Photos: The marijuana legalization movement

Sean Azzariti, a veteran of the Iraq war, prepares to make the first legal recreational marijuana purchase in Colorado from advocate Betty Aldworth at the 3-D Denver Discrete Dispensary in Denver.  (Theo Stroomer / Getty Images)

Employees David Marlow, right, and Chris Broussard work the sales counter inside Medicine Man marijuana retail store, which opened as a legal recreational retail outlet in Denver at the beginning of 2014.  (Brennan Linsley / Associated Press)

A line forms outside the Cannabis Club on Main Street in downtown Breckenridge, Colo., for an 8 a.m. opening of the store.  (Kathryn Scott Osler / Associated Press)

Jeff Decker and his wife, Carly Tangney-Decker, hold their 8-month daughter, Mabel Tangney-Decker, in their home in Kingston, N.Y. The couple is pushing for the state of New York to legalize medical marijuana to help Mabel, who has a rare genetic disorder that causes seizures.  (Philip Kamrass / Associated Press)

Employees trim pot plants to be sold at Medicine Man marijuana dispensary in Denver.  (Brennan Linsley / Associated Press)

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn hands a pen to state Rep. Lou Lang as he signs a bill legalizing medical marijuana in Chicago.  (Scott Eisen / Associated Press)

Katrin Haugh, left, and Carol Thompson, of the Absentee and Petition Office begin processing 20 boxes containing more than 46,000 signatures for a proposed ballot initiative to legalize recreational use of marijuana in Alaska.  (Erik Hill / Associated Press)

Then City Council member Bill Rosendahl tours the premises of Herbal Cure Medicinal Collective, of which he is a member, in L.A.  (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

A car passes by the Cannabis Station, a marijuana dispensary in downtown Denver.  (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

A man enters a medical marijuana dispensary in Los Angeles.  (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Volunteer Gregory Lyons of Oakland makes calls at Oaksterdam University in support of Prop. 19, a marijuana legalization initiative.  (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)