The trip comes after state voters backed a ballot initiative in November that legalized recreational marijuana purchase, possession, and use in Massachusetts. Retail sales are not yet legal, and in December, state legislators delayed the likely opening date for recreational marijuana stores by half a year — from January to July 2018.

The group, which arrived Wednesday morning, is expected to spend three days meeting government and industry officials and touring facilities that manufacture, cultivate, and sell recreational cannabis, said City Councilor Frank Baker, who organized the trip.

Five Boston City Councilors and top aides to Mayor Martin J. Walsh departed this week for a mission to Denver to learn about that city’s recreational marijuana industry.


Baker, who took two aides with him on the trip, said he planned the excursion to better determine the council’s role in the new regulations.

“We have to figure out how [it will be] rolled out,’’ Baker said in a phone interview. “I haven’t seen any language guiding us on how this should be rolled out. “

Councilors on the trip are Mark Ciommo, Annissa Essaibi-George, Timothy McCarthy, and Salvatore LaMattina.

The city staffers attending are: Commissioner William “Buddy” Christopher of Inspectional Services; Jerome Smith, the city’s chief of civic engagement; Eddie McGuire, chief of staff to Smith; Kim Thai, assistant corporation counsel in Inspectional Services; and Stephen Stefano, management analyst, according to Walsh spokesperson Laura Oggeri.

The Boston group also includes two Baker aides, Amy Frigulietti and Amanda Curley, and Jessica Taubner, chief of staff to Councilor Ayanna Pressley, said Chloe Grossman, deputy director of the Council on Responsible Cannabis Regulation, a Denver nonprofit that advocates for cannabis legislation and mapped out the Boston group’s itinerary this week. Colorado and Washington became the first states to legalize recreational marijuana in 2012.

“The purpose of this trip is for this group to understand what a regulated cannabis [city] looks like and what the regulative structures are in Colorado,’’ said Grossman, who said the group will also address the lack of diversity in the industry.


The city paid $1,750 for Smith and McGuire, Oggeri said. By that calculation, the total cost for all five Walsh officials is an estimated $4,375 — although it’s not clear if that sum includes local meals and transportation.

Four of the five City Councilors reached yesterday said they paid their own way either personally or through their campaign funds. But none provided an immediate cost for basic things like hotel and airfare to Denver.

Baker, who had held a hearing on recreational marijuana last year, said he urged the trip — billed as a fact-finding cannabis tour — believing that the council needed a say in the retail marijuana industry bursting open in Boston.

“They are going to need OKs from the City Council,’’ he said. “We don’t have any sense of how this should or could happen. I’d rather shape the industry coming to Boston than the industry shaping what it wants in Boston.”

Essaibi-George, who said she did not support legalizing recreational marijuana, has voiced her concerns about the impact on the city. She said she’s on the Denver trip to learn more about the industry and its effect on communities, businesses, and schools.

McCarthy, who also did not support the ballot initiative, said he is “eager to learn all facets of this issue.”


“It is imperative to me and my district to know what is happening in states that have passed the legality of cannabis,’’ he said.

Meghan E. Irons can be reached at meghan.irons@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @meghanirons.