On November 6th 2012, Colorado passed Amendment 64, making history by being the first state in the U.S to legalize marijuana for recreational use. To this day, twenty-three states and Washington, D.C have passed laws allowing for the use of marijuana either medically, recreationally, or both.

People are calling this movement the “pot rush”, and imagining it as if the industrial age slammed into the dot come era. Many people are excited to reap the benefits that new legalization has the potential to bring both medically and financially, but others are worried about the lack of research that is necessary to get a drug like this off of the ground.

Since marijuana is currently illegal on a federal level, it has been up to each state to address legislation around the issue on its own independent level. While federal rules still prohibit some forms of business from taking place, states such as Colorado have fully taken advantage of expanding their legislation for the most state benefit.

2016 is expected to bring even more change around marijuana legislation with a handful of other states looking to join the movement and the presidential election bringing the possibility for change on a federal level.