After Coloradans decreed in 2000 that the cannabis plant had medical value, scientific evidence has had to play catch-up with the anecdotal cases.

The list of claims of healing powers of marijuana is long, while the list of full-scale U.S. studies on medicinal benefits is short, largely because pot use is still against federal law and doesn't get many federal research dollars.

Colorado voters approved the medical use of pot in 2000 and recreational use in 2012.

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There's no way to put a positive spin on the latest news on marijuana use in Colorado since the passage of Amendment 64. Usage has gone up, and what had been mostly anecdotal evidence just got a serious confirming boost from the federal government's National Survey on Drug Use and Health.

In fact, the percentage of Coloradans over 12 who reported using marijuana in the previous month for the years 2012-13 rose to the second highest in the country- 12.7 percent- after Rhode Island.

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No State Stats on Impact From Year of Legalized Marijuana Sales

DENVER (AP) - A year after marijuana sales became legal in Colorado, the impact on tourism is difficult to assess.

At least 18 companies offer bus tours of marijuana facilities, and a Denver bed and breakfast markets itself as a "bud and breakfast," the Denver Post reported.

But state-funded agencies aren't promoting marijuana tourism, and no statistics are available on its impact.

Colorado Tourism Office Director Al White said promoting pot-oriented travel could put the state in danger of violating laws. Marijuana is still illegal under federal statutes.

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Delegates to national conventions in Colorado are well aware of legal retail marijuana, and not just because they might have slipped in a visit to a dispensary.

Some conventions have used Colorado's cannabis laws to incorporate working panels on the ways legal pot can affect their business sectors.

"The legality of marijuana certainly impacts our industry," said Stuart Ruff, director of meetings and events for the Risk and Insurance Management Society, which brought 9,700 attendees to Denver in April. "There are a lot of misperceptions about the (Colorado) law, and we want our members to be educated."

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Ben Holmes gently lowers the turntable needle onto the album, and Traffic's "Medicated Goo," begins to play.

Steve Winwood's wistful tenor sweeps through the Centennial Seeds laboratory: "My own homegrown recipe'll see you through."

"Everyone stole from Stevie Winwood," Holmes says, his foot tapping as he injects a syringe of dark, syrupy liquid into his gas chromatograph.

No one is stealing from Holmes, a self-taught scientist, engineer, farmer and cannabis seed geek who next month will take a rare step to apply for a patent on a laboriously created cannabis superstrain.

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The year began with one of the nation's biggest ATM sponsors refusing to allow its machines to be in businesses with ties to the marijuana trade, and it ends with the first credit union of its kind at the precipice of opening its doors.

For the recreational marijuana trade, the roads into and out of 2014 are a study in contrasts, where the initial lockdown against access to banking services appears to be cracking, even as the drug remains illegal under federal law.

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Even moderate marijuana use among teens and young people was shown in a study this year to cause abnormalities in the developing brain. Yet as Colorado and other states legalize recreational pot use, the public perception is that it is generally safe.

A nationwide NBC/Wall Street Journal poll in March found that most people thought that alcohol, tobacco and sugar are more harmful to a person's health than smoking pot. The survey echoed results finding more teens think it's safe to use marijuana - although so far, it hasn't shown up in rising usage in Colorado.

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One year after retail marijuana joined medical pot as a legal product, the number of marijuana-related arrests in Denver public schools has grown by 6 percent.

Opponents predicted that legalizing the drug would encourage more teens to use it. But statistical data showing what change, if any, there has been in the number of teenagers using pot are so far spotty, at best.

"Ultimately, we should be looking at rates of use, not rates of enforcement," Mason Tvert, spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project, said of the arrest data provided by Denver police.

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Tom Rael's first epiphany came two years ago when he looked up from his drink and caught his reflection in the bar mirror.

His eyes were red and dull because he was perpetually stoned, toking every hour or so to maintain a constant high. His face was slack and prematurely lined. He looked too old for someone barely 30.

"What have you become?" he asked himself.

He stopped drinking, but he kept smoking. Cannabis was natural, he figured, so it was harmless, right? But two years later, he went to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting and listened to someone describe a dry drunk, resentful and constantly simmering with anger and frustration. Rael felt a jolt of recognition.

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Mountain towns dependent on tourists are reaping the rewards of legal marijuana. As the towns swell with visitors-skiers in February and March, summer vacationers in July and August-so do their sales-tax coffers.

"Most of our sales seem to be to our visitors," said John Warner, a dentist and the mayor of Breckenridge, which is tracking toward $8.8 million in marijuana sales in 2014. "Some people might think of it as a sin tax, and a lot of people don't like sin taxes. But it's certainly helpful to our community."

