When I quit being a hardcore, wake-and-bake, fully saturated marijuana junkie, when I tapered down to the occasional toke, when I hung my Hawaiian shirts in the hall closet, and started wearing big boy pants, the biggest difference for me was that I no longer flinched when the cops showed up in my rear-view mirror.
On January 1st, Colorado gave counties the option to make recreational pot legal. A week later, I bought some pot at a dispensary in Denver.