Pot's progress: recreational marijuana builds on growth model.

• Author: Tilton, Morgan
• Position: STATE of the STATE

Colorado marked its first full year of storefront marijuana sales in January, during which it established a regulatory model for production, cultivation, product manufacturing and retail sales.

Amendment 64 went into effect on Dec. 10, 2012, expanding legal marijuana possession to anyone 21 and older, of up to one ounce for any purpose. Close to a year later -- Jan. 1, 2014 -- the first legal marijuana sales took place in Colorado, not just to those with medical marijuana licenses, but to anyone 21 and older with an ID.

Since, professions in and around the marijuana industry have proliferated. They include edibles, even those for celiac patients and gluten-sensitive diets; concentrate processors; scientific researchers (16 marijuana testing facilities were licensed in the state at the end of 2014), strain reviewers; pot-focused real estate agents; organic and indoor farmers; container manufacturers; travel agents; trimmers and bud-tenders; security guards; and legal advisers.

Here's a look at the taxes, licensing, sales and medical research that took place in Colorado's first year of legal retail marijuana:

TAXES

In 2014, the state collected roughly $53 million in tax revenue, licenses and fees for both medical and retail marijuana. For the first five months of 2015 alone, state revenue from those sources totaled $50 million, according to the Colorado Department of Revenue.

Taxes on recreational marijuana sales add up to 28 percent: the standard 2.9 percent sales tax, an extra 10 percent sales tax, plus a 15-percent excise tax for wholesale purchases when marijuana is sold from a cultivator to a storefront, product manufacturer or another cultivation facility. The excise tax is almost entirely tunneled to public schools via the Public School Capital Construction Assistance Fund Transfer, which has generated almost $24 million since January 2014.

Medical marijuana, on the other hand, is only subject to the 2.9 percent sales tax.

"We haven't seen any drop in the number of medical marijuana patients, but if you have such a price difference it could be an incentive to maintain use on the medical marijuana side," said Dr. Larry Wolk, executive director and chief medical officer of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

In addition to the tax disparity, medical and recreational marijuana have a couple of other differences that can be confusing for consumers, policy makers and law enforcers. The legal age for medical programs is...