Just as Napa Valley has attracted the world’s wine connoisseurs, Denver has become the go-to destination for marijuana aficionados since Colorado legalized recreational pot in November 2012.

One marijuana enthusiast, Michael Eymer, saw an early opportunity to cash in on the $1.3 billion legal marijuana industry. He founded Colorado Cannabis Tours in January 2014, the year it became legal to sell recreational weed in the state.

The business began as a rudimentary model, with Eymer driving four people around in a sedan to check out a couple of dispensaries. These days, Cannabis Tours takes around 200 people in six party buses every weekend. Though the bus ride itself is the main attraction, tourists get to check out a few dispensaries, including Medicine Man (aka the “Walmart of weed”) as well as a live glassblowing demonstration.

Now, although Eymer, a 35-year-old single dad, runs his company out of his home, he raked in $1.8 million in sales last year. He’s up 66 percent this year so far.

“Pot is my passion,” Eymer told Yahoo Finance. “I keyed into the business opportunity early on. I’ve always had some involvement in the industry even before it was official. Then, seeing all these changes happening in Colorado, I just thought it was the perfect time to seize the opportunity.”

The business of weed

Eymer, an avid cannabis consumer since he was 15 years old, first saw the possibility of building a business around his pastime in December 2009, when Colorado legalized medical marijuana. He decided to move to Denver when Colorado and Washington became the first states to legalize recreational marijuana use. (Weed sales didn’t begin until 2014 in either state.)

Legal cannabis is now a $6 billion industry in the U.S., and analysts expect it to be worth $50 billion by 2026. Pot legalization in Colorado has “increased the amount of money coming into state coffers,” legal pot opponent and former Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter acknowledged in an interview with Yahoo Finance. Still, Ritter believes the state Legislature — rather than the voters — should have decided whether to legalize pot.

“We did this through our constitution. We didn’t write a piece of legislation that could really deal with all the issues. It was passed by the voters in the constitution. It was like using a blunt force instrument to try and do this when we should have been using surgical instruments,” he said.

Ritter isn’t alone in opposing marijuana legalization. Just over 53 percent of Coloradans voted in favor of legalizing recreational marijuana, which mirrors the country’s divide overall. Only 49 percent support nationwide legalizing recreational marijuana, according to an exclusive Yahoo News/Marist Poll, “Weed & the American Family.”

Moreover, most people don’t see weed as a worthwhile venture despite the economic opportunities: 72 percent of Americans would not be likely to invest in the marijuana business, according to the same Yahoo News/Marist Poll.

A controversial cash cow

Despite its divisive nature, pot has been lucrative for Eymer. Originally from south Florida, he moved to Colorado to help start and manage dispensaries around Denver. After a couple of failed ventures, he decided to forgo that business amid a glut of competitors. Dispensaries line Denver’s streets, and there are 459 retail marijuana stores across Colorado. That’s more than the total number of Starbucks stores in the state.

He decided to build an experiential tour company instead. Anyone could seek out dispensaries on their own, but not everyone could facilitate a decked-out party bus that hit the streets of Denver. Colorado Cannabis Tours is one of a handful of companies that have built their businesses around weed tourism without selling the drug itself.