as extensive grow operations pop up.
July: Colorado’s medical marijuana sales fall to their lowest point since retail sales of cannabis began eight years earlier, at a little more than $18 million during the month.
July: Polis vows to issue an executive order that will prevent the state from holding out-of-state convictions for most marijuana-related offenses against people applying for professional licenses in Colorado.
2023
April: Colorado’s marijuana industry dubs weed sales “the worst” in five years on the iconic April 20 date celebrating cannabis, as the industry contends with too much supply, not enough demand and increased competition from other states.
August: The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommends that the Drug Enforcement Administration consider reclassifying marijuana as a lower-risk drug. To date, it remains a Schedule I substance, meaning it’s perceived to have no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.
October: Marijuana hits $15 billion in sales since legal recreational sales took effect in 2014.
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