Legal Recreational Pot Industry Opens in Colorado The nation's first recreational pot industry opened in Colorado on Wednesday, kicking off an experiment that will be followed closely around the world and one that activists hope will prove that legalization is a better alternative than the costly American-led drug war. Business owners who threw their doors open for shoppers at 8 a.m. are looking for the fledgling industry to generate as much revenue as state officials hope it will. At least 24 pot shops in eight towns opened, after increasing staff and inventory and hiring security. More than a dozen people waiting in line outside one shop in Denver, as snow fell around dawn. Musician James Aaron Ramsey, 28, was among them, having driven from Missouri. He played folk tunes with his guitar as he waited. I'm going to frame the receipt when I go home, to remind myself of what might be possible. Legal everywhere," Ramsey said, who had served a brief jail sentence for pot possession less than a year ago and was excited to legally buy weed. Colorado and Washington state approved legal recreational pot industries in 2012, and Washington's will open later this year. They are being closely watched around the world because they are the first regulated, taxed pot industries. Some countries have decriminalized the drug, and the Netherlands lets people buy and sell it, but it's illegal to grow or process it. Just as shops opened Wednesday, the Denver police department tweeted, "Do you know the law?" and linked to city websites on state and local laws that include bans on public consumption, driving under the influence, taking marijuana out of state and giving pot to anyone under 21. Shopper Jacob Elliott traveled from Leesburg, Va., to be among the first to buy legal pot. He said he wrote reports in college about the need to end prohibition of marijuana, but never thought it could happen in his lifetime. "This breaks that barrier," he said. Tinted windows on a black limousine idling outside a dispensary showed another side of the newly legal weed market - people eager to try legal marijuana, but not ready to be seen publicly buying it. Addison Morris, owner of Rocky Mountain Mile High Tours, had 10 clients waiting inside who paid $295 for three hours of chauffeuring by a "marijuana concierge" who would help them choose strains and edible pot products. "We're your grandmother's pot connection," the 63-year-old said. We're not the hippie stoners who are going to stand in this cold and party. Morris said she's booked through the end of February with out-of-state clients. Guests receive samples in designer bags before getting tours. She said she's selling discretion. Guests are asked to leave cameras at home. Earlier, pot users welcomed the new year - and the new industry - by firing up bongs and cheering in a cloud of marijuana smoke at a 1920s-themed "Prohibition Is Over" party in downtown Denver. They fear that the increased availability will lead to a rise in drug abuse and crime. Uruguay passed a law in December to become the first nation to regulate pot.