Posted on 05/29/2016 1:06:16 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Two years after Colorado began its first retail sales of cannabis, towns and cities across the state are enjoying the benefits in a number of ways. With sales this year expected to reach $1 billion, local governments are seeing windfalls of tax revenue, which is funding education, recreation, infrastructure improvements, and even aid to the homeless.
The small town of Mountain View may be able to dispel its reputation for collecting revenue through speeding tickets, now that two pot shops reside there.
“We have such a small tax base,” said Mayor Jeff Kiddie, who opposed pot stores. “Medical and retail marijuana have definitely helped the town’s bottom line. I’d be lying if I said it didn’t.”
Similar stories abound in the 22 counties and 62 cities that allow retail cannabis sales.
In Aurora, which has collected millions in sales taxes and fees since October 2014, the City Council keeps the money in a separate fund so it can show the public exactly where cannabis revenue is spent. $1.5 million will be used to address the homeless issue, $2.8 million will go toward a recreation center, and $3.8 million will fund an Interstate 225 crossing.
Northglenn uses the money for capital projects and to purchase water rights. Adams County will spend $500,000 on scholarships for low-income students. Filling potholes and fixing roads is a common theme in other towns.
“There’s a lot of money left over to address safety issues that come up or really take on projects that these local communities do not necessarily have the funds to deal with,” said Mike Elliott, executive director of the Marijuana Industry Group. “For some communities, this tax revenue has made a huge difference.”
Denver collected $29 million last year through taxes and licensing fees; the capitol city prefers to spend this revenue on “ramped-up regulation, enforcement, public health and education efforts.”
While bureaucrats both honest and crooked are reveling in the flush of cash, more importantly, Colorado citizens are reveling in their newfound freedom. Judging by the immense market impact of retail sales, cannabis is a popular product.
Perhaps people are finding it a better and safer alternative than alcohol. There is evidence that people are giving up prescription painkillers in favor of medical cannabis.
A fifth major benefit of legal cannabis sales is the dwindling black market. The federal government’s own statistics show that since 2012, when Washington and Colorado voted to legalize cannabis, trafficking offenses have fallen sharply.
Violence is less of a concern in cannabis trafficking than the issue of unknown origin and handling. With legalization, consumers know exactly where their product comes from and what is in it, including the THC content.
Competition that can operate in the open, instead of having to hide from a senseless drug war, is able to produce the highest quality product using responsible environmental practices.
The temptation of tax revenue is certainly one reason why lawmakers in Colorado and other states have endorsed recreational cannabis sales. But taxation should not be the guiding force for legalization.
Oregon is proving this point. Authorities in the Beaver State have enacted a 25 percent sales tax on recreational cannabis, which is causing some people to consider going back to the black market. This eagerness to collect as much revenue as possible is a symptom of burgeoning government and threatens to drive people away from the legal market.
On the good side, Oregon does not tax medical cannabis at all, perhaps because their medical laws have been in existence since 1998 and sudden taxation would meet with fierce resistance. It is important that other states, as they legalize medical use and sales, follow this example of no taxation.
Colorado continues to provide an interesting experiment in the legalization of a plant that has been demonized by government for decades. While taxation of recreational use is allowing cities to provide community benefits, let’s remember that freedom is the number one reason why legalization must happen everywhere.
Up until 1914 marijuana was legal in all 50 states. It was through the socialist President Wilson and his desire to imprison blacks that it was outlawed.
For your interest.
Heh, heh, now tell us what you really think about dopers!
But be careful, lots of THC libertarians on FR. Been doing weed since age 15, and it hasn’t changed them a bit.
Now they will just sit at a stop sign waiting for it to turn green.
;^)
at what cost? Pot smoking leads to mental retardation. It causes people to vote have think liberal. It is intrinsic clear & present danger to our nation that are people, our future
If I recall all the Lottery money was to go to schools. Never happened.
We have a summer place in southern Colorado in the San Luis valley. Beautiful 14’s there. However people are moving in and squatting all over the place. Everyone wants a piece of the action. Wonder what all these extra people are actually costing the state. How much of the windfall is going to the schools, the food, the medical these people require.
The sloth, crime and heartbreak that emanates from the weed-b-gone community is not a fair trade.
I believe marijuana can bring out psychosis in someone with a genetic tendency and many have these tendencies. It’s scary. My only personal experience with such a patient has been a girl who heard voices like your son, but once getting perfectly clean (she wasn’t only using pot, other drugs were involved as well) the voices did stop. She accidentally got pregnant and decided to be a good mommy (at 21) and cleaned herself up good. She’s working and her mom helps her raise the child. And the voices stopped.
I find it curious that at least where I live many pot smokers are staunchly anti-gmo activists as well. yet they fail to seem to recognize that some of the most popular strong and tasty strains of ganja are actually GMO modified, from the Netherlands .
And belladonna. And poppies. And for your next weenie roast, use a couple of nice, straight oleander sticks to hold your hot dogs over the fire.
Natural!
Organic!
Free Range? Maybe not.
“Spending every dime of their “windfall” and then some...”
They salivate at the money they think they’ll make and have been making promises to spend it like crazy.
And these panhandlers were all over the main intersections in Colorado Springs.
This is just the beginning and all the other horror stories of how it effecting people. And this is not even discussing the Heroin epidemic in MI, OH, MA and so many other states.
These municipalities are short sighted, what will they do when it bites them in the arse with addiction issues get out of control...
It doesn’t offset the lost productivity of those who now sit at home stoned, don’t go earn more money or do more to help family out.
There is a reason dystopias drug people into complacency and describe it as a good.
Like alcohol or cigarettes, it is not for those under 18-if you are an adult and want to roll a joint or light the bong, go for it-I haven’t had a toke in years, but I like to kick back with a glass of wine and a cigarette now and then. If an adult wants to let their pleasures turn into addictions-whether it is pot, alcohol, tobacco, a dozen chocolate eclairs or promiscuous sex, I really don’t care, as long as you don’t harm or bother anyone, or try to make it anyone else’s problem-if you are becoming addicted, go for therapy instead of whining to be given tax money by claiming your choice is a “disease”...
! Thessalonians 5:
5 Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
6 Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.
7 For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.
8 But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. (KJV)
Your analogy fades quickly, since hemlock is poison and marijuana isn’t. It’s legal here in Washington State, by a vote of the people - as it should be.
As apposed to the drunk driving right through the stop sign and killing a family of four.
Any reason given for why marijuana should not be legalized can be directly pointed at alcohol for the same reasons.
Until one is ready to prohibit alcohol, again, their arguments against marijuana are hypocritical.
Nope, TX lottery money is why illegals are tolerated: they spend half their pay on scratch-offs and quik-picks. I know, I’m the one in line behind them all just trying to buy gas and a slurpee.
Ar there any before-after articles? What about http://www.forbes.com/sites/travisbradberry/2015/02/10/new-study-shows-smoking-pot-permanently-lowers-iq/ ?
Interesting comment in light of your screen name. :-)
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