This week marks the one-year anniversary since sales of marijuana for recreational use began in Washington state.

In the first year, $70 million in tax revenue has been generated statewide from marijuana sales. The Washington State Liquor Control Board, which oversees the state's cannabis industry, reports that dispensaries sold more than $257 million worth of marijuana.

Chip Boyden, who owns a medical marijuana dispensary in Tucson, Arizona, jumped at the thought of expanding his marijuana business with family in Washington after the first dispensaries started to open in July 2014. Washington voters passed a law in 2012 to legalize marijuana for adults over 21.

SEATTLE - A landmark restaurant could try to push the limits on menu options by putting pot on customers' plates.

If David Meinert has his way, the kitchen at The 5 Point Café will someday mix marijuana into the cuisine.

Meinert keeps his business edgy - much like the clientele at the restaurant - where tourists rub shoulders with motorcycle clubs. The state already licenses him to sell intoxicating liquors, Meinert said, and he wants to see it expanded to pot.

"I think there would have to be a new kind of retail license," he said.

The sky's the limit on how weed could fit into a food menu, and 5 Point Café customers think it could fly.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- As some U.S. states have legalized marijuana for recreational and medicinal use, 30% of Americans say legalization will make driving in those states a lot less safe. Another 17% expect it to make driving a little less safe. Half of Americans, however, say it will not make much of a difference.

Andrew Collins no longer has a cocktail of 17 prescriptions coursing through his body.

The Army combat veteran stared death in the face while serving two tours of Iraq in the 2000s. He now battles post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of his wartime experiences.

The Olympia veteran has tried medications, meditation and hypnosis while adapting to the stresses of life in the civilian world. But more than any other treatment, Collins says marijuana has helped him cope with the psychological trauma he carries around — trauma that at times has filled his head with aggression and suicidal thoughts.

“I smoke a joint and the thoughts are gone,” said Collins, 30.

Marijuana sales have brought $70 million of tax to the US state of Washington in the past 12 months.

It has been one year since the US state of Washington legalised the recreational use of marijuana and the change is paying off.

In only one year the state has made $70 million in tax revenue generated from marijuana sales.

In a report released by the Washington State Liquor Control Board the state is recorded as having sold $257 million of cannabis during the past 12 months.

A report filed by the Drug Policy Alliance claimed Washington’s crime levels had dropped dramatically since the legalisation of the drug.

Recreational marijuana was also legalised in Colorado but the state’s tax revenue on the product were lower than expected at $53 million.

Pot shops: Washington state versus B.C.

One year after Washington state legalized the sale of marijuana, B.C. remains bound by Canadian drug laws that consider pot sales, except to about 40,000 authorized medical users, illegal.

This status quo is being challenged, not just by marijuana activists, but also by municipalities, which are grappling with ways to handle consequences of pot prohibition, including illegal grow-ops, gang violence and organized crime.

In 2012, when Washington state voters legalized recreational cannabis, it was witnessed around the world as a landmark voter initiative. What followed was a long 19 months of rule making and lottery drawings to establish a regulated cannabis market. In July, 2014 the first legal marijuana sales began, but not every locality was open to the new law.

One year ago, Cannabis City owner James Lathrop stood outside his Seattle store, one of the first to sell legal recreational marijuana in Washington, and declared “free the weed.”

A year later, he says his pot business has had its highs and lows.

Early on, Lathrop was plagued by a lack of product. He says the shelves were so empty that he couldn't even have a presence at Hemp Fest, the annual Pro Marijuana gathering in the city.

Now, Lathrop says, that isn’t an issue. He says there’s enough supply that prices have come down from $25 a gram to around $15 a gram. Even on the weekday morning when I visit, there’s a steady stream of customers, looking not unlike people browsing the aisles in your neighborhood supermarket.

VANCOUVER, WA (KPTV) -

Customers called it the McDonald's of marijuana, but according to Vancouver police, it's an illegal operation. 

Adam Alexander, owner of "Grow Systems Northwest," was arrested July 2nd. Police said he never had a license to sell, manufacture or grow marijuana.

The Drug Task Force began investigating "Grow Systems Northwest" off Saint Johns Road and 65th Avenue in Vancouver, after they grew suspicious of its operation.

David Snyder, who works at a business next door, described the scene of the raid.

"The feds came and packed them all up, and their belongings and hauled them off some place," he said.

Police said Alexander served a few hundred customers daily in a drive through lot, profiting $5,000-$10,000 a day in cash.

SEATTLE — Washington launched its second-in-the-nation legal marijuana market with just a handful of stores selling high-priced pot to long lines of customers. A year later, the state has about 160 shops open, pot tax revenues have soared past expectations and sales top $1.4 million per day.

And who knows — the industry might even start making some money.

Washington pot farmers, processors and retailers have complained all year that heavy state and federal tax burdens, along with competition from an unregulated medical marijuana market, have made it difficult for them to do business.