Colorado pot dispensaries will officially open their doors for business on Jan. 1, 2014.
The state has cleared 24 marijuana merchants to begin selling weed for recreational use, according to the Associated Press. Colorado - along with Washington - will be first to open a legal market for the drug, which already flourishes in the southwestern state's medical marijuana sector.
According to Colorado law, residents 21 and up can purchase up to an ounce of marijuana per customer. 400 pot retailer hopefuls are still waiting for government clearance to open their storefronts.
Colorado and Washington voters passed legislation in 2012 approving the recreational sale of marijuana, PBS reported. Washington is slated to begin selling legal pot later in 2014.
Both states have set up laws against driving under the influence, which run along a similar vein to DUI legislation. Buyers won't be able to use credit cards or checks to purchase pot, according to the Sacramento Bee, and lawmakers are working to come up with a comprehensive code that will address such issues as smuggling between state lines, potential heightened crime and hospital admittances. But some measures - including taxation - are still being debated in the state's high courts.
All legislators agree that any children below the age of 21 should be kept out of the pot dispensaries - businessowners aren't allowed to post advertisements for their stores where kids are likely to catch sight of them.
Much is still largely unknown about how the state will react to the new law, according to owner of Denver's 3D Cannabis Center, Toni Fox, who says that she expects customers to line up for the first day of her store's opening. She told the Associated Press that she'd long been advocating for pot legalization, and recognized how crucial of a shift in society this piece of legislation would inevitably facilitate.
"We have to show that this can work," she stated. "It has to."
