Colo. Governor John Hickenlooper on Tuesday signed two bills to regulate recreational marijuana in the state, making Colorado the first legal, regulated and taxed marijuana market in the world.
These two measures lay out framework for pot retail sales, cultivation, and product manufacturing, according to NY Daily News.
Colorado passed Amendment 64, a voter initiative to legalize recreational marijuana use for people over 21, in the November election.
Despite the majority of Colorado citizens’ evident support for legal recreational marijuana, Hickenlooper has been a persistent opponent.
“Colorado is known for many great things, marijuana should not be one of them,” he has said, according to the Huffington Post.
“Recreational marijuana really is new territory,” he said, but was optimistic about the measures signed on Tuesday, calling them “common sense.”
The Governor’s chief legal counsel, Jack Finlaw, said that in spite of the opposition to recreational marijuana of Hickenlooper’s administration, “the will of the voters needed to be implemented.”
The bills implemented various regulations, such as a 15 percent excise tax and a 10 percent sales tax on pot sales.
Other regulations include a blood limit, which was set at five nanograms per milliliter, and a one-quarter of an ounce purchase limit for non-Colorado residents.