Posted on 09/26/2014 10:07:20 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
(VIDEO-AT-LINK)
Legal marijuana is luring pot tourists and business entrepreneurs to Colorado, and it’s also attracting another demographic: the homeless, some of whom trek to the state in hopes of landing a job in the industry.
“There’s an enormous migration, even a homeless movement, so to speak,” David Spencer, a homeless man from Tennessee, said. “I figured this would be a good place to start over.”
While shelters across the metro area are willing to open their doors, they’re quickly running out of room.
“We were averaging 190 (homeless) last year. We’re now averaging 345 a night,” Murray Flagg of the Salvation Army said.
Tom Luehrs, the executive director of St. Francis Center, says the top reason many homeless are moving to Colorado is work, especially in the new legal industry.
“People see that the marijuana business has been flourishing here,” he says, “so they match up good business … and jobs must be available, which they are.”
Space is tight at St. Francis Center, too.
“We’ve seen as many as 45 new people in one day,” Luehrs said. “I think it was one of the unintended consequences of the marijuana legalization,” Luehrs said.
Colorado law requires an employee in the marijuana business lives in the state for one year before they can be hired.
Pot Draws Homeless To Colorado In Search Of Pot
Fixed.
-PJ
Potheads are a different sort of creature. It would be interesting to examine the economics of legal vs. illegal pot and its pricing.
I have seen people do adequate work while smoking pot, especially something boring and repetitive like scraping old paint off a wall.
Oxy moron statement by morons, pot draws homeless to colorado for work?
Then down and out seeking employment? That’s horrible.
No biggie...here, take another toke.
Will they freeze to death this winter?
They could if they don’t have some shelter. More likely they will move to Tucson or Phoenix as the homeless have been doing for decades.
when the rest of the country accepts pot as legal, that motive for migration will be gone.
Maybe there’s something the marijuana equivalent of moonshiners are doing with regards to their weed, to make it more appealing.
I actually have a younger family friend who was thinking of joining the weed business. I have been arguing with him that with all the Colorado crowding right now, he would be better off taking a trade school program while pushing for de criminalization as has been approved in Philadelphia. Even in Philly, cops are more concerned with heroin an cocaine, where people actually kill each other over the substances.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.