I voted for medicinal MJ and against recreational MJ in Colorado. I was borderline on recreational MJ, not because I'm a user, but because I think regulating and taxing it might be better than putting people in prison for using it.
If I remember right, medicinal MJ outlets can set up anywhere within the state, and you do need a prescription from a real doctor to buy from those outlets.
Recreational MJ sales have to be approved at the local level - like a city or county - by a vote of the people who live in those areas. It is not available for sale in most of the state, and the local areas that do allow recreational sales limit the number outlets they will license.
There have been some unusual aspects related to the recreational legalization. The retailers found out that most/all banks don't want anything to do with them or the money they make from recreational MJ sales because under federal law, it is still a controlled substance, an illegal drug. They viewed it as possibly setting themselves up for participating in illegal drug-related financial transactions. When trying to pay local and state sales taxes in cash, some were fined for paying cash instead of just writing checks. I think some of the sellers got together and created their own bank that only has recreational MJ outlets as depositors so they could pay sales taxes using checks...and those are some pretty large checks - recreational MJ is close to a billion dollar per year business here. The federal law is also why you don't see any large corporations jumping into the market, at either the retail or wholesale level.
Another aspect has been neighboring states (unsuccessfully) trying to sue Colorado for what they claimed were added expenses of policing MJ within their states. If the the police in those states weren't pulling people over with Colorado plates on their cars, just because they thought because MJ was legal in Colorado, everyone must not only use it, they'd take it out-of-state, their added expenses might have been a lot less. 2 years ago, I was traveling home from Topeka. I stopped in Junction City to buy gas. There was a local cop in the parking lot of the convenience store where I bought the gas. He followed me out of the convenience store and onto I-70. He turned on his lights and pulled me over as I was merging onto the highway. He said the reason for the stop was because I didn't signal for the turn onto the on ramp. That was pure bullshit. I did signal for the turn. I gave him my driver's license, proof of insurance, and car registration paperwork. With everything in order, he leaned through the window (he was on the passenger side of the car) and told me he smelled burnt MJ in the car. The car was a nonsmoking (anything) rental car. It was the 5th day of a summer time rental where I had the windows down every day I was driving it. I don't smoke pot, period. I told him there was no way he could smell burnt MJ in the car. He insisted that he could smell it, and asked me for permission to search the car. I said sure, because, why not, other than wasting my time? He said he had to radio for a backup unit before he could start the search. The backup unit arrived in about 15 seconds! It was at the top of the ramp when the first cop pulled me over! He searched the car, the trunk, and went through my luggage and computer bag. Of course, he found nothing, but he still insisted he could still smell burnt MJ in the car. That entire incident took about an hour. They targeted my rental car just because it had Colorado plates. They knew they were going to pull me over and search the car before I left the convenience store.
