Colorado voters may have approved the recreational use of marijuana in Tuesday’s election, but it will still take time before all the details are worked out.
Speaking at a press conference Wednesday morning in Denver, Amendment 64 principal author Brian Vicente outlined what the next steps are.
“Within 30 days the Governor will be signing this bill into law, he’s indicated he will do so,” says Vicente. “At that point adults 21 and over can possess small amounts of marijuana privately. From that point on we have about a 13 month implementation period before any new retail stores open up.”
During that time, Vicente says they’ll work closely with the state legislature and the department of revenue who will oversee and license those businesses. Medical marijuana is already heavily regulated in the state and Vicente says that will be used as a guide moving forward.
“We have about 500 medical marijuana dispensaries in this state, they have been a model nationally for how to effectively control marijuana sales to a target community, they’ve produced tremendous amounts of tax revenue and we believe the model is in place.”
Supporters of Amendment 64 say the legal sale of the drug is expected to generate $48-million in annual tax revenues for the state.
