The Colorado Medical Marijuana Registry program has hit its highest number in nearly three years. According to Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment statistics, there were 116,180 patients on the registry as of April 30, 2014 -- raising the possibility that more people are getting medical cards to avoid high taxes on recreational cannabis.

At its peak, in June 2011, the registry listed 128,698 patients. But it was already sliding by August 2011, when there were 121,476 patients on the registry. That number plummeted to 102,592 just one month later, in September 2011, and then bottomed out at 88,872 patients in October.

Since then, the total has been slowly climbing back up. But the increase of 27,300 active patients over the past twenty months doesn't mean the exodus from the registry has ended. The increase in red-card numbers represents only about a quarter of the total number of new applications to the registry over that same time span. Between October 2011 and April 2014, the CDPHE received more than 99,000 new applications. That means as many as 72,000 people either dropped off the registry or didn't renew their cards during that period.