According to an interview with Reuters, Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper states that data indicates no significant jump in the number of Colorado residents using marijuana. Rather, since recreational pot shops opened in January, “the people that were smoking before are mainly the people that are smoking now.”

Hickenlooper, a former brewer, originally opposed the legalization of recreational marijuana, and still has concerns about its impact on young adults. However, regulation and taxation of the product has brought in about eleven million dollars in tax revenue and created as many as 2,000 new jobs for the state, which is far preferable to “supporting a corrupt system of gangsters.”