Colorado gears up for legal sale of marijuana

An employee waters pot plants at a grow house. They will be harvested, packaged and sold at the Medicine Man marijuana dispensary in Denver. Legal sales begin Wednesday. An employee waters pot plants at a grow house. They will be harvested, packaged and sold at the Medicine Man marijuana dispensary in Denver. Legal sales begin Wednesday. Photo: Brennan Linsley, Associated Press Photo: Brennan Linsley, Associated Press Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Colorado gears up for legal sale of marijuana 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

Denver --

Police were adding extra patrols around pot shops in eight Colorado towns that plan to allow recreational sales to anyone over 21 on Jan. 1. Officials at Denver International Airport installed new signs warning visitors their weed can't legally go home with them.

And at a handful of shops, owners were scrambling to plan celebrations, set up coffee stations, arrange food giveaways and hire extra security to prepare for potential crowds and overnight campers ready to buy up to an ounce of legal weed.

While smoking pot has been legal in Colorado for the past year, what is being called Green Wednesday represents another historic milestone for the decades-old legalization movement: the unveiling of the nation's first legal pot industry.

"It could be crazy. Or it could be crickets out there. Who knows? No one's ever done this before," said Robin Hackett, manager of BotanaCare in Northglenn, a suburb of Denver, who planned to have a disc jockey to greet shoppers.

Preparation for the retail market started more than a year ago, soon after Colorado voters in 2012 approved the legal pot industry. Washington state has its own version, which is scheduled to open in mid-2014.

Pot advocates, who had long pushed legalization as an alternative to the lengthy and costly global drug war, had argued it would generate revenue for state coffers and save money in locking up drug offenders.

Still, setting up regulations, taxation and oversight for a drug that's never been regulated before took some time.

Colorado set up an elaborate plant-tracking system to try to keep the drug away from the black market, and regulators set up packaging, labeling and testing requirements, along with potency limits for edible pot.

The U.S. Justice Department outlined an eight-point slate of priorities for pot regulation, requiring states to keep the drug away from minors, criminal cartels, federal property and other states in order to avoid a federal crackdown. Pot is still illegal under federal law.

With the additional police patrols, the airport warnings and various other measures, officials are hoping they had enough safeguards in place to avoid predictions of public health and safety harm from the opening of the pot shops.

But they confessed anxiety about the opening of retail sales.

Colorado is on a big stage as dozens of state and foreign countries consider changing marijuana laws.

Since Colorado and Washington state's votes, Uruguay became the first nation to regulate pot. Across the U.S., several municipalities, including Portland, Maine, have ratcheted back criminal penalties for possessing small amounts of pot.

Critics fear the changing global marijuana approach is setting up Colorado and other places for serious public health problems.

"This movement in public policy basically conflicts with the essence of bringing greater mental health and public health," said Patrick Kennedy, a former Rhode Island congressman and chairman of Smart Approaches to Marijuana, which opposes legalization.

Marijuana supporters, meanwhile, were hoping that they'll make the best use of their chance to show that legalization can work.