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That harried, Friday-evening moment when you're switching gears from work brain to party mode, gathering what you'll need for a fun night out - keys, phone, bottle of wine for the dinner party you're attending - has changed quite a bit in post-legalization Colorado.

Some are adding a vape pen or infused tincture to their date-night clutches. Others will pre-pack a bowl or one-hitter before heading out - or they'll chew on a 10-milligram edible on their way to the party. And those running low on supplies can swing by the pot shop on their way to the dinner and maybe grab a pre-rolled joint as a gift to the evening's hosts.

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Melissa Vitale had never considered a career in marijuana when she moved her family to Colorado from Austin, Texas, a little over a year ago.

An accountant and former fifth-grade teacher, she long thought marijuana should be legalized but had no designs on working in the industry.

"When you're a mom, it's not the easiest thing to manage in your life," the 41-year-old said of her occasional cannabis use. "I do not and would not smoke in front of my children."

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Ask farmers where they procured hemp seeds to plant last spring, and youmay get an answer like this one from Bill Billings: "I got them from Mother Nature and God. That's all I can say."

Don't-ask, don't-tell characterizes Colorado's newest cash crop. Like its genetic cousin marijuana, hemp is legal under state law. But conflicts with federal law leave the future uncertain for the state's hemp industry.

The plant looks like marijuana but has little or no THC, the psychoactive ingredient that makes pot smokers high.

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Look all you want, and you'll find nary a marijuana tourism brochure at kiosks operated by Colorado's official travel bureaus.

Yet that institutional prohibition hasn't stopped thousands of cannabis tourists from visiting Colorado to experience the phenomenon of legal marijuana.

"This is just awesome," said Mike Goldstein of Staten Island, N.Y., who visited Denver with three friends in early December. "I think it should be legal everywhere. You raise taxes, and you take it out of the hands of organized crime."

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Legalizing recreational marijuana has spawned a surge of activity in some unexpected places and pumped formerly "dark" money into the larger economy.

Estimates are that cannabis sales nationally this year will total about $2.6 billion, with Colorado claiming about a third of that or $840 million, according to rough estimates from ArcView Group.

Some of that money is funneling down to accountants, software developers, trademark lawyers, lighting vendors, general contractors and a long list of others supporting the new industry.

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American Indian tribes are now free to join states like Colorado that have legalized the sale and growing of marijuana, according to the U.S. Justice Department, but tribes considering the venture should pay heed to some of this state's lessons.

First, establishing a legal framework for a federally banned drug is not easy and the lure of tax revenue from pot sales may not turn out to be all that was expected.

Second, homemade hash oil extraction with butane should be banned. It is dangerous and should be allowed only by manufacturers.

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Licensing a Convoluted Trial for Marijuana Business

Aurora's venture into recreational marijuana has experienced a few bumps in its short time since inception Oct. 1 - from its complicated licensing process to a lawsuit questioning a license that was issued to a company denied a license in Massachusetts.

Last month, Metro Cannabis sued Aurora, claiming the city "manipulated the process" in its failed effort to secure one of the 24 recreational marijuana licenses from the city.

Also, the license issued to the Good Chemistry pot shop on East Iliff Avenue in Aurora is under scrutiny because the company misled the city of Boston by claiming it had endorsements from top city officials and politicians. It was denied a medical marijuana license there this year, but is allowed to reapply in 2015.

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The black market for marijuana in Colorado isn't what it used to be.

Nine or 10 years ago, the narrative of illicit cannabis in the state focused on illegally grown product filtering in from Mexico, California and elsewhere. Now it seems officials and experts are more concerned about Colorado-grown marijuana infiltrating other states, a trend that is seeing a significant upward trajectory, according to data obtained by The Denver Post.

"In a lot of ways, our legal industry has become the black market for other states," said Tom Gorman, director of the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area.

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Gov. John Hickenlooper emerged as Colorado's reluctant supervisor in the first year of legal recreational marijuana, tasked with administering a law he didn't support as the state set a model for the nation.

The Democrat's difficult stance created frequent awkward moments, even as it helped set the tone for the state's cautious approach to legal pot after voters approved the 2012 ballot initiative.

The most notable came at a campaign forum in October when Hickenlooper made national headlines for saying Colorado voters were "reckless" to legalize marijuana, forcing him to walk it back and call it "risky" instead.

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Colorado's Department of Public Health and Environment surprised the marijuana industry in October by proposing a ban on candy, brownies and other edibles and drinks infused with cannabis.

Edibles accounted for a surprising 45 percent of marijuana sales and a majority of the regulatory headaches in the state's first year of legal recreational pot. Within hours, the growing rapid-response marijuana lobby swooped in and beat back the proposed ban.

"For the year 2014, edibles has been the most difficult issue for the industry," said Michael Elliott, executive director of the powerful Colorado lobbying outfit Marijuana Industry Group. "And largely we've solved it."

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