Montana will soon have the opportunity to decide if it wishes to join the ranks of states where the possession and growing of marijuana is legal. A number of pot-related drafts, including the Marijuana Legalization Initiative CI-115, are working their way forward in hopes of finding a place on the Nov. 8 ballot.

With legalization now a fact in four states, Montana has the luxury of being able to study their early assessments of its pros and cons. First up was Colorado, whose Amendment 64 passed in November 2012 authorized the commercial growing and selling of cannabis beginning January 1, 2014. Though two years barely counts as history, there is still considerable information to glean from the Centennial State’s experience to date.

Much that had been expected has been realized, including the marked boost in new revenue from the highly taxed industry as promised by proponents of legalization. Still it is the preponderance of unintended consequences that has gained most of the attention. They begin but do not end with the added attraction to Colorado for many drawn solely by the ready, legal access to marijuana.

“Cannabis tourism” has become a reality with travel and lodging promotions designed to attract out-of-staters, while some far less affluent newcomers have opted to settle on cheap rural ground living in structures that wink at local zoning requirements.

Neighboring Oklahoma and Nebraska have filed lawsuits directly with the U.S. Supreme Court asking that Colorado’s pot law be struck down, citing the increased burden on their own law enforcement agencies. Though marijuana possession has become a diminished issue, Colorado officials remain caught between state law and a federal law that forbids all but limited possession for specific physician-prescribed medical usage. Because banks are federally insured most marijuana purchases are cash transactions.

In the state’s third-largest city, Aurora, officials attribute a recent rise in violent crime in part to the incidence of situations where face-to-face sales occurred. Cannabis has become a relatively small but growing factor in DUI cases historically attributed to alcohol. While legislators are preoccupied with such once seemingly arcane matters as the proper labeling and identification of edible marijuana products that resemble gummies and other candies, the Colorado Board of Health has already approved an $8 million expenditure to finance eight studies on the medical efficacy of cannabis.

Balanced against the $135 million in tax revenues earned last year on $1 billion worth of sales from marijuana purchases from licensed and regulated stores, the state has done very well indeed. The rub comes elsewhere — from pot’s emerging impact on energy and infrastructure.

Producing marijuana brings with it a voracious appetite for electricity to power lighting needed to mimic outdoor growing conditions. The Denver Post reported in December that in 2014 the 1,234 licensed growing facilities used as much electricity as 35,000 average households — 200 million kilowatt hours’ worth, according to Xcel Energy.

Increasingly, warehouses and other industrial-size structures selling at premium prices are becoming grow facilities snatched up by new cannabis entrepreneurs entering the state. The Post adds that one in 11 industrial buildings in central Denver is now dedicated to pot production — a number that currently equates to around 3.7 million square feet.

Gov. John Hickenlooper, who signed Amendment 64 into law, admits that “the jury is still out” when it comes to analyzing legalization’s long-term effects. Residents who ruefully acknowledge a marked change in how their state is perceived have cause to wonder if the media spotlight that illuminates the subject so brightly will fade in time. Many hope so considering that any effort to put the smoke back in the bong would no doubt expose taxpayers to a barrage of lawsuits from those who have invested millions of dollars to make the growing and availability of legal marijuana a reality.

Cannabis has become a permanent resident, not a guest.

Hacker is a resident of Denver, Colorado.