Nightly News   |  November 07, 2012

Marijuana fans celebrate

Colorado and Washington State became the first states ever to make it legal for adults to possess and sell small amounts of pot for recreational use. NBC’s Mike Taibbi reports.

Share This:

This content comes from Closed Captioning that was broadcast along with this program.

>>> the people who enjoy weeds, they go by the proper title marijuana enthusiastics, had a very good night at some of the polls last night, specifically, the recreational use of it. nbc's mi has more.

>> reporter: they're accepting with voters in departmenver and colorado, the first ever state to use recreational pot.

>> we really feel that colorado can be a model for the nation, in how to assassinasensibly use marijuana.

>> reporter: but john hickenlooper , who opposed it, thought otherwise, the government still calls it a dangerous substance, and enforcement of the act remains unchanged.

>> it is hard to imagine the chaos resulting state by state, if you have one state with it legal, one without.

>> reporter: in fact, some sellers of medical marijuana , already legal here say they wouldn't risk selling recreational pot.

>> were going to stay medical, obviously, to try to keep the heat off.

>> reporter: but the heat could be right around the corner, a collision between federal law and state voters over any type of marijuana, seemingly unavoidable. and in another notable ballot measure, in california, voters agreed to pay more in sales tax and more in income tax for high earners, to help close what governor jerry brown calls a $34 billion state budget cap.

>> and on a beautiful evening in denver, mike taibbe, thank