"You can't get off if you don't cough," he said with a grin.

The new year could bring a deeper divide among Colorado's pro-marijuana advocates, as the state tries to figure out how to reconcile its new law with the federal government and the stigma surrounding the drug that advocates insist is no worse than alcohol.

Corry, an attorney and a longtime marijuana advocate who is known for ruffling feathers, rejected the notion that his club is hampering efforts to make marijuana more socially and legally acceptable.

"This is much larger than just marijuana, this is a civil rights struggle to end prohibition and civil rights struggles and overcoming oppression (do) not happen easily," Corry said. "It has to happen by people taking chances and sometimes yes, pushing the envelope ...

"And that is how change happens in this country and that's what got us to this point -- people taking chances and pushing the envelope."