Colorado is gearing up to make the switch from merely allowing the use of marijuana for only medical applications to allowing the mild intoxicant for purchase for recreational use. As of January 1st stores will be able to legally sell marijuana to anyone older than 21. Only stores already selling medical marijuana and who are “in good standing” will be eligible to apply for a retail sale business license to sell marijuana.

The application process was initiated as of October 1, 2013, and Annie’s, a shop in the Colorado mountain town of Central City, has the honor of being the country’s first store awarded a retail license to sell cannabis.

To mark this special occasion Central City’s police chief personally delivered the license to Annie’s.

“This is a historic occasion, and at each milestone I am reminded of what we have achieved here,” said Major Neill Franklin.

Franklin is a former police officer and is now the head of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. LEAP is an organization of law enforcement agents against the war on drugs.

“For the first time in history, those who sell marijuana are receiving licenses from the state instead of rap sheets,” said Mason Tvert, who co-lead the campaign to legalize pot in Colorado last year.

Erin Phillips, the dispensary representative at Annie’s, part of a local chain of eight stores called Strainwise, was excited to receive the new license.

“It’s the same old bureaucratic piece of paper,” said Phillips of the license. “But we might put it in a fancy frame.”

It should be a very happy New Year for Coloradoans.