How marijuana could find its way into farmers markets

One day, Colorado residents could be buying weed along with their organic produce, if Justin Hartfield successfully convinces the Boulder County Farmers Market to include a marijuana booth.

Hartfield, the California founder of WeedMaps.com, got his inspiration from Seattle's NW Cannabis Farmers Market, which is made up of 20 to 30 growers that sell medical marijuana.

"Ultimately I see it as part of that existing market," Hartfield told CBS Denver. "I mean, when this is legalized it should treated as the same as any other vegetable."

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Colorado and Washington became the first states to legalize marijuana for recreational use on Nov. 6, 2012. Since then, officials from both states have expressed confusion over how to regulate a drug that is still considered illegal by the federal government.

As TIME's Matt Peckham notes, Colorado has made some progress on this front by setting up guidelines for how pot should be marketed, licensed, regulated, and sold.

There are no laws currently on the books that specifically say whether or not marijuana can be sold in farmers markets. However, Mike Bunuelos, a spokesman for the City of Boulder, told The Huffington Post that "current regulations don’t allow anything but produce grown at an outdoor farm to be sold on agricultural land. That would make it illegal to set up ganja stalls in farm areas, since Colorado state regulations currently only allow for weed to be grown indoors."

Still, Hartfield is pressing on. He has also floated the idea of a separate farmers market for recreational marijuana growers.

"I got news for you: Marijuana is legal in Colorado," Hartfield told The Huffington Post. "It's no longer a drug in a sense. It's a plant. It's a commodity. There’s no reason not to allow trade in it openly."