Did he really say, “Go to Colorado and see if you want to live there”?

Hey, Gov. Chris Christie, most Americans don’t need your encouragement. They keep streaming to Colorado as tourists, fall in love with the place and try to figure out some way to return — permanently.

That’s why Colorado’s population growth has been twice the national average since 2010 and, ahem, four times New Jersey’s anemic rate over that period.

To tell the truth, lots of old-timers wish this state’s lifestyle and attractions were a little less alluring. The drive from the Front Range into the mountains on the weekends, which was clear sailing back in the day, now can resemble one of those jams engineered by, you know, the Port Authority.

But at least motorists here get to ponder the beauty of the Rockies with one foot on the brake.

Not that everyone in the Centennial State shares equally in the enviable lifestyle. Colorado has its pockets of poverty, for example, and outbreaks of crime, but we’re sure the governor in a state with such placid and thriving oases as Camden, Atlantic City and Newark c0uldn’t have been referring to income inequality in his snit.

No, Christie is distressed, it seems, by the legal marijuana industry that has taken root.

“See if you want to live in a major city in Colorado, where there are head shops popping up on every corner, and people flying into your airport just to get high,” he said on a radio show. “To me, it’s not the quality of life we want to have here in the state of New Jersey. And there’s no tax revenue that’s worth that.”

Coloradans are the last people to deny the existence of tradeoffs in the production and sale of recreational pot. Just this week, three people suffered serious burns in an explosion at a growing facility. But the reason the state has ventured into uncharted territory, clutching a thick book of new rules over pot facilities, is that most voters believe the benefits will outweigh the risks.

So by all means, let those unfamiliar with Colorado come and see if they like it here — even if the verdict is pretty much foreordained